I loved her with a fierceness that I didn’t feel for my own mother, probably because, unlike Phillipa, Maja was willing to fight tooth and nail for her loved ones, and she never took any crap from anyone, even Buck.
“We haven’t had one since Cress got home,” Lila pointed out as she took Cressida’s hand to give it a sweet kiss. “It’s about time we communed.”
“Bitch barely deserves it after abandoning us for months,” Tayline said as she rummaged in her massive hobo bag and produced packages of popcorn, Twizzlers, and a handful of Mr. Big candy cars. “But I’ll do anything that involves snacks, and the brothers have Church tonight anyway.”
“Oh, shut it.” Cress laughed, tossing her long golden-brown hair over her shoulder to shoot a megawatt smile at her best friend. “You cried when I came home.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.” Harleigh Rose nodded sagely. “Saw it with my own two eyes.”
“You were probably too busy making out with your new fiancé to see anything,” Tay countered.
“She has a point,” Hannah agreed.
“I saw it too,” Lila said, then held up a hand. “And before you make some comment about how I was too busy making out with Nova to notice, he wasn’t even there when we saw you that first time. Besides, King’s resurrection and Cressida’s return definitely warrant unlocking lips even if it’s only for a minute.”
Tay pursed her lips in annoyance.
We all laughed at her.
“Fuck, you guys are a riot,” Eric said from behind us, startling me because I’d totally forgotten about him.
“Sorry, Eric,” I said with a wince. “This is my sister and her babies…” I hesitated over how to refer to the rest of my tribe.
Cleo piped up for me. “And the rest of her family.”
Eric raised his pierced eyebrow. “Eclectic family.”
Cleo giggled, which made me take a second look at her, but she was too busy making eyes at Eric.
Oh-kay, then.
“Let’s go. Ransom is going to come pick up the babies at your house in an hour,” Lou said, adjusting Monster on her hip. “Then it’ll be just us girls.”
“And Benny,” Cress added. “Carson’s officially a hang-around now so he’ll be at the meeting, and I didn’t want Benny to feel left out.”
“Awesome,” Tay crowed. “Do you think he could bring some focaccia from La Gustosa?”
Benito Bonanno was Carson Gentry’s boyfriend, and they both often ended up at club gatherings for their various connections to the group. The primary one being that they were best friends with Cressida even though she’d once been their high school teacher. The other being the fact that Carson was my cousin, and it seemed lately that he was considering becoming a prospect for The Fallen.
“How are you so tiny?” Hannah demanded, waving at our diminutive friend before gesturing to her own gorgeous curves. “You eat like a horse, and I eat like a lady. We should have the opposite figures.”
Tay ripped open the wrap of the Mr. Big candy bar with her teeth, then took an outrageously large bite as she shrugged.
“You’re perfect,” I told Hannah who was forty-something, but maintained every year on her birthday that she was thirty-five. “Let’s get out of here before Eric discovers all our secrets because none of you can keep your mouths shut.”
They protested as I ushered them out, stealing Angel from Cleo as we went. When they all filed out, I looked over my shoulder at Eric who was studying me with an eerie intensity.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“You’ve got some bruising on your neck,” he said slowly, standing up from the desk and stalking toward me with his eyes fixed on my throat.
I held my breath as he carefully put his hand over my throat, palm first then finger by finger as if fitting himself to the bruises.
My breath arrested in my airway at the dark look in his eyes, something twisted like hot metal, sharp and warped. I’d never seen Eric look like that, like something other than human.
“Who did this?” he asked in such a heavy voice it seemed to press the air from my lungs.
“No one,” I said as I tried to peel his fingers off my neck.
For one second, he resisted, his grip tightening and eyes flashing, but then he released me. I stumbled backward slightly, my hand at my throat, eyes wide.
“You’ve never been a good liar,” he told me flatly as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared me down with those dark eyes.
“And you are?” I questioned, arching a brow at his strange behaviour.
A curious silence vibrated between us like a discordant note.
“Listen, no one attacked me, okay? I’m fine. Beyond that, it’s none of your business.” I finally said, moving to the couch to grab my purse and coat. “I’ll see you next week.”
“No kiss?” he asked because I was affectionate, and I almost always hugged him or tapped a kiss to his cheek in greeting or goodbye.