“Because we weren’t here to help anyone,” Cal finished. “We’d left the town unprotected. How can we risk that again?”
Cybil started to speak, then decided to let it go for now. “Well, back to the bloodstone then. That’s one of the new elements on our side of the scoreboard. I’ve got some avenues I’m exploring. And was about to push a little deeper earlier today when I was so rudely interrupted. I’ll get back on that tomorrow. I was also going to suggest, if you’re up for it, Gage, that you and I try what Cal and Quinn have, and Fox and Layla.”
“You want to have sex? Always up for it.”
“That’s so sweet, but I was staying on topic and speaking of combining abilities. We have past.” She gestured to Cal and Quinn. “We have now, with Fox and Layla. You and I see forward. Maybe it’s time to find out if we see further, or clearer, together.”
“I’m game if you are.”
“How about tomorrow then? I’ll drive out to Cal ’s, maybe about one.”
“Ah, about that.” Cal cleared his throat. “After today, I think we have to limit solo time as much as possible. Nobody should be staying here or at my place alone at night, for one thing. We can split that up, so there’s at least two-better three-in one place. And during the day, we should use the buddy system whenever possible. You shouldn’t drive out to my place alone, Cybil.”
“I’m not going to disagree about safety and strength in numbers. So, who’s going to buddy up with Fox whenever he has to drive up to Hagerstown, to the courthouse? Or with Gage when he’s zipping from here to there?”
Fox shook his head sadly at Cal. “Warned you, didn’t I?”
“For the record, I’m not the least bit insulted that you’d want to protect me and my fellow females.” Cybil smiled at Cal. “And I agree we should stick together as much as possible. But it’s not practical or feasible that we can avoid basic alone time or tasks for the duration. We’re six weeks out. I think we can all promise to be sensible and cautious. I, for one, won’t be lighting the candle and creeping down to the basement at midnight to investigate strange noises.”
“I’ll come here,” Gage told her.
“No, because now it’s a matter of principle. And I think we’d have more luck with this at Cal ’s. This house still feels…”
“Smudged,” Quinn finished. She reached over to rub Cybil’s knee. “It’ll fade.”
“Yes, it will. Well, while you all work out who’s sleeping where tonight, I’m going to bed.” Rising, she glanced at Gage. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She wanted a long hot soak in the tub, but that struck her as too close to going down into a dark basement. Both were horror-movie clichés for a reason, after all. She settled on the nightly routine of cleanser, toner, moisturizer. As she started to turn down the bed, Quinn came in.
“Cal and I are staying here tonight.”
“All right, but wouldn’t it make more sense for you two to go home, with Gage?”
“Fox and Layla are bunking at Cal ’s. I wanted to be here tonight.”
Because she understood, Cybil’s eyes stung. She sat on the side of the bed, took Quinn’s hand, laid it against her cheek as Quinn sat beside her.
“I was all right until the lights went out. More interested, even intrigued than scared. Then they went out, and I couldn’t see. Nothing was as horrible as that.”
“I know. I can sleep in here with you tonight.”
Cybil shook her head, tipped it to Quinn’s shoulder. “It’s enough to know you’re across the hall. We all felt it, didn’t we? That smudge like you said, that smear it left on the house. I was afraid it was just me, just being paranoid.”
“We all felt it. It’ll fade, Cyb. We won’t give ground.”
“It’ll never understand how we are together, or what we are together. It would never understand that you knew I’d sleep better tonight with you in the house, or that I’d be better talking to you for a few minutes alone.”
“It’s one of the ways we’ll beat it.”
“I believe that.” She sighed. “Marissa called.”
“Crap.”
“Yeah, and it was-the usual crap. ‘Can’t you do this, can’t I have that? Why are you so mean?’ It just added to an upsetting day. I dumped a good chunk of my unfortunate family history on Gage’s head.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I know, not my usual style. It was a weak moment, but he handled it well. He didn’t say much, but he said exactly the right thing. Then I kissed his brains out.”
“Well.” Quinn gave her a friendly shoulder bump. “It’s about damn time.”
“Maybe it is, I don’t know. I don’t know if it would complicate things, simplify them, or make no damn difference at all. But while I’m sure the sex would be good-in fact superior-I’m equally sure it would be as risky as going down in the basement to see what the banging’s about.”
“It could be, but since there’d be two of you involved, you wouldn’t be going down to the basement alone.”
“True.” Pursing her lips, Cybil studied her own toes. “And there would be some comfort when we were both hacked to death by the ax murderer.”
“At least you’d’ve had sex first.”
“Superior sex. I’ll sleep on it.” She gave Quinn a squeeze. “Go on, go snuggle up with your adorable guy. I’m going to do a little yoga to help me relax before I go to bed.”
“Just call if you need me.”
Cybil nodded. That was the thing, she thought when Quinn left her. That was a constant in her life. If she needed Quinn, all she had to do was call.
Five
SHE’D BEEN IN HIS DREAMS, AND IN HIS DREAMS, she came to his bed. In his dreams her lips, soft and seeking, yielded to his. Her body, sleek and smooth, arched up, long arms, long legs wrapping him in warmth, in fragrance. In female.
The wild glory of her hair, dark against white sheets, spilled away from her face while those deep, seductive eyes watched him.
She rose. She opened. She took him in.
In his dreams, his blood beat like a heart, and his heart pounded its fist in his chest. Inside him, joy and desperation rolled into one mad tangle of need. Locked, lost, he took her lips again. The taste, the taste that burned through him like a fever while their bodies raced together. Faster. Faster.
While around them the room began to bleed, and to burn.
She cried out, her nails biting like teeth into his back while the sea of bloody flames rolled over them. And the word she cried as they were consumed was bestia.
HE WOKE, ONCE AGAIN AT FIRST LIGHT. AND THAT, Gage thought, had to stop. He had no particular affinity for mornings, and now it seemed he was doomed to deal with them. There’d be no going back to sleep after the little movie clip his subconscious had drummed up. It was too damn bad such a promising dream had taken a turn so far south at the-ha-climax.
He could pick apart the symbolism, he thought, staring at the ceiling of Cal ’s guest room. But then, it was easy to identify the springboard for the lion’s share of tonight’s entertainment.
He was a guy. He was horny.
Moreover, it suited his fantasy to have her come to him rather than him pursuing her. They’d made a pact not that long ago on this very topic. How had she put it? You won’t try to seduce me, and I won’t pretend to be seduced.
Remembering made him smile into the dim, dawn light. But if she made the moves, all bets were off as far as he was concerned. The challenge would be to con her into making those moves so she believed it was her idea in the first place.
Then again, the interlude in the dream had ended badly. He could ascribe that to his own cynical, pessimistic nature, or he could consider it a portent. Or, third option, a warning. If he let himself become involved with her-because it hadn’t just been sex in the dream, he’d been involved-they could both pay the ultimate price. Blood and fire, he thought-as usual. And it hadn’t been her lover’s name she’d cried out when she’d been consumed by passion and flame, but bestia.