Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,2

women forever, but you guys guard those truths pretty closely.”

I rolled my eyes as Oliver laughed again, but I wasn’t going to let this go. “I mean, about what I probably have in my genetic line. The non-human part that calls to these creatures so strongly.”

This time Thorn didn’t make a joke. Sobering, he answered, “Yep. I can do that. We’ll get information for you. Maybe there’s a way to make you less interesting to them. After we find Mr. Chee and convince him that it’s better to let sleeping demons lie.”

“I need a refill.” Oliver looked into his coffee cup. “Anyone else?”

I shook my head. One cup was good. Flying already made me jittery. They didn’t want me anxious, jittery, and caffeinated on the last leg of the trip.

Oliver kissed me on the cheek and, after checking with Thorn, headed into the crowd. He passed by an approaching Colton, stopping briefly before continuing on his way. I followed him with my gaze until I lost him in the crowd.

A child shrieked with laughter, and I smiled, watching him bounce after his harried looking parents. “What’d I miss?” Colton asked, taking Oliver’s chair.

“Discussion about Mr. Chee,” Thorn replied quietly.

“He wouldn’t have done that,” I said, almost to myself as I thought about the man going into the desert to single-handedly slay a demon. “Erdirg is beyond all of our abilities.” The father of the laughing child turned around and scooped him up in his arms before grabbing his suitcase and walking away. “He’d want to protect his boys.” I glanced over at Colton and Thorn. “Right? He wouldn’t put them in more danger.”

They were silent. Finally, Colton leaned forward. His gaze went to the table before it flicked up to me. “Danger like moving them around the country to chase monsters and ghosts?”

“Shit.” My entire body tensed, and I swore I got a crick in my neck just from stress. “You need to work on your delivery.”

Thorn reached for my shoulder and kneaded it. I shut my eyes. Slowly, the tension drained away. He was staring at me when I finally opened my eyes and gave me a sad half-smile. “No parents are perfect, Lace. And with Ray, it’s hard to know his motivation. He is one of the most famous Trappers in history, and when it really counted, a high school girl defeated this massive, ancient evil. It stung him. I know it did. And I’d bet that was when Oliver and Aaron decided they wouldn’t follow in his footsteps. For them, the accolades never mattered. They just wanted to be safe. Then they wanted you to be safe.”

I’d never thought of Mr. Chee in that way. To me, he was this larger than life figure who knew everything about everything. Now, I wondered if that was just because I’d never seen a family unit before. I’d taken the Chees—with their family dinners and clean, clown-free house—as the thing to aspire to. Turned out, they were just as flawed as my own family, just in a different way.

It made me view Aaron and Oliver differently. When Oliver said he didn’t like talking to his dad, I couldn’t understand that. If I was honest with myself, I even judged him for that.

“I’m an asshole.”

“What?” Thorn shook me a little. “Why?”

“I think I might have been pretty judgmental when I heard they didn’t talk so much anymore. I should have kept my mouth shut.”

Colton snorted. “Lace. The last thing we ever expect from you is that you hold back. You wouldn’t be you if you suddenly had a brain-to-mouth filter.”

Leaning forward, I flicked his shoulder. “I hold back.”

He merely lifted his eyebrows, but he was a smart guy, because he tried to hide his smile. I couldn’t even be mad, not when his bright eyes twinkled like that.

Aaron plopped down across from me in the other line of chairs. “Where should we stay while we’re searching? I think we’ve all been a little worked up about going and not focused on the nitty gritty of it. We have no place to stay.”

Thorn shook his head. “I already took care of it. Details are kind of my thing. I rented us a house for three weeks through one of those vacation rental websites.”

I stared at him. “Please tell me it’s not at your ranch. I don’t think I could handle three weeks at Doc Holiday’s. Of course, I don’t understand why anyone would want to go to our town on vacation.”

“Oh come