safe, and this time was no different as he healed me, then healed Blaze further. Once Ailin healed us, he went to help a few other people, but Hiro and I had to answer a bunch of questions. Since I was exhausted from magic use, being injured, and being healed, Hiro stayed behind me, holding me up and letting me use him as a chair.
Alec came over to me and pulled me forward a little, out of Hiro’s arms and into a hug, muttering, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I awkwardly patted his back because what the hell?
He released me—Hiro pulled me to his chest again—and I sighed. “I’m sorry for earlier. I tried to talk Petunia out of taking him in, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“She listened to me,” I said.
He snorted. “I think calling her ‘The Bitchiest Bitch to Ever Bitch’ probably did it. I’ll remember that for next time.”
I snorted and Hiro said, “Please tell me he didn’t really say that to the fuckin’ leader of the country.”
“I totally said that,” I said.
Hiro groaned.
“What? She knows me, so it’s not like she was surprised. She’s known me since I was a teenager. Trust me, I’m much better now.”
“That’s what you think.” Alec chuckled before sighing and saying, “Listen, Bas, I owe you a huge apology. I know I’ve been coming down on you a lot over the months, and I just want to say sorry. It isn’t an excuse, but once your numbers went down, I was getting a lot of shit from Petunia and the other officials for letting things slide with you. You’re expensive sometimes when you blow shit up, but I’ve always been able to justify it because you bring results. When that stopped happening, they cracked on me even harder than usual about spending costs. They kept saying I was biased because you’re family, and no matter how many times I said it had nothing to do with that, they didn’t believe me.”
“You should’ve told me that to begin with. You were acting like you hated me,” I said.
“Bas… Please tell me you don’t really think that. You know you’re like my little brother, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“I’m sorry.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “When I found out Aspen was pregnant again, I was stressed. You know her last pregnancy wasn’t an easy one, so I’ve been worried about her on top of work shit. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
I could tell he meant it, so I said, “It’s fine, Al.” I shot him a grin. “But now you owe me about a million favors.”
He sighed. “That’s probably fair.”
“Or just one big one.”
He eyed me. “What do you have in mind?”
“Hire Hiro as my partner.”
Alec stared at me for a few seconds, then nodded. “Done.” He slapped me on the shoulder and stood. “Hiro, come to my office next Monday to fill out the paperwork. Bas, take the rest of the week off to relax. Come in on Monday with your viramore.”
“Thanks, Al,” I said.
“Thank you,” Hiro called to his retreating back, then said to me, “Glad he finally apologized to you.”
“Me too. So I told you I’d get you a job at the BCA.”
“You sure that’s what you want?”
My head jerked around, trying to see him. “What? Yeah, it is, but it’s more about what you want. I know you’ve been working alone for a long time, so is this what you want? You’d still use your hunting skills, but you’d be all official.”
He squinted his eyes.
I added, “Okay, mostly official. You know I like bending the rules when I need to.”
“You crazy rulebreaker you.”
“Would you answer me, dimple face?”
He snorted out a laugh, pressed his nose to my hair so his mouth was by my ear, and whispered, “The only problem I see is bein’ able to keep my hands off ya long enough to catch our marks.”
I snorted. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”
He groaned. “We’ll see about that. Maybe you’ll have to wear a giant sweatshirt or somethin’ to cover yourself better around me.”
“Not happening.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’d still want to bone ya.”
I put my hand on my chest and mocked, “Mother of All, you are just so fucking romantic, Hiro. How could I possibly resist you?”
He rolled his eyes and chuckled.
Once we were all set, only tired and a little sore, Hiro helped me to the car and took me home. Even though it was the middle of the night, Seb had texted and said that Rasha was worried