crickets actually sneezed. I had no idea if they had sinuses or sinus problems.
“Oh,” Stacey responded. Her face didn’t fall in disappointment or flush with anger. She didn’t show any emotion, and normally I was good at reading people.
I started to look away from her, but something strange caught my eye. There was a...shadow behind Stacey, in the shape of a...person? The same height as her, maybe slightly taller and a little broader. My eyes squinted as I refocused on her and saw...nothing. No shadow at all.
Stacey was starting to frown...
...because I was staring at her.
Warmth crept into my cheeks as I got busy checking out my empty soda can, dismissing the weird shadow. Sometimes my eyes did that—made me think I saw things when there was nothing there.
“Well, since that’s out of the way, did you guys really come over here just to make sure I’m alive?” Zayne broke the awkward silence. “Not that I’m not happy to see you all—”
“You should be thrilled to see us,” Roth cut in.
“We know you’re not thrilled to see him.” Stacey’s lips eased into a smile.
“But you better be damn happy to see me,” Roth said.
“Of course I’m happy to see you,” he said, and that was with a grin. “But as you guys can see, I’m fine. You didn’t need to worry.”
“I just needed to see it. We needed to see it.” Layla was beside Roth, one arm curled around his as she leaned into him. Roth dressed all in black and Layla with that white-blond hair and cute pale-pink-and-blue maxi dress—they were such a contrast of light and dark. “I hope you’re not mad that we came by.”
I waited with bated breath for Zayne’s answer, because I honest to God wasn’t picking up much through the bond except for that momentary flash of happiness when he’d hugged Stacey. I didn’t know if that meant he wasn’t feeling anything powerful enough for me to sense, or if he was better than I at controlling his emotions. Probably the latter, but I did know that when Zayne and Layla had talked while Roth and I had met with the witches, he hadn’t seemed all that relieved by the conversation. If anything, he’d been morose and...confused that night.
Zayne looked at Layla, and I thought it might be the first time he’d actually looked directly at her since they’d arrived. “No, I’m not mad,” he said, and I believed him. “Just surprised. That’s all.”
Layla couldn’t hide her surprise, and I wondered if she’d expected Zayne to say the opposite. A tiny, decent part of me actually felt bad for her as a small, hesitant smile began to appear. “Good,” she whispered, blinking rapidly.
Roth dipped his head, pressing his lips to her temple, and my gaze shot to Zayne. There was no reaction. No blast of jealousy or envy through the bond or on his face.
Zayne only smiled faintly and then asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Good.” She cleared her throat as she patted her stomach. “Just a little sore. I think that damn Nightcrawler was trying to disembowel me.”
The low growl that came from Roth was startlingly similar to the sound Zayne had made.
“I think I’m glad I’ve never seen a Nightcrawler,” Stacey mused, lips pursed. “That name alone doesn’t bring the warm fuzzies.”
“There was a whole horde of them incubating in the old locker rooms at school.” Layla tossed it out there like it was no big deal. “It was a while ago, and Roth and I killed them all, but man, those things are mean.”
I had so many questions about why a horde of incubating Nightcrawlers would be in the locker rooms of a human school.
“I really didn’t need to know that.” Stacey shuddered. “At all.”
“Hey, you’ve only got a couple of weeks of summer school, and then you’ll get your diploma.” Layla smiled at her friend. “Then you won’t have to worry about our little version of a Buffy Hellgate.”
“I think we have more demonic activity at that school than Buffy did in all the seasons,” Stacey commented.
I had to wonder how many demons beyond Roth and maybe Cayman she’d seen. Only humans who were accidentally introduced to the world of things that went bump in the night and somehow survived and those who were entrusted to keep the truth safe knew.
Stacey probably thought I was one of those exceptions.
“Summer school?” I had no idea if that was normal in the human world, and also not all that sure I knew what