In the morning I woke up curled next to Nate. As sappy as it sounds, I’d grown so used to mornings with Nate. I’d probably even be sad to find him missing one morning.
“I love you too, Avery,” Nate said kissing the top of my head.
“It’s no fair reading my mind this early in the morning. One of these days you’re going to find thoughts you didn’t want to know after I wake up from a hot dream about another guy.”
“Since I can influence your dreams, I don’t think that will be much of an issue,” he replied.
“Yeah, well there’s one thing I’m thankful for this morning and it sure isn’t the idea of you trying to have sex with me in a dream,” I retorted. “Those first dreams of you without your clothes weren’t for the faint of heart.”
“Is what you’re thankful for the thought of me having sex with you in real life, because I can totally arrange that too.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and I smacked his chest.
“It’s definitely not that,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m thankful for the fact that we’re experiencing an abnormally warm winter this year. It’s February and I actually get to ride Winnie on a decent trip. I don’t believe that’s happened before.”
“It’s still going to be chilly when we head out this morning,” he pointed out. Overnight temperatures had been in the low forties, with the daytime highs reaching the sixties.
“True, but what’s forty degrees to a person who can turn into a flaming bird? We just have to let the bikes warm up a little and we should be good to go.” I climbed out of bed so I could head to the bathroom.
“You still have to wear enough clothing so people don’t stare at you and wonder why you aren’t turning blue,” he called after me.
“Duh,” I replied, not feeling the need to give him a more dignified response. “And don’t think I don’t notice I’m somehow without pants. I have a feeling they didn’t just walk off my body.” It wasn’t a worst case scenario since I still had a top on.
I heard him snicker as he got up and headed towards his portion of our bedroom suite. I considered taking back any comments or thoughts about how great it was to wake up next to him.
I took a quick, but enjoyable warm shower. It was hard not to take pleasure in a shower with multiple massage showerheads, shooting at you from all directions. The gentle beating on my muscles they provided was great after a sparring match with one of the guys.
Learning how the new housemates reacted in combat situations had been a lot of fun. They stopped taking it easy on me after watching just one real match between Rick and me. I was happy about it, until I took one solid punch from Kyle and ended up flat on my butt with the wind knocked out of me. Needless to say, from that moment on, I hadn’t let anyone land a good punch.
Out of the shower, I quickly put on my usual attire and headed downstairs to see if anyone else was up and about. Since Vinnie didn’t really sleep, it was no surprise that I ran into him first.
“Good morning, Avery. I take it there were no issues with your sleep,” he greeted me.
“You would be correct, my robot friend. You ready for the big trip today? You haven’t been out much on your bike with all the searching you’ve been doing.”
“I may not have had a chance to take her for a spin, but I have been working on a motherboard paint scheme for her and I think it’s just about ready to find someone to carry it out. I’ve also been doing some different tweaks to the engine to rev up the power just a little,” he said.
“That’s what I love about you, Vinnie. You’re always thinking about ways to improve things. Most of the other guys here are too busy beating their chest, pretending to be Tarzan,” I replied.
“Well, everyone has their uses,” he stated as we walked into the kitchen.
“That’s true, and for this war, I have a feeling we’ll need both brains and brawn.” I grabbed the box of Grape Nuts and a bowl. While I poured my cereal, Vinnie got me the milk and a spoon. As I was taking my first bite, Trey and Sean walked through the door.
Trey looked at me and the box, still sitting next to me on the counter. “Seriously, you’re eating that? With all the stuff you can cook, you choose eat rocks for breakfast,” he said, shaking his head. “That just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Good morning to you guys too. What are you doing here so early?” I asked. I wasn’t expecting to leave for another hour or two.
“The King says be here first thing, we’re here first thing,” Sean replied.
Both wolves were about six-feet tall, with Trey being maybe an inch taller. Sean had the dark features pretty much everyone, except the blonde bombers and Miranda, seemed to share in the household. Trey had the beach bum look going for him, with shaggy, bleach blonde hair and blue eyes. Both of them were sadly easy on the eyes, so to speak. I was beginning to think there wasn’t a male unique alive who wasn’t a heartthrob.
“Sadly, that is true, my little butterfly,” Nate said, joining the party. “Uniques, in general, tend to be appealing to the opposite sex, or same sex if your boat floats that way.”
“Haven’t I told you once already this morning to quit reading my mind?” I asked as I savored crunching on my cereal loud enough to make Trey shiver. I didn’t know what he had against the little nuggets, but it was fun messing with him.
“You may have mentioned it, but I chose to believe that only meant while we were in bed,” he replied.
“If you aren’t nice, I’m going to start sending scary thoughts your way. Imagine old people without teeth gumming their food or clowns,” I told him as I finished my cereal and rinsed out the bowl.
“Clowns don’t have the same effect on me that they do you, but I’ll try not comment on or answer things you haven’t actually spoken out loud. Can you live with that?”
“You know I’m forced to live with it pretty much either way, but it’d be a lot easier on me if I didn’t have to be constantly reminded that you’re listening in,” I responded. “So when do you think the rest of the group will be up and ready?”
“I doubt it’ll be too much longer. They were all excited about the trip. I think they’re looking forward to having something to fight. It only takes a little blood to get the berserkers in a frenzy,” Nate responded.
As he finished, Rick joined us, getting his own bowl of cereal. He gave my box of Grape Nuts a revolting look and instead reached for the Lucky Charms. If coffee wasn’t within reach, sugar was a good substitution for him.
I watched as he took out a bottle of chocolate syrup from the fridge and drizzled it on top of the cereal before adding some milk. It was my turn to pretend to gag.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just see that. Did you have a bad night?”
Rick dipped his spoon in and took a bite that pushed the limit of how big his mouth could open. I didn’t understand how he could be my brother sometimes. The fact that I’d only known that was the case for a week made it easy to forget.
“Let’s just say you don’t want to know. I’m pretty sure I dreamt that you were getting married in a month.”
For someone who usually had no filter at all, the evasiveness was a little strange. The fact that he didn’t want to talk about something made me positive I didn’t want to know what potentially kept him from getting all his beauty sleep.
“I’ll go ahead and let you believe it was all a dream. Maybe after the sugar gets in your system, you’ll remember it’s not. So, do we think this is just another warlock out causing problems or could it be something else?” I asked, moving the conversation forward.
“Honey, you’ve read the books. There are quite a few options we could be looking at. Thankfully, all of them can be killed, or at least caged,” Nate replied.
I was lucky enough to finally get my hands on the books my son had written. Sadly, they were so interesting I read everything in two days and still felt like I was missing all the important points. It was a good overview for someone who knew nothing, but it didn’t replace millennia of
firsthand knowledge.
“But do you think another type of being would side with the warlock? I mean, if they’re a unique, I’d think they wouldn’t try to bring about the destruction of others of their kind, but I know people don’t always have their heads screwed on straight. With the right promises, some people are even willing to turn against their own family.”
“You never know what people will do with the right motivation,” Sean said. “Some people get out of bed three hours before usual, so they can accompany you on a monster hunt because if they don’t, their leader would skin them alive.”
“You better believe I’m capable of that. I spend all my spare time sharpening my knives,” Joseph said, entering with Miranda on his arm.
She gave me a little wave and a wink. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I was guessing she got the relationship past the kissing stage if she was cuddled up next to him in front of everyone.
“You two got something you want to tell the rest of the group?” Rick asked, he didn’t bother looking up from his cereal.
“Might as well,” Joseph said with a sigh. “It’s not like it’s been that big of a secret. Miranda and I are together. She has been marked and we’ll be doing the official binding ceremony at the next pack meeting.” He said it pretty fast, sort of like ripping a Band-Aid off.
“Oh, Miranda, he’s just so romantic,” I said in a mocking tone.
Miranda didn’t look like she cared, and frankly I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he’d said. I was used to Nate trying to be romantic, and it tended to be a little much for me.
“What do you expect, Avery? We live with a group of Neanderthals. I’m pretty sure the berserkers were literally called that at one point. Probably around the time they clubbed women over their heads and dragged them back to their caves,” Miranda responded.
We broke into giggles as the berserkers entered the room and looked around. Funny how timing works sometimes. With the gang all there, we could get some planning done. Before I could open my mouth to ask how soon everyone would be ready, Kyle raised his hand and made his way towards the fridge.
“Don’t even speak until my stomach has been satisfied,” he grumbled while he grabbed a yogurt. I couldn’t help but start laughing again. It was the last thing I would’ve imagined him pulling out of the fridge.
Liam made his way to the cupboards and found some Pop Tarts. That was a more logical choice for them, and evidently Kyle agreed, because he grabbed a pack on his way to get a spoon.
“So, while they try to reenergize their brains, we can try to figure out how today is going to go,” I said. “How soon before everyone can be ready? I don’t think we need to take a ton of clothing. I’m hoping it’s get in, find the bad guy, kill the bad guy and enjoy the nice ride home down I-95.”
“I’d say plan for at least a week. We don’t know what we’re up against and it might be difficult to pinpoint the bad guy,” Nate said in his bossy tone. He didn’t mind when I tried to take charge, but he liked letting everyone else know that he got final say.
“Do we have any idea where we’ll be residing?” Vinnie asked. “I’ve downloaded all the most recent maps of the area and I’d like to get an idea if there’ll be any traffic issues.”
“I’m supposed to have wolves in the area, so I say that should be our first stop. The pack house will be big enough for all of us, and we need to figure out why they aren’t responding to my calls,” Joseph supplied. He was still agitated that he hadn’t received any calls.
“Are you able to sense when other wolves are close?” I asked. “What if someone has taken them; will we be able to easily find them?”
“If they’re close enough, I can call to their wolves,” Joseph replied. “And they better hope someone has them, or that skinning that was mentioned earlier will become a reality.”
I didn’t doubt that one bit. The wolves seemed to be the roughest, toughest group of shifters, according to the reading I’d done. I didn’t know a lot of specifics, but if Joseph was the mold for those that followed, it was clear they learned by example.
Everyone who hadn’t eaten breakfast quickly scrounged around for something before we headed off to pack. Nate and I threw some stuff into a single bag. No use having two if they were going to the same place. When we were ready, he carried the bag out to the truck that Sean and Trey would pilot. Slowly, everyone else emerged with their things and we were set to get the show on the road.