River’s controlled expression cracked for a second, and he looked at me with surprise. “You’d go without us, love?”
This gave me pause. When he’d said Wesley could only take one person, I’d just assumed it would be me. But then that meant leaving my other five guardians behind to keep dealing with the shitstorm that was my adopted father and mad scientists trying to replicate my magic and my unhinged mother who looked like my twin.
Could I really do that? Leave my dianoch behind and travel halfway around the world while every man and his dog were still out to get me?
When I met Wesley’s eyes, the answer was clear.
“Yeah, I think I have to. Wesley needs to figure out what he is, what I made him, and if there is anything I can do to help him with that... then that’s what I need to do.” I glanced at River, catching his golden eyes, which were swirling with so much raw emotion I couldn’t catch what was what. But I was firm in this decision. “I’d do the same for you, if you’d let me.”
River held my gaze a long, tense moment before giving a terse nod. Protests rose from all four of my other guardians, and River held his hand up to silence them.
“This is Kit’s choice,” he snapped at them in a voice like steel. “Wesley isn’t due to leave for another week yet, so perhaps she might change her mind. But it will always be Kit’s choice. She is our Ban Dia; we must support her in every decision.” Under his breath, quiet enough that I only heard it by how close I stood, he added, “Even if those decisions suck.”
Reaching for his waist, I tugged him close and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.
“Thank you, sir,” I whispered the words in his ear. “I meant it. I will do the same for you.”
He didn’t reply, simply gave my waist a quick squeeze, then headed to the door and grabbed his jacket. “I’m heading out to sort some things. You know how to reach me.” He gave me one final, heated look before leaving, and I knew he was not happy. He was, however, understanding.
The other guys grumbled various complaints, but all started filtering out as well—even Caleb, carrying Sam like he was a scarf made of acid. Poor thing.
“All right, I’m going to get Caleb’s familiar tattoo sorted,” Austin told me as he made to follow his twin. “Gives him a chance to rest Sam before they literally murder each other.” He paused as he was about to leave the room, and turned to look back at me. “I think it’s a fucking dumb move to separate right now. So don’t think we won’t try to change your mind in the next week. Both of you.”
With that ominous warning, I found myself alone with Wesley.
“Well, what the hell do you think that meant?” I asked him, pulling out a chair at the table opposite him and propping my head on my hands.
“Uh, pretty sure it means a totally different thing for me than it does for you, sweetheart.” He smirked, then took off his glasses to rub at his bloodshot eyes. “But for me... unless they can find a bona fide dreamweaver here in the states, I don’t have another choice. Even waiting a week to meet this guy is going to be hard enough.”
“I know,” I said softly, reaching across the table to take his hand in mine. “Would it help if I slept with you tonight?”
He gave me a watery smile. “It won’t save me while I sleep, but it’ll make me feel a whole hell of a lot better about going to sleep.”
My lips curved into a grin, and I held his gaze. “So, we’re going to Ireland.”
“We are going to Ireland,” he agreed.
A nauseous feeling pooled in my stomach, but I pushed it aside. Wesley needed me, and I’d stop at nothing to be there for him in any way I could.
Epilogue
As it turned out, my guardian’s idea of changing my mind included a whole lot of nudity and alone time. A few days into the week, when my resolve had started cracking, I realized I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was—not against all of them.
From there on out, I made a damn good point of staying busy to the point where they each had minimal amounts of time of persuade me to stay stateside with them.
The day for Wesley and me to leave had arrived though, and they’d had no further luck in tracking down anyone else to help. Not knowing what Wesley was didn’t help matters. Hell, we didn’t even know if this guy in Ireland could help, but he was the only person in the known supernatural community with any affinity to dreams.
We’d yet to find anyone at all with Wesley’s ability to borrow the eyes and ears of crows, so for now the focus was on the dreams.
Our flight wasn’t due to leave for a while yet, so the guys were all out doing fuck knew what, chasing down leads on Native American shamans that were supposed to have the dreamweaving magic.
As for Wes and myself, we were packing up our things. We had no indication of how long this trip would be or whether it’d be a dead end or turn into an extended stay, but the guys wouldn’t be staying on in Los Angeles anyway, so we were packing up everything.
The chime of my mobile phone echoed through the room, and Wesley tossed it across the bed to me so I could answer.
“Hey,” I said, upon picking up the call. Wesley continued to haphazardly throw clothes into his suitcase. No wonder he was always so rumpled. I’d asked him to fold a shirt earlier, and he’d looked at me like I’d grown antlers.
“Dead end,” Caleb grumbled down the phone at me. “Just some fraud in a made-in-China teepee in his backyard.”
“Well, I could have told you that,” I teased him, heading into the living area and tucking my legs up under me. “Will you be back before we leave for the airport? Vali and River said they’re driving us when they get back from sorting out your next safe house.”
“Yup, for sure. You don’t leave for another couple of hours, right?” Caleb double-checked, and I heard Austin murmur something in the background.
“Yeah, like just over three hours from now,” I confirmed, and Caleb made a noise of acknowledgement.
“Austin says we can be back in two if I let him drive. Cole called me a second ago and said he’ll be back around the same time.” Caleb sounded annoyed, and I smiled.
“Guess his lead was a dead end too, then?” I teased. “Don’t worry, Cal. We will probably get to Ireland and find this is a dead end as well and end up back here in two days.”
A knock sounded at the suite door, and I uncurled from my seat to stand up. “Cal, I have to go. Our room service just arrived. I’ll see you soon, though.”
A long sigh came down the phone. “Yeah, I’ll see you soon. Love you, Kitty Kat.”
“Love you too, Caleb,” I whispered back to him, “and your asshole brother who is probably listening right now. I’ll see you both soon.”
Hanging up the call, I tossed my phone onto the coffee table and went to answer the door. We’d both been too lazy to try and make ourselves lunch, so we’d ordered in. It was one of the perks to staying in a hotel, wasn’t it?
“Hi,” I greeted the smartly uniformed hotel worker who stood at the door behind a room service cart, “Just through here would be great. Wes! Food’s here!”
The man dipped his head and pushed the cart into our suite, parking it beside the dining table and offloading the tray carrying my pasta and bread and Wesley’s Thai beef salad. The smell of cheese sauce was already reaching my nose and making my mouth water. Ugh, yum. Carb goodness.
While he did this, I waited by the door, holding it open for him. Call me crazy, but it felt creepy to close the door with a waiter inside the room. Maybe that was just my own insecurities making me paranoid.