When I went down, now dressed, Jeremy said more or less the same thing. Then he told us off for being IN Forestwatch anyway, as we weren't sure it was safe after the fire, particularly after part of the roof had collapsed. He looked at me, as he said this, like he was disappointed in me. I was tempted to say Nick was the adult here... but I doubt that would have helped my case much.
The question as to what we were doing there, Nick grinned, Reece looked a bit sheepish, and Nick said something about sleeping, without elaborating. From the look on Jeremy's face he clearly was wondering what 'sleeping' meant.
"Speaking of them," I tried to change the subject and saw Jeremy freeze, "Did you find a naked necromancer in your room?"
Jeremy blinked, his cheeks may have gone a shade warmer, and then he smiled somewhat. "I may have."
"Jamie's here? Can we ask her?" Nick sat up a bit more.
"She's asleep and may need to sleep in for a while longer." Jeremy shook his head, glancing at the clock, not even six yet. "I needed a drink."
It worked though, he stopped telling us off about Forestwatch, and instead let Nick and Reece go upstairs to have showers of their own while he checked the foot. I'd left it uncovered, the shower had more or less soaked the bandage, and Jeremy seemed happy with it.
We put the news back on, curling up near each other, Jeremy's arm going across my shoulder as we watched early morning stuff.
"News from Elena?"
"There's no clear trail. It's leading them away from Miami. The factory you visited is empty now. There's a number of potiental sites right across America so they're taking it one spot at a time." Jeremy replied softly. "But they have some better ideas about where it's made from what was left over. Cortez has taken the remaining belongings to test them."
"That's good news, yeah?" I asked, head flopping against a shoulder, feeling him nod as his shoulder jerked.
"It's very good news. It might be over faster than we expected. Elena and Clayton have just got to keep up their hunt for the time being." He replied, voice soft, and I felt him dig into his pocket and hand me something. "This is for you."
I looked at the piece of paper, a tiny rune thing, a bit like a mandala or sacred geometry. It was like the one on Jamie's leg, I realised, and I'd never thought about where she'd gotten it.
"Did you draw this?"
He nodded and I admired it. People didn't know how hard it was to draw stuff like this. "It's beautiful."
"Jamie tattooed hers." Jeremy said softly, opening one eye, amused as he saw I actually liked it. "I've tried to convince Clayton and Elena to keep theirs close too but they lost theirs ..."
"Might be nice to have something on me that I put there willingly." I wasn't going to loose it though. I loved stuff like this, loved to draw it, paint it, and now Jeremy had drawn me another thing? How awesome! I slid it into my pocket and resumed cuddle time in front of the TV.
I fell asleep, barely waking when Nick got onto the other side an snuggled against me, Reece against the couch near my legs. Nothing sexual, again, this was just the regular pack thing, Jeremy now in on it as he flopped closeby with his body close to Nicks. Purely family.
“Babies?” I asked, suddenly, the urge to add them to 'cuddle' rising.
“Sleeping. Don't wake em.” Nick muttered. “We'll never relax.”
Falling asleep again, I woke some hours later, Nick shaking me gently.
"Sorry, thought you might want to see this." He smiled, kissing my forehead, and I turned to the TV.
Chapter 9 - Conflicts
Start from the beginning
