When it came to Grey, though, he had learned to simply out-stubborn the man. It didn’t hurt that he kind of enjoyed butting heads with him. Grey was fun when he was flustered and sputtering, searching that brilliant brain for some sharp comeback.
“Don’t worry. I think you’re all crazy, and I don’t understand any of this magic stuff, but I’m not abandoning Grey. He still needs me.”
Lucien sighed heavily. “Thank God.” He relaxed a little more in the seat, extending his extremely long legs and draping his left arm on the door. “We need you. And we are sorry about dragging you into all this. I’m still not sure why the aunts decided you had to be there, but we’re glad you were. We needed someone to watch out for Grey and Calder. I don’t know if we would have found Calder in time without Grey.”
“I’m glad I could help, though I’m not so sure I did all that much.”
“You did, I swear. Knowing you were watching Grey’s back meant Clay and I could focus on the pestilents and getting to Calder. Because of you, no one got hurt.”
Cort bit the inside of his cheek against the swell of pride in his chest. He really hadn’t done a whole lot at the beach, but he had been a set of eyes dedicated solely to Grey’s safety. He’d been glad to do that much, and while he wasn’t the type to jump into any kind of fight, there was a part of him eager to help again in some small way.
Yet, he wasn’t thrilled about turning his entire life upside down over it.
“Back to what I was saying before we got into the car,” Cort started again. “You don’t agree with my statement that I won’t be staying long.”
Lucien cringed. “Yeah…” he drawled out. His hands tightened on the wheel, but the car remained right at the speed limit. Despite his obvious preference for fast cars, Lucien was a very good driver. “There’s a good chance they spotted you with us. At least with Grey. As long as they’re brainwashing humans, there’s a chance they could try the same with you as a way of getting to us. I feel like we were lucky to wake that one guy out of the trance. If we couldn’t with you, or if something happened to you…it would fucking kill Grey. We don’t want to hurt you.”
A heavy wave of nausea swam through Cort, and he tightly gripped the armrest on his door. He didn’t want to get hurt either, but more importantly, he didn’t want to hurt any of them. As it was now, he walked right into the house, into Grey’s apartment. Cort could kill Grey before the man even knew anything was wrong with him. His heart hammered in his chest and for a moment, Cort had to close his eyes and drag in a few deep, calming breaths. It wasn’t going to happen. No one was going to brainwash him. He was going to stay at the house, where none of the pestilents could get to him.
“Cort?” Lucien inquired, his tone filling with concern. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he exhaled. He sucked in another deep breath and slowly released it, pushing out more of the nausea as his heart slowed to a more normal pace. “I don’t want to risk hurting anyone either.”
“But we don’t know which of the pestilents is able to control humans or even how we’re going to stop it once we locate the pestilent. It could take a while. We don’t want to disrupt your life longer than necessary.” Lucien lifted a hand toward Cort.
“It is necessary, though.”
“For everyone’s safety,” Lucien agreed with a nod.
“Y’all don’t have more information on how to beat these things or what to expect? Grey made it sound like this has been going on for a long time.”
Lucien barked out a harsh laugh as he slowed for a stop sign. Cort gave him some quick directions for the little town outside of Savannah that held his apartment complex. “Man, not one of us realized who we were until we got to Savannah. We uncovered these journals recently, but they haven’t been incredibly helpful. There’s no instruction manual, and I really wish there was.”
“How did you get drawn into all of this?”
The Fire Weaver bit on his lower lip in thought while driving in silence for a few seconds. “Well, I guess I was born to it, though I didn’t realize it. I grew up in Arizona. Attended private schools and then college. Went into finance like my father.”
Cort lifted both eyebrows and leaned forward to look Lucien in the face. “Finance?”
Lucien flashed him a broad grin. “I’m fantastic with numbers, and I can be charming when I want to be. People like giving me their money.”