“I’m going inside.”
Avet squeezes my hand. “Me, too.”
I jerk my head toward him, wondering if he means to retire, too.
Avet smiles. “Sevan needs time to steal a quality motorcycle for me. Mind if we crash here for the night?”
My shoulders relax. “Not at all.”
Finally, I have the wherewithal to step out of my car. I grab my backpack out of the trunk, along with Avet’s things, and sling them over my shoulder. Now that Avet is coming to stay, I don’t worry my life isn’t enough. I wouldn’t mind Sevan in my space, either. She’s not half bad. Or maybe she is exactly half bad—the same half I am.
Sevan parks behind my car, taking off her helmet to motion towards my home. “This is the haven? Here lies the place that’s better than sleeping in crummy motels? This, I gotta see.”
Avet’s arm curves around her waist as the two of them lead the way to my house. It’s a nice visual. Avet doesn’t do well on his own. He needs someone to look after, and someone looking after him.
“Maybe this could be our thing,” I muse aloud. “You both go out on trapping missions and come back here on occasion to crash and recoup.”
Sevan flips her raven hair over her shoulder and smirks at me. “That depends. My thread count requirements are higher than most.”
“I think that can be arranged.” I fumble with my house key, cutting around them to let us all in.
I freeze at Sevan’s gasp. “Not to be critical, but was your door like that when you left?”
For the first time, I narrow in on the details of my home. I was so caught up in the philosophical wormhole of returning that I didn’t notice the door was ajar. “No, I always lock it.”
My keys go back into my pocket and my blade comes out in a fluid swoosh. Sevan and Avet were attached at the hip two seconds ago, but now they are similarly armed and ready for whatever awaits us inside.
25
CHER’S CRUSH
This wasn’t the homecoming I was expecting, but perhaps it’s the one I should know is coming from here on out. “The vampire who tracked you down when you first came to get me must have caught my scent and followed it here,” I tell Avet. “I guess the vampires don’t care that I’m retired.”
Avet grimaces. “Sorry about that. Yeah, Tigran is a piece of work.”
I lead the way into my home, tapping the door open with my foot before I step inside. I don’t turn the lights on right away. I wait until I am sure that if a vampire was lurking in my house, he would have lunged for his lunch already.
Avet enters behind me once I indicate the coast is most likely clear. He flicks on the lights, invoking a gasp from all three of us.
My home used to be fit for a hermit. Everything was orderly, clean, and free of clutter. I didn’t think I owned all that many things with which one could actually make a mess, but apparently, I was wrong.
The blinds are torn off, splintered and laying on the floor of the living room. There are holes in the drywall for reasons I cannot begin to guess.
Sevan touches one of the holes. “Did someone just punch the wall a hundred times? It looks about the size of a fist.”
I don’t answer because I am too stunned to make sense of the why or how of the break-in.
Avet moves the couch back to its original spot, flinching at the cushions that have violent slashes down the center. “Either they were looking for something, or they wanted to send a message.” He frowns at the color of my couch. “Or they wanted to put this awful piece of furniture out of its misery.”
“It’s not a vampire,” Sevan comments. “They don’t stick around in places for long where there isn’t fresh blood. They don’t put forethought into stuff like this—destroying a place just for kicks. This is a human.”
Avet rights the two chairs while Sevan helps me flip the table back the way it should go. Instead of sitting down, Sevan takes my hand and guides me to the chair, sitting me in the seat as if I am a child in need of a guide.
It’s not far from how I feel, actually.
She crouches to get in my eyeline, her hands on my knees. “Sit right here. Avet and I will search the rest of the house.”
Then she does something so sweet, I hold my breath to keep my heart from jerking too violently in my chest. Sevan kisses my forehead, infusing true gentleness into me when I am certain I won’t be able to touch serenity ever again.