Page 84 of Peacemaker

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Darkness in Everything

“I think you all broke me,” I murmured, too lazy, sore, and replete to breathe, almost.

“We’re going to need a bigger bed,” Shane said.

“I feel bad about Leo,” I said. “Do you think…”

Angus’s eyes glittered as he stared down at me, not smiling, not frowning, but finally, his stare softened. “Sweetheart.” He drew me closer and kissed my forehead. “He may never be yours the way we are yours.”

I nodded. “It doesn’t feel the same as it did with all of you. But Angus…”

“There’s something there,” he murmured.

“Yes.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“Miriam told me once that eventually, my men would want me to choose,” I said, out of the blue. “That you would expect me to choose only one of you.”

“Would you?” Clayton asked, dragging himself to his knees.

“No,” I said immediately. “No, I would not.”

Shane leaned over to plant a quick kiss on my lips, then groaned as he climbed to his feet. “Miriam was wrong, baby hunter.”

“I do not think Himself wanted this to happen,” Amias said. “Not before the battle.”

“Yeah,” Angus said, his voice gruff. “Men should go into battle full of lust and energy, not exhausted from a hot woman.” He grinned. “Although I can’t really complain.”

“I’ll build a bed for Trinity’s room,” Clayton said. “When things settle down.”

“You all are just full of surprises.” I sat up, searching for my phone. No one had called, and that made me suspicious. Maybe my battery was dead. “Where is my phone?”

“I tossed it outside when I got the oil from the pantry,” Amias said. He smiled at me, and his smile widened when my cheeks began to burn.

I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, looking at no one. “Somebody hand me my clothes. I need to get cleaned up.”

“You don’t need clothes for that,” Shane said. He leaned against the big table, his jeans riding low on his hips, shirtless and barefoot. And maybe he was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

Clayton handed me the shirt Angus had been wearing before we all found ourselves naked on the floor. “Yours got destroyed.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, and pulled the shirt on as fast as I could move.

My entire body ached. I was sore in places no one should ever be sore, but even as I moaned about it, it made me smile. It was a good sore.

When I got out of the shower, my cell phone was lying in the middle of my bed. I called Crawford.

“I’m coming in,” I told him, when he answered. “We need to talk.”

“I’ll be here.”

I’d tell him everything, and he would help get his people ready. Shelters, barricades, windowless rooms—whatever they could do would be better than sitting in their houses waiting for rifters to come eat them.

One more night.

I took a few minutes to drop a small pinch of the hie potion into a pouch, then dropped the pouch’s braided cords over my head. Who knew when more demons might decide to make an appearance?