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The door swung open to the suite, and my every muscle fiber tensed. He paused by the door for a moment and then made his way over to the table along the wall. It took a few seconds of his sitting there before I looked up again and met his gaze, knowing there would be an onslaught of questions.
“Drink?”
“Sure.” It was a brilliant idea. I should’ve poured myself one an hour ago. I hadn’t even realized there was a bar here.
He walked over and handed me the glass, then took a seat on the other side, facing me and sipping his own drink.
“What happened?” I asked, not only to throw the scent off me but because I was genuinely concerned.
He took a long sip, his thoughts seeming to go off and away from here, before he finally said, “Major, the guy who died, was throwing up a sword and demonstrating a parlor trick he’d done a thousand times. He tripped while doing it. His sword was always razor sharp. Took his head right off. It was a freak accident.” He wasn’t looking at me when he added, “I can’t remember how many times he’s done that. Now I’m going to have to tell his mate…” He shook his head and then turned his attention back to me. “We’ll bring his body back in Arkansas so she can see him buried there on pack grounds.”
I nodded. As much as I felt for him, I was hoping that would be the last of the questions for the night, but that was a long shot.
“How did you know?” he asked, disabusing me of that illusion fast enough.
He wasn’t accusing me of anything, but knowledge of that kind was a slippery slope. How I had known might be more damning. What if he thought I’d had a hand in this accident somehow? I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain any of it without freaking him out. Moving here hadn’t exactly been in my plans, but neither had the apocalypse, Charlie becoming a shifter, or anything that had happened in the last several months. I didn’t want to close a door that might end up being my escape hatch.
“I didn’t know that was going to happen. Just that something might, but not to who or what exactly.” I sipped, being careful not to drink too much. I needed to take the edge off but not blur it so much that I lost my wits.
“I’ve met some guides. They never anticipated death.” His movements stilled, and it felt like time stopped as he waited for my reply.
“Jaysa said that all guides are different and she couldn’t know how it would…” The words were out before my brain caught up with what I’d just implied. She’d died before I became guide. It was widely known that I’d been as surprised as everyone else. When had this conversation with Jaysa taken place prior to her death? “Or maybe I heard that somewhere else. I don’t know.”
I could see from the lines on his forehead. He wasn’t buying my attempt to clean that up.
“Jaysa spoke to you about guides before she passed on?” He dipped his head, emphasizing how strange that was. “It seems odd she’d discuss anything about being a guide, since you didn’tknow she’d passed on her gift to you until after she was dead.” He took another sip of his drink, never moving his eyes from me.
“I think she might’ve said it in passing during a conversation we hadbeforeshe died. She’d mentioned guides were all different.”
His nostrils flared slightly, as if he could smell the lie. I was fairly certain he couldn’t do that, but smell the nerves? The tension? Yes, that was possible.Guessthat I was lying? He’d definitely done that.
He got up from the couch. I wasn’t sure if he was going to accept my lie and let it go, or demand an answer. I watched his back as he made his way to the table, putting his glass down.
He turned back to me. “I don’t know what the change is doing to you. If you want to talk about it, you can. If you don’t want to, I understand that too. Your choice.”
He went to the door. “I’m leaving in the morning but I’ll be back in a couple of days. You’ll be fine here. Crackers and Evangeline take care of things while I’m gone, and they know that no matter what happens or who shows up, you aren’t to be touched. I told Magnum to shadow Charlie.”
I nodded. With that, he left.
Chapter Nineteen
“Canwe go have breakfast downstairs? Everyone says Evangeline makes the very best French toast ever, with lots of cinnamon, and there’s tons of syrup.”
“Everyone” must be all his gaming buddies last night.
“Sure,” I said, yawning as I forced my body to get moving. He was getting up earlier and earlier every day. I’d set my alarm for around dawn to make sure he didn’t get up and go wandering around the hotel without me.
The door to Kicks’ suite was closed as I glanced down the hall. I had a feeling he was long gone. I was now in a hotel with a new pack, alone with Charlie.
We made our way down to the dining room. There was a large breakfast buffet laid out along the side wall. People were coming and going, and most nodded and smiled as they saw me. It was hard not to wonder again if the difference in reception was the pack or my status as a guide.
“There’s my partner,” Crackers said, walking over and offering Charlie a fist bump. Charlie returned it, beaming back at him.
Crackers nodded to me, smiling.
“Sorry about your loss last night,” I said, wishing I could remember the guy’s name. I’d been so consumed with my Death issues that everything else had fallen away.
He leaned his head to the side slightly and then said, “Yeah, we’re all going to miss Majors. I can’t tell you how many times I told him to stop with that trick. We’ll have a service for him once we get back home.”
