411
Sephie
“What’s up, my girl?” Chen asked as he walked into Adrik’s office.
“Chen! My favorite French person!” I said, jumping up to give him a hug. Shar Chen had been helping us out for so long, the guys no longer got overprotective of me hugging him. Not gonna lie, I miss that. “Are you ready to just straight up lie to someone’s face yet again?” I asked, laughing. Chen had discovered that not only did he love being able to lie to someone’s face, but he was actually quite good at it.
“You know me so well. It’s disturbing how much I enjoy this,” he said, chuckling;. “Also, the three amigos say hi. Trino still wants to know if there’s a chance you’ll move to Colombia.”
“One has to admire his tenacity,” I said, rolling my eyes.
All the guys but Ivan got ready to go with Chen to meet the journalist. Ivan was staying behind with us at the building. Adrik and Ivan clearly had a plan, but neither had let me in on it yet, so I was waiting until everyone was gone to see what they’d cooked up.
I caught Andrei before they left. “Have you snooped in the journalist’s head before?” I asked.
He shook his head no, looking at me quizzically. “No, do you think I should?”
“I didn’t before today, no. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I feel like you should snoop today. Just to be sure, if nothing else,” I said.
“If you tell me to snoop, then I’ll snoop. There’s always a reason that something like this comes up for you. Let you know what I find out,” he said, his boyish grin on his face.
“Be careful,” I said, hugging his neck before they left.
1
“Always.”
Once they left, I turned to Adrik and Ivan. “I know there’s a reason we stayed behind. Are you two going to fill me in on that reason? Or are you enjoying keeping me in the dark?”
“We wanted to have a conversation about Viktor and how best to help him. Without the chance of him finding out. We need your brain, princess,” Ivan said as he walked to one of the couches and sat down. I followed him, sitting next to him while Adrik finished up what he was working on at his desk.
I thought for a few minutes. “I’m not sure how to help Viktor. I’m not sure how I helped any of you, if I’m being honest. It just sort of happened.”
“I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit on that one. You were the 5st to call Stephen’s mindf ucking ability, you called my ability to see demons, and you hyped Andrei up enough so he started trusting what he was seeing. The only one you didn’t do much on was Misha. I know you’ve picked up on something with Viktor that hints at what his ability is,” Ivan sald
“We’re all somewhat opposites of each other, with the exception of Misha. You can see and feel when something is off, but I have to touch someone to get the same. Ivan sees evil, Andrei sees good. Now, Stephen can mi ndf uck someone and trap the demon. Viktor’s ability should complement that somehow, if we’re keeping to the same pattern,” Adrik said.
I was chewing on my lip, trying to think of what it could possibly be with Viktor. They were both quiet, waiting for me to make the connection that I wasn’t convinced was there.
“What about the nicknames you have for him? Or inside jokes with him?” Ivan asked.
“I don’t have as many for him as I do for everyone else. I spend the least amount of time with him. He’s always on master of schedule duty,” I said. “I call him Papa Bear because he silently goes around making sure we all have what we need and he’s kind of like the father figure of the group. He’s arguably the most mature of all of us,” I said, cutting my eyes at Ivan, unable to hide my grin.
Adrik, who had been quietly contemplating everything got up and moved to the couch. I leaned over on him, stretching one leg across Ivan’s lap as we
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all struggled to figure out this puzzle.
“So, master of schedule. I think you’ve called him the security master before as well. And he’s like a father figure,” Ivan said, rubbing his goatee.
“He’s also the one that’s most terrified of me, I think. Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult for me to get anything from him. He’s gotten quieter as things have gotten more weird. I used to get little things from him now and then that he needed to talk about, but since you all know I can read your minds, that’s stopped, now that I think about it. Like Stephen, I don’t think he likes the idea of me being in his head,” I said. “Does he have sisters?”
They both chuckled. “No sisters. Brothers. But he gets along well with them, Adrik said.
“Is he the oldest?” I asked.
“He is. He has two younger brothers. Both of them are much like Viktor. Both are still in the military, last I knew,” Adrik said.
“His youngest brother wants out. He’s trying to come here when his service is up in a few months. Viktor told him we could give him a job,” Ivan said.
“I’m not surprised. He’s such a helper,” I said. I grabbed one of Adrik’s hands se my hands could fidget as I thought about Viktor. “Okay, what if Stephen breaks them, but Viktor somehow fixes them? That’s what he’s really good at. Squish, you said you can see demons riding around on people looking for ways in now, right?”
“Yeah, they’re looking for weaknesses is what it looks like. Or trying to make their own weaknesses,” he said.
“That’s what Viktor’s good at. He puts the systems in place to make sure everything runs smoothly and there are no outside threats. Between you and Bubba, you can see where the weaknesses are. Viktor somehow fixes that and it’s one less person Stephen has to break. Because while I think. Stephen’s gift is f u cking incredible, I can’t imagine he’s meant to just break half the world’s population and leave them in a waking coma for the rest of their lives. That would be weird. Stephen is the last resort. Viktor helps make sure Stephen isn’t needed very often,” I said.
As I was talking, Adrik showed me his arm, which was covered in goosebumps. had been looking down at my hands that were still playing with Adrik’s hand, but when I looked up at Ivan, he had a silly grin on his face. He pointed to Adrik. “Show him, too,” he said.
I looked back at Adrik, who smiled at me. “We knew you’d be able to figure it out,” he said, kissing my temple.
“They’re purple?” I asked, still somewhat confused as to what they were talking about. They both nodded.
“Still slightly weird, but much less alarming than the white, not gonna lie,” Ivan said.
“She went from black to purple the other day. That might be my favorite color transition so far. It was incredible,” Adrik said. I could feel the familiar pull in my chest that meant he was thinking about how much he loved me.
“You’re late to the party, Squish. When are you going to figure out you can strike even more fear into the hearts of regular people?” I asked.
He cut his eyes over at me, his sly grin creeping up one side of his mouth. “Since your dad told me it was possible and I saw Boss do it, I may have tried to make it happen when no one was around.”
“Shut up. Did it work?” I asked, completely curious to see if he could make his eyes go dark now too.
He closed his eyes briefly, opening them to reveal his much darker eyes. His eyes were normally golden brown, but they were much darker when he looked at me and Adrik.
“Squish, you’re barely angry right now, too. That’s impressive,” I said. “Did you have to get to insane levels the first time it happened?”
“I did. I kept trying to make it happen without going nuclear, but it just wasn’t happening. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to feel it. I didn’t want you to come running downstairs, so I waited until I knew for sure you were asleep,” he said, grinning at me.
“You did it at the ungodly hour of 4 am, didn’t you?” I asked.
He laughed. “Yep. I know you’re dead to the world then. It worked. I figured it out and you were none the wiser,” he said.
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411
“Well-played.” I looked at both of them. “You’re both going to need contacts now to keep from scaring the entire world. It’s bad enough when people see it on me. You two have an added intimidation factor. People are going to nin from you.”
“I think that’s kind of the point, princess,” Ivan said.