“New deadline.” I leaned back on my heels. “Either you’re off this property in fifteen minutes, or I finish what Liam started.”

I expected a lot of things, but a gun wasn’t one of them. I darted to the left, grabbed Makya’s arm, and used his momentum to throw him over my head… and directly into the outdoor fireplace Liam had lit earlier in the evening.

“You might want to stop, drop, and roll there, buddy,” Jase said when a flaming Makya jerked himself back onto the porch.

Toby tossed a throw around Makya’s shoulders and threw him to the ground.

“Fourteen minutes.” My voice sounded cold and firm despite the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Makya threw off the blanket, and I could see burns all down his left arm and across his back where his shirt had been charred off. They looked painful, but not life threatening. With one final declaration that we could all perform sex acts on ourselves, he jumped off the porch and started walking in a ridiculously leisurely fashion towards the road.

Chapter 27

“How are you really doing?” I asked Charlie, flopping down next to him on the two person glider. The adults had all found their way to various beds and inflatable mattresses, leaving the under twenty crowd to hang on the porch.

“I’m fine?” He looked genuinely confused. “Why?”

I grabbed his cane and twirled it like one of those wooden rifle things the marching band chicks have. “No reason.”

Jase, who was once again snuggled up with Talley, reached over and took the cane, which never stopped spinning as it passed from my hand to his. “His left leg and back are jacked up. The back was broken, and the leg is from the gunshot wound. He was supposed to shoot his inner-thigh. He missed.”

I made my hand into the shape of a gun and pointed at my leg. And then I tried a different angle. And then another.

“Okay, I give up. How did you miss?”

Charlie scooted down in the chair and then kicked up with his good leg. The cane went flying. He caught it before it smacked into his head without even looking up.

“Guess I’m just clumsy.”

I laughed, because that was what I was supposed to do, but it didn’t feel right. I hooked my arm with his and laid my head on his shoulder. At one time, sitting like that with Charlie would have sent my heart into spasms of excitement, but now it did the opposite. Being able to touch him, to know he was okay, calmed me. “You know I’m really mad at you, right? What kind of moronic move was that anyway? What were you thinking trying to take on the Alpha Male and three members of The Alpha Pack on your own?”

“I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to let them kill one of my best friends,’ at first; and then I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to let them kill me’; and by the end I was thinking about how the cake is a lie, but I’m pretty sure that was the brain injury taking over.”

“First, the cake is a lie? Thanks for that vote of confidence. And secondly, a brain injury? Seriously?”

Joshua, who was about three-quarters of the way asleep, allowed a single eyelid to slit open. “Did someone say cake?”

“It wasn’t so much a brain injury as a concussion,” said Jase.

“A concussion is a brain injury, genius.”

Jase looked at Talley, who confirmed my facts.

“Well, he’s no longer brain injured, so unwind your knickers.”

Again Joshua’s eye slit open. “Did someone say Snickers?” And then he snored.

“Is it an eating disorder or sleeping disorder?” The guy seemed nice enough, and I was all for an enemy of my enemy being my friend, but Joshua was about three steps to the Russell Brand side of weird.

“It’s a circadian rhythm issue,” Joshua said without opening his eyes. “This staying awake all day is killing me.”

“To be fair, it’s also an incurable sweet tooth issue,” Talley said. “Apparently living forever means you can live off a steady diet of sugar and starch without having to worry about diabetes.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“And you’re somehow snoring and talking at the same time. Go to bed.”

“Talley Matthews, I am old enough to be your grandfather. Do not tell me what to do.”

We all just sat there and watched Talley stare him down.

“Fine,” he finally relented not thirty seconds later.

Not long after Joshua shuffled into the house, everyone else began succumbing to exhaustion. I was tired, too, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go inside. With the influx of people, Michelle redid all the sleeping arrangements, throwing Liam and me in the same room. That was not a situation I wanted to walk into. So, instead I stayed on the porch, watching the stars from a cocoon of blankets.

“Got room in there for me?”

I opened up one side of my blankets. “There’s always room for Talley-O.”

My best friend snuggled in beside me, resting her head on my shoulder. “Go ahead,” I said when I felt the gentle push of her Sight. Since she was touching me, I knew each emotion she felt: surprise, sympathy, and finally, exasperation.

“I did it again.”

“Did what again?” she asked.

“I screwed up with this whole mating thing.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “God, I hate this aspect of Shifter life. Aren’t relationships hard enough without adding in some supernatural life-long binding crap?”

“Talk to me about it.”

“Why? Didn’t you already grab it out of my head?”

She burrowed in closer, the fragrance of her baby shampoo overpowering every other scent. The smell brought back so many memories I felt choked by them all.

“Maybe I need you to explain it to me.”

“Maybe you’re trying some sort of psycho-analytical bull crap.”

A silent chuckle. “Maybe, but tell me about it anyway.”

I sighed. “Rachel says Liam and I are mates, and since I get the same sort of snippets of emotions off of him that I do when you’re projecting to me, I tend to believe her.” Because, let’s face it, that’s what all those phantom emotions were. I wasn’t fooling anyone, myself included, by pretending otherwise.

“And you don’t want to be Liam’s mate?”

A star shot across the sky, and like a little kid, I made a silent wish.