Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [101]
“Hooah,” they belted out together, and clinked their bottles again.
Guys were just complete mysteries to me, and I stared blankly back at both of them.
“You know about the Four Swords right?” Jonah asked.
I shook my head.
“Can I give you a lecture about being a total noob?”
“I really wish you wouldn’t. Educate me, but only if you can do it without editorial commentary.”
Jack grinned. “I knew I was going to like you. I knew it.”
“Once upon a time,” Jonah began, “in a kingdom far, far away, lived a Samurai. He believed that he was destined to travel the world and assist those who needed him. As a Samurai, he traveled with four swords at his side, each one representing one of the four elements in the world—air, fire, earth, and water.”
There was a lot of that going around these days.
“The Samurai traveled the world to educate others about swordcraft and eventually landed in Europe.”
“This was the Samurai who trained vampires how to fight with katanas,” I said, spoiling his punch line.
“It was,” Jonah said. “But did you know Scott was the vampire who met the Samurai and introduced the craft to everyone else? And that those same four swords are now hanging in Grey House?”
I looked between Jonah and Jack. “Is that true?”
Jack touched my arm. “That story’s true, but don’t believe him when he starts in on how he saved all the orphans in Kansas City the time Godzilla ravaged it.”
“It was a retirement village and an escaped mountain lion,” Jonah corrected. If he was telling the truth, I figured that was dramatic enough.
Jack waved away the correction and checked his watch. “I have to run. If the world’s ending, I want to be in the arms of a loved one when it happens. Or at least Paul,” he added with a grumble.
“The end of the world would solve the Paul problem,” Jonah offered. “So would breaking up with him.”
Jack made a dubious sound. “He’s already promised to haunt me in hell if it comes down to it. And a breakup would go over just as well.”
“Shut up or nut up, Jack.”
“I will cut you,” Jack said with a smile, pointing a fierce finger in Jonah’s face. But his expression dissolved. “See you tomorrow night, hoss. Quarterlies will be on your desk.”
“Appreciated,” Jonah said.
Jack held out his arms, and then embraced me in a hug. “Lovely to meet you, Merit. Take care of our captain,” he whispered, leaving me with a blush.
“Relationship trouble?” I wondered, hoping Jonah hadn’t heard that comment, as we watched Jack disappear into the crowd.
“Never-ending drama,” Jonah said. “I am, as you might have realized, not a fan of drama. Jack has a much higher tolerance. Paul’s tolerance, unfortunately, is even higher.”
“Jack seems like a stand-up guy, the drama notwithstanding.”
“Jack is loyalty personified,” Jonah said. “I appreciate loyalty.”
“It’s a great character trait.”
“I have a sense you haven’t seen much of it lately.”
The insight was right on—and a little scary for it. “I’m not Sentinel anymore.”
He froze. “What?”
I told him about Frank, about the testing, about everything that had gone down the night before.
“I’m a guard now,” I admitted, then frowned. “Well, I’m acting as one. I haven’t been officially appointed, as far as I’m aware. Either way, I’ll be honest—it feels like a demotion.”
“I could see that.” Then his smile went a little too self-satisfied for my comfort. “As a guard captain, does that make me your superior?”
“It most definitely does not,” I said, pointing a finger into his chest. “I need no additional bosses in my hierarchy, thank you very much.”
“Just checking. Anyway, I’m sorry Cadogan’s going through this crap. If not you, it would have been us or Navarre. The GP’s just . . . well, you know my theory on that.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again, debating what to say and how to get out what I needed to get out. I settled on a segue. “Can we talk about something?”
“Is it about my effervescence?”