Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [227]
I walked back out and closed the door softly behind me, not that it would wake them, but just out of habit. I went to Jason’s room. I’d bunked with him before. I didn’t knock, because I expected everybody to be asleep, and I was right. Jason was curled up tight on the far edge of the bed, his blond hair showing just above the covers. Someone else was curled against his back, and for just a second I thought I’d goofed, and it was a woman, but I knew that spill of auburn hair. Nathaniel was bunking here for the night. Again, not the first time.
They’d left the bathroom light on, with the door opened a crack. I wasn’t sure if it was for my benefit, or so Nathaniel would know where he was if he woke in the middle of the night. The first few times I’d woken in absolute darkness in one of these windowless rooms, it had been claustrophobic. I liked a little light.
I’d cleaned the mud off my face in the car with the baby wipes, and once I got my boots and hose off, I was going to be mud-free. It was nearly a miracle that I hadn’t fallen down, wearing the heels in the mud. I took off the leather jacket and folded it nicely. There was no chair, so I sat flat on the floor and unzipped the boots and stripped off the hose, putting them against a wall, so no one would stumble over them. The skirt was stiff with dried blood. The fact that none of the vamps in the club had said anything about it said either that they couldn’t smell it, or they thought remarking on it would have been too barbaric.
I left the skirt in a pile by itself. I wasn’t even sure dry cleaning could save it.
I took off the white T-shirt and made a third pile for clothes that were actually clean. The bra went in that pile. I put the T-shirt back on and kept the thong underwear, too. I’d have slept better without the thong, but the T-shirt wasn’t enough clothes. I’d never slept nude with Nathaniel, and I had with Jason only once, when I’d passed out that way. I needed jammies. What I wanted more than anything in that moment was to wrap as much of my tired body around Nathaniel’s body as I could, and sleep.
I crawled under the sheets on the far side of the bed and moved until I touched Nathaniel’s bare back. The moment I touched him, he stirred in his sleep. I slid my body along his, until I spooned him from behind, which was how we slept most nights at home. He wasn’t wearing anything. It wasn’t a comment on sexual orientation for Nathaniel and Jason. It was a comment about them both being wereanimals. Wereanimals just didn’t see the point in clothes, not if they could go without them.
I settled in against Nathaniel’s body, and he snuggled himself between my body and Jason. Who never so much as stirred. I put my face against Nathaniel’s hair, and the vanilla scent of it was enough. I was home, and I slept.
49
SOMETHING WOKE ME. I wasn’t sure what. I was just suddenly awake in the dimness of Jason’s bedroom. I was still curled against Nathaniel, and Jason was a dim blond shape on the other side of him. Nothing had changed, so what had woken me?
I lay there, straining to listen. There was nothing to hear. It was just the boys’ quiet breathing, the rustle of a sheet when Jason moved in his sleep. The room was utterly quiet. Had I heard something? Then I did hear something—water. Water running in the bathroom.
I slid my hand under my pillow, and the Browning was there in its holster. If I wasn’t at home with the gun in its bedframe holster, then I kept the gun holstered and snapped, just in case. It’d be a shame if someone’s hand accidentally offed the safety, and another hand hit a trigger, and well, you get the idea. I unsnapped the holster, drew out the gun, and put a hand over Nathaniel’s mouth.
He jerked awake, eyes wide. I motioned with the gun toward the crack of the bathroom door. He nodded and touched