Page 22 of Black to Light

Nick bit back what he wanted to say, mostly because he wasn’t in the mood to escalate the argument. He ran his tongue over the sharp end of one fang.

“I have to find Jem.”

“What do you mean, you have tofindhim? You can’t keep track of your live-in boyfriend? Where the fuck would he even be?”

Nick leaned a hand on the counter, and scowled.

He was tempted to outline to Black all the ways in which it was none of his fucking business where Jem was, given it was theirday off,and that if Black didn’t make his tone a little more fucking polite, Nick was going to hang up on him and spend the day playing with his new dog on the beach and buying her a fancy collar and a decent leash and lots of dog toys and treats, and maybe taking her to a vet he knew, and giving her a bath.

In fact, maybe he should bring her to the vet on the way in, ask Francine if she’d mind holding onto her for a few hours after she did a full work-up on the pooch’s health. She might even be persuaded to drop Winter off at the groomer’s next door for a few hours.

It would mean bringing the car in to work, but that wasn’t a big deal.

Anyway, Nick vastly preferred the car with its tinted windows on days he didn’t leave early enough to beat the sun.

“Hello?” Black said. “Did you hang up on me, you fuck?”

Nick considered remaining silent, waiting Black out until the seer either apologized for being a bastard, or exploded in sheer impotent rage. He also considered going full sarcasm and telling him Jem had joined the circus and wouldn’t be back until summer.

In the end, he just growled a little under his breath.

“I don’t sleep,” he reminded Black. “I just got back not that long ago.” He glanced at the dog. “And I actually do have a few things I should take care of before––

“Well, get your assmovingand take care of them, then,” Black cut in, unmoved by Nick’s annoyance, and clearly too impatient to hear his laundry list of to do’s. “Come down here as soon as you can. Don’t wait for your apparently ‘missing’ roommate, either. I’ve got different things for you two, like I said. Really, I don’t even need Jem here. If you do happen to talk to him, tell him to call me. Not come down.Callme. He’ll just be wasting both of our times if he makes a trip down here without talking to me first.”

“Great. Fine. Whatever––”

Black had already hung up on him.

Nick stared at the empty virtual space where Black’s ID had hung, half in disbelief. He terminated the call from his end, andthen, grumbling a few more choice words Black wouldn’t hear, he switched off his headset altogether.

What an unbelievable prick.

How Miri hadn’t murdered him by now was one of life’s unending mysteries.

Nick climbed the stairs to the second floor. He walked through the open door into their bedroom, and aimed his feet for the walk-in closet to change his clothes.

He came to a dead stop before he got halfway there.

He stared at the sprawled, obviously naked, and very familiar body on the bed in front of him, briefly surprised into a bewildered form of paralysis.

He’d already decided Jem wasn’t home.

He’d definitely believed Jem to be somewhereotherthan inside the house.

He’d expected to find their bedroom empty.

After all, if Jem had heard him moving around downstairs, he would’ve come down. He would’ve joined Nick in the kitchen, asked him about his night, probably told him about his own morning while making himself breakfast or a second (or third) cup of coffee.

Jem was a habitually early riser.

He got up before the sun most days, and especially on his days off.

Nick hadn’t been lying when he said he didn’t know where Jem was, but he’d had a list of likely probabilities in his head. Coffee shop. Waffle place on Judah. Running in the park, or on one of the Land’s End trails, or even doing burpees on the beach. Jem could’ve gone to the twenty-four hour gym down the streetthey’d both joined a few weeks after moving in. He also might’ve been out surfing with one of the neighbors, or out at one of the many farmer’s markets around town, or having breakfast with Nick’s sister in the Mission.

They’d discussed possibly going camping this weekend.

They’d discussed planting an apricot tree out back.

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