Page 40 of Origins
“Go to sleep.” Julian touched my face, brushing his finger against my cheek in a slight caress. “You need to rest. We’ll figure out everything else in a bit.”
He was making no sense, but I was too exhausted to argue. I hadn’t really slept well the night before. Sleep sounded like such a wonderful thing.
“Bianca,” Damen’s voice broke through my dreams, and a large hand brushed against my forehead. It was comforting—and really annoying at the same time.
There was nothing that I hated more than being woken up.
“Go away,” I mumbled, desperate to hang on to that last visage of slumber. I had been having such a good dream. There were a lot of hot guys, I wasn’t awkward, and I had been really thirsty…
“Bianca,” it was Julian now. He sounded nearby, and touched my shoulder. “You need to wake up now—Damen is here.”
“No.” Sure, I had said that I would do anything for them. But this—this was crossing the line. “Tired.”
Their presence remained near me, hovering, and it would just not do. How would I be able to relax enough to sleep with attractive men looming about? What if I snored—or, worse yet,drooled?
I huffed, blindly grabbing at something that felt like a blanket. With my line of defense secured, I would just turn over and continue in my dreams. No one would bother me now—not with my face pressed against the cushions. My fortress was impenetrable.
Only I wasn’t in bed, and I had been hurt. Both facts became obvious almost immediately.
I screamed and landed face-first on the floor. I had also smacked Damen with my injured arm while falling, so said arm now throbbed in pain.
“Shit,” Damen’s voice sounded muffled.
I painfully forced myself on my hands and knees in time to see him tilt his head back—his hand to his bleeding nose.
Realization sunk in—I was two for two now. If I harmed Julian and Miles now, then I would have gotten them all.
“Are you alright?” Julian knelt in front of me as he helped me to my feet and back onto the couch. “I’m sorry that we had to wake you, but we really need to look at your arm—”
“What about my nose?” Damen wheezed.
I stared at him—guilt racing though me. However, his flawless face wasn’t lopsided—so it didn’t seem like I had broken anything. What a relief.
Julian waved him off, unconcerned, as he tucked the blanket around me. I barely noticed that my shirt was basically see-through—the melted ice had spilled on me during my fall. “You’ll be fine,” he said. “Stop being dramatic. You’ve survived worse than that.”
“Damen,” I was turning out to be a surprisingly violent person. I had never hurt anyone before, yet I beat up these handsome men. And, for some reason, they were putting up with it!
At least with Damen it hadn’t been on purpose. “Damen, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay, baby girl. I’m tougher than I look.” He expertly poked at his face—the bleeding had stopped already. But that still didn’t make me feel any better. “We’ll just know not to get in your face next time.”
Next time?
My interest perked. Could he be planning on having many slumber parties? I thought that this ghost hunting experience would be a one-time event. Weren’t we too old for this?
But I couldn’t stop my excitement at the idea. If they were serious about being friends, then maybe we could make this a monthly tradition. I had so many things I wanted to do at parties, but Finn refused to humor me—Twister, Truth and Dare, Seven Minutes in Heaven, nail painting and hair braiding…
Well, we could do almost all of those things. Outside of me, the only person who could have their hair braided would be Titus. And I was afraid to touch his silky-looking locks. I didn’t want to risk ruining them with my lackluster skills.
“That sounds fun, I’m so happy!” I smiled at them, so thrilled that they were contemplating a next time. It was going to be so much fun when we didn’t have death looming over our heads. “I love slumber parties.”
Damen and Julian blinked at me, surprised, before shooting each other curious looks.
Of course, that made me feel self-conscious again. I probably shouldn’t have been so excited. Slumber parties were a normal thing that friends did, and now I made it sound all weird.
I lowered my eyes, frowning. “I mean, it sounds cool. Whatever you want to do.”
“You want to have a slumber party, baby girl?”
