King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

509

Sephie

The hardest part of waiting was feeling like we needed to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. If things got bad in any part of the city, we all felt like we should be there as quickly as possible. It made trying to do anything else next to impossible.

The first day was spent largely sitting around trying to stay “available” just in case. The second day, we finally got tired of doing nothing, so we went about our day as normally as we could. Even though we all felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop, we still managed to have a good time. It was one of the countless things I adored about the guys. I knew we were at least going to have fun doing whatever it was that we were doing.

We ended up on the couches in the back room that afternoon. There was a storm rolling in, with dark clouds above us. We could hear the thunder in the distance. Otherwise, I would’ve dragged them all to the lake with me.

“Okay, so now that we’re all in one spot, I have an experiment,” I said, trying to think of ways to pass the time. Adrik and Ivan were able to still talk to me, no matter where they were. Adrik was able to find me anywhere now. Even I couldn’t do that yet. I think he was making sure that he could find me quickly in the event that we were ever separated again. I loved him a little more for it.

“What kind of experiment and does it involve dissection at any point?” Misha asked.

I chuckled. “No dissection. At least not that I know of,” I said, thinking for a minute. “Look, I’m not going to rule it out now that you mention it.”

The other guys looked at Misha like he was in deep sh*t, which just made him laugh. “Okay, gazelle, what’s your experiment? Save me before they all beat me for giving you ideas,” he said.

I grinned at all of them. “Adrik and Ivan can both still communicate with me and with each other even when we’re not together, but I haven’t been able to do it with you three yet. I want to see if we can make it happen.”

Misha clapped his hands together, like he usually did when there was f*ckery afoot. “This is like an advanced level hide and seek game. I’m completely on board with this,” he said, jumping up from the couch. He ran from the room toward the gym. Once he got farther down the hallway, he yelled, “count to 20! I know the perfect spot!”

We were all too busy laughing at him to bother counting to 20. Ivan said, “I think we should just wait and see how long it takes him to come back. Tell him it didn’t work.”

He’s clearly bored,”

all know he turns up his antics to

think it was through your head that I heard him. He was with you

trying to see if he could hear me the same way he could when we were in the same room. I waited to see if he answered. When I heard nothing from him, I looked at Adrik and Ivan, seeing if either of them could get through to him. There was now a chance that

was still smiling, clearly enjoying being a test subject. “I could hear you, but

thought it didn’t work because I never heard a response from you,” I said.

heard Ivan. I answered all three of you, but I’m guessing that’s where it

way or if you just need to strengthen your connection with your own demon before you

might always stay like it is now. Your dad said the connection between the three of us is always going to remain slightly different. Maybe this is a perk reserved for the three of us,” Ivan said, his hand rubbing his goatee as

to you when we’re not with you, Adrik said to Misha. “Even if you can’t answer yet. We still need to figure out how to get messages to Stephen and

think half the time Stephen already knows what we tell him,”

been telling Sephie

well. “Sometimes I do, sometimes it’s new

how to get around the need to touch you to relay info, though,” I said, chewing on my bottom

my aversion to having anyone in

people when you’re helping fix them, too, so it makes sense it’s the way you get messages. I do find it hilarious that you were so opposed to physical touch when I

warm that it felt like fire at first. I still have a strong dislike of fire most of the time,” Stephen said, making us all

take this into account once Vlad finally makes it out of customs,”

the city to keep an eye on things. Every one of the leaders knew to keep us informed of what was happening when they could, as well. We were most worried about police intervention, as we weren’t sure how much Henry would

started getting reports of small skirmishes between business owners and some of Niko’s

side. Niko lost a couple guys, which will likely only increase the violence. He’ll want retribution,”