Chapter 82 Leo
CHAPTER 71 – Morning After
I didn't sleep. Hadn't slept in days, but last night was worse than usual. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Kristen against that wall, naked and trembling, biting her lip to stay quiet while my fingers worked inside her.
Don't think about it.
I pulled on a shirt and headed downstairs. I needed coffee. Needed to stop thinking about the way she'd looked at me when I'd left her there, desperate and aching. Needed to stop remembering how good she'd felt wrapped around my fingers, how wet she'd been, how close I'd come to saying fuck it and taking her right there in the hallway.
The smell of eggs hit me as I reached the bottom of the stairs, and I rounded the corner into the kitchen and stopped.
Kevin.
Standing at the stove with a spatula in hand, making breakfast like he lived here. Like he had every right to be in this kitchen, in this house, around Kristen.
My jaw tightened.
"Didn't know you cooked." My voice came out harder than I'd intended, but I didn't care.
Kevin didn't turn around. Just flipped an egg with practiced ease. "Jacob didn't mention it?" There was something in his tone, something that set my teeth on edge. "Not even once?"
I moved to the coffee maker, pouring myself a cup and keeping my back to him. "No."
The silence that followed was thick with tension. The eggs sizzled in the pan. The coffee pot dripped. And something else sat between us, unspoken and heavy.
Kevin made a sound that was almost amused. "Oh. Well." He plated the eggs and I heard the scrape of ceramic. "Heard some murmuring upstairs last night."
My hand froze on my mug. Just for a second, but long enough that I knew he'd noticed.
My voice stayed flat. "Don't know anything about that."
Kevin turned to look at me, and his eyes were sharp. Searching. "No?"
"No."
Our eyes locked. I didn't blink. Didn't look away. Didn't give him a single goddamn thing.
Finally, Kevin shrugged and turned back to the stove. "Must've been the pipes then."
I didn't trust this man. Didn't care that he was family, that he was Kristen's blood. I didn't like how he'd appeared right after everything started escalating. After the breach. After the Scepter arrived. After Kristen started asking dangerous questions about her father.
Too convenient.
"She seems like a good kid," Kevin said, breaking the silence.
My hand tightened on my mug. "She is."
"Jacob would be proud."
I said nothing. Just drank my coffee and burned my tongue. The pain was good. Grounding. Better than thinking about all the ways I was betraying Jacob's memory.
Footsteps on the stairs made us both turn. Patricia came in first, bright smile on her face, completely oblivious to the tension in the room.
"Oh, Kevin! You made breakfast!"
Then she appeared.
Kristen.
Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She wore her Academy uniform, the skirt hitting just above her knees. Her eyes were downcast, focused on the floor.
My entire body went tight.
I couldn't help it. I thought of last night. Her against the wall, wet and trembling under my hands. The way she'd bitten her lip to stay quiet. The sounds she'd tried so hard not to make. The way she'd looked at me when I'd left her there, desperate and denied.
Fuck.
She moved to the table without looking at me. Not once. Kept her eyes carefully averted as she pulled out a chair.
Patricia chattered happily, oblivious. "This is wonderful! Just like old times, having everyone together for breakfast."
Kevin set plates down in front of each of us. Eggs, toast, bacon. I took the seat directly across from Kristen, watching as she finally glanced up.
Our eyes met.
There. Just for a second. Her cheeks flushed pink and she looked away quickly, reaching for her fork.
Good. She remembered. Every second of it. The way I'd touched her. The rules I'd set. The way I'd left her aching.
"Kristen, honey, did you sleep well?" Patricia asked, cutting into her eggs.
Kristen's voice was tight. "Fine."
I hid my smile behind my coffee cup. Liar. I'd bet anything she'd spent half the night awake, frustrated and wanting, fighting the urge to touch herself. Fighting the urge to break my rules.
We ate in relative silence while Patricia talked about her trip. Kevin asked Kristen polite questions about the Academy. I said nothing. Just watched.
The way Kristen cut her eggs with deliberate precision. The way she swallowed. The way she still wouldn't look at me, like she was afraid of what would happen if she did.
I shifted in my chair and slid my foot forward under the table. Found her shin.
She froze, fork halfway to her mouth. Her eyes snapped to mine, wide and startled.
I raised an eyebrow. Something wrong?
My foot slid higher, up her calf, slow and deliberate.
Patricia was still talking about the hotel she'd stayed at, completely unaware. Kristen's breathing changed, became shallow and fast.
My foot reached her knee and pressed. She shifted in her chair, trying to move her leg away, but I followed. Slid my foot between her thighs and pressed against the inside of her knee.
My eyes never left hers.
Open.
Kristen's hand clenched around her fork. Her thighs parted, just slightly, and satisfaction rolled through me.
Good girl.
My foot slid higher, to her inner thigh. Her breath hitched, and I watched her chest rise and fall faster.
"Kristen? Are you alright?" Patricia turned to her, concerned.
"I... yes... I just..." Kristen stammered.
I pressed my foot harder against her inner thigh, right between her legs.
She jolted in her seat. "I have to go to school early."
She stood so fast her chair scraped loudly across the floor. "I have... there's a thing... I need to..."
Kevin stood too, setting down his napkin. "I can take you."
No.
I was on my feet before I could think about it. "I'll take her."
Kevin's eyes flicked to me, then to Kristen, then back to me. Something calculating moved behind his gaze.
"I insist," Kevin said smoothly. "You've done enough already."
There was weight to those words. Meaning layered beneath the surface.
My voice dropped. "She's my responsibility."
"She's family."
The air between us crackled with tension. This wasn't about giving Kristen a ride to school. This was about territory. About control. About who had the right to be close to her.
"I'll go on my own!" Kristen's scream cut through the standoff.
Everyone froze. She was shaking, her hands balled into fists at her sides.
"I'm not in middle school. I don't need to be driven everywhere like a child!"
She grabbed her bag from the counter and stormed toward the door.
"Kristen..." Patricia started, but Kristen cut her off.
"I'm fine."
The door slammed behind her, leaving silence in her wake.
Patricia blinked, looking between Kevin and me, both still standing. "Well. That was unexpected." She gathered up the plates with forced cheerfulness. "I'll just... I'll clean up."
She disappeared into the kitchen, and the moment she was gone, Kevin stepped closer to me.
"Careful, Leo." His voice was quiet but dangerous. "You get too territorial over your friend's daughter, one might think you have..."
"Don't." I cut him off, my voice like a blade.
Kevin's eyebrows rose. "I was going to say 'feelings.'" He paused, letting that sink in. "But from that reaction, maybe it's more than that."
My fists clenched at my sides. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I?" Kevin's smile was cold and knowing.
My jaw worked. I wanted to hit him.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out.
Edward.
Fuck.
I looked at Kevin one more time, then turned and answered, stepping away down the hall.
"What."
"We have a problem." Edward's voice was tense, all business.
I was already moving, out of the dining room and down the hall, away from Kevin's watchful eyes.
"Talk to me."
"There was an attack last night. Downtown, near the veil breach."
Shit. "Casualties?"
"Two dead. Three injured. All human."
My jaw clenched. Humans shouldn't even be able to see what was crossing over from the other realm. If they could see it, that meant the veil was weakening faster than we'd thought.
"What did it?"
Static crackled on the line. Then Edward's voice came back, careful. "That's the thing."
I could hear him breathing, could feel his hesitation through the phone.
"Witnesses described something we've never seen before."
"What kind of something?"
"A gargoyle. But not like the ones we've dealt with."
Something cold crawled down my spine. My hand tightened on the phone.
"Different how?"
Edward's voice dropped. "It was silver, Leo."
Silver.
I stopped walking. Stood perfectly still in the middle of the hallway.
"You're sure?"
"Three separate witnesses. All said the same thing. Silver skin. Silver eyes. And it was fast. Stronger than anything we've seen before. Took out two Bloodhounds before we could even coordinate a response."
No. This couldn't be happening.
"What do you know about silver gargoyles?" Edward asked.
The question cut through everything else. I stared down the hallway toward the dining room. Toward where Kevin was. Toward where Kristen had just been.
Silver gargoyles. I'd heard of them once. Jacob had mentioned them, years ago, in the kind of voice that said he hoped we'd never have to deal with them.
"Leo?" Edward pressed. "What do you know about them?"
My voice came out flat. "Nothing good."