Refuge(65)

Chris’s eyebrows went up. “Jordan? Nice?”

“She has her moments.” Even if she did make me wear this stupid top. “I like her actually. I took her to meet Hugo and Woolf today, and they didn’t go all growly on her so she must be okay.”

“Jordan will make a great warrior one day,” Nikolas commented, and I knew she would be ecstatic to hear such praise from him. “You could learn a lot from her.”

“She is already teaching me a lot.” I wondered what he would say if I told him that Jordan’s education centered on what to wear to attract guys instead of how to use a sword.

I stood and turned to Tristan. “I should get going. I need to call Nate because I forgot to ask him yesterday if he’s still coming for Thanksgiving.”

Tristan chuckled. “I doubt you could keep him away. I’ve already arranged for the plane to pick him up in Portland in two weeks.”

I thought about the small private jet that had flown me to Boise, and I wished I could see Nate’s face when he saw it. I never asked about finances, but the jet was evidence that the Mohiri must have a sizeable fortune at their disposal.

“I can’t wait for you guys to meet each other.”

He walked me to the door. “I’m looking forward to it, too. He sounds like a nice person on the phone.”

I stopped short to stare at him. “You talked to Nate?”

Tristan looked surprised by my reaction. “We speak at least once a week. You didn’t know?”

“No.” Why hadn’t Nate mentioned it to me? “What do you talk about? You don’t even know each other.”

“We are getting to know each other. He wants to make sure you are happy here; he knows how much you miss your friends back home. The last time we spoke he wanted to know if you’d started dating anyone yet. Apparently, the boys back home were not to your liking.”

I cringed inwardly. The absolute last thing I wanted anyone – especially my uncle and my grandfather – discussing was my nonexistent love life. “Excuse me while I go kill my uncle.”

“I will see you tomorrow.” Tristan opened the door, not hiding his amusement. I turned to say good-bye to the others, only to find Nikolas standing a few feet away from us wearing a scowl. What did he have to be annoyed about? I was the one who was embarrassed.

“I’ll walk with you so we can talk about tomorrow’s training,” Nikolas said. He had been cool toward me since he arrived, and I hoped he would get over it by tomorrow. I did not want to train with him like this.

Tristan put up a hand when Nikolas moved toward the door. “Actually, I need to speak with you, Nikolas, if you don’t mind.”

Nikolas looked as if he was going to refuse, but he merely nodded instead. I was pretty sure they were going to continue their discussion about the karks, and I was done with that conversation. Chris was probably right about it being a prank gone astray, and even if it turned out that Celine was behind it, I found it hard to believe she would want to cause me serious harm.

“I will walk my sweet little cousin out,” Chris announced. He came up behind me to tug on my hair and laughed when I smacked his hand away. “Just trying to make up for all the years I missed out on.”

“Before you get any ideas, Dimples, I should remind you my best friends are boys and I know many forms of retaliation. I even picked up a few tricks from Remy.”

He winked as he slipped past me. “I’ve learned to never underestimate a girl with troll friends.”

“I’ll see you later,” I said to Tristan and Nikolas. Then I followed Chris. His apartment was two doors down, and I said good-bye at his door to head back to my own room. Away from Nikolas’s brooding stare, I breathed a little easier. I had expected him to be less intense now that I was finally safe inside a Mohiri stronghold, but if anything, his moods were more mercurial than ever. Didn’t the guy ever loosen up and let go of the whole warrior thing? I thought back to the night we had sat by the fire and talked during the storm. That was probably the most relaxed I had ever seen Nikolas. Why couldn’t he be that way again?

Gah! Two months ago I was running from vampires and rescuing trolls, and now I was reduced to obsessing about some guy’s moods. It figured that I had to find out I was immortal only to start behaving like a normal teenage girl. I was sure there was some great irony in this and someday I’d laugh at it, but I was too annoyed with myself to look for it now. God, do not let me turn into one of those girls.

I was still frowning when I picked up the phone and called Nate, who answered on the second ring.