He let me go to get the eggs.
I took care of the bacon and commenced in telling him about my dad.
Chapter Four
Bigger than Anything You’ll Know
Delilah
After breakfast, Abel washed the dishes, I dried.
I was putting the last dish away as he was walking to the milk cartons, talking.
“I’ll go upstairs, shower at Jian-Li’s, then go out and get something to—”
He stopped speaking and I turned to him to see his eyes to the door. He moved that way, opening it and standing in it. A couple of seconds later, his brothers, all of them, came through, one of them miraculously carrying my bags.
Hallelujah.
“For a biker babe, your woman does not pack light,” one of the brothers said as he came in and dumped my bags. He had blond-tipped spikes on top of his short, cropped hair, and he was wearing jeans and a tee that said, Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat. He was shorter than Abel (though, it would be difficult not to be, seeing as I reckoned Abel was at least six foot four). He was taller than Chen, but his other brother was taller than him. He was also taller than me. They all were, seeing as I was five-six.
And he was the one who had chopped the dude’s head off last night.
His eyes came to me. “Yo, I’m Xun.”
“Uh, hey, Xun,” I replied.
“I’m Wei.” I heard and my eyes went to the last one I hadn’t met. The one who might have sacrificed his bike to take out two vampires to save his brother.
He had a faux-hawk, which looked awesome on him. He also had on jeans, but his tee indicated he liked the band Korn.
“Hey there, Wei.”
“Hey, Delilah,” Chen called, and I looked to him.
Chen had a spiky ’do too, but his included ragged bangs that cut across his forehead. This morning he was in a skintight, red Under Armour shirt and black track pants.
If I had to choose, I would pick Xun’s shirt as my favorite, though Chen’s was the hottest.
As for the rest, they all had cut cheekbones that they definitely got from their mom. They also had downward-angled jaws that they didn’t get from Jian-Li, so I guessed they came from their dad. Xun and Chen had sharp, straight noses with flaring nostrils, which, if I was ever asked to tell you what a hot-as-shit nose looked like, it would be theirs. Wei’s was more rounded without the flare, but although his brothers’ noses were awesome, his was far from unattractive.
“Hey, Chen,” I called back.
“Right, the lowdown,” Abel stated, and I looked to him. “Xun’s the oldest. He’s also cocky and arrogant. Further, he’s in your face pretty much all the time, and by ‘in your face,’ I mean he’s in everyone’s face.”
I felt my lips curve and looked to Xun, who lifted a hand to his forehead in order to salute me, apparently unoffended by these remarks.
“Wei is number two,” Abel went on. “He’s cocky and arrogant and a daredevil in a way it’s a miracle he’s still alive.”
I got that with the bike maneuver.
I looked to Wei and he gave me a formal bow when I did, one arm out, the other hand to his chest.
My lips curved bigger.
“You know Chen,” Abel continued. “He’s the youngest. He’s the sensitive one. He’s also the comedian. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t cocky and arrogant and a pain in the ass his own way.”
I smiled outright to Chen as he shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“It’s good you’re here,” Abel carried on. “You can drag Delilah’s shit up to Jian-Li’s so she can get cleaned up and changed. I’m gonna go out and see about finishing up the shower and toilet. I go, she stays up there and I want one of you on her at all times.”
“You’re actually gonna make this dump partially livable?” Chen asked.
“I’m gonna put a shower curtain up and a door on the toilet,” Abel answered.
Chen looked at me. “Miracle.”
I smiled at him again.
“It’s gonna kill the mood of the dungeon,” Wei noted.
“It’s gonna make the place more comfortable for Lilah,” Abel returned.
That made me feel nice.
“Finally. Been here a month and the place is still a shithole,” Xun decreed, then looked at me. But when he went on, with what he’d said, I was only half-listening. “He doesn’t even have cable and still has boxes of shit up in one of Ma’s extra bedrooms, including his stereo and CDs. Don’t know a man who can live without music, but it’s impossible for a man to live without TV.”
“A month?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Wei answered, moving further in and doing it in the direction of the fridge. “Usual drill. Ma and Chen came early, set up the restaurant, got shit sorted. Then I came out. Then Xun. Abel finalized things in Daytona and got here about a month ago.”
If I wasn’t freaked out, I would wonder about the “usual drill.”
But I was freaked out.
I was freaked out because a month ago I woke up with a rabid desire to go to Serpentine Bay. A rabid desire that was not about communing with my biker brethren while on holiday in a cool coastal town. It was a rabid desire for something else; I just didn’t know what it was (then).
I’d gone straight to work and asked my boss for vacation the minute I could get it.
Which meant I lived a month needing to be on the road to Serpentine Bay. A month where my mother gave me shit (as per usual), my father gave me understanding (also as per usual), and I practically counted down the minutes until I could get my ass on the road.