Where I Belong

Chapter 11

TASTES LIKE VICTORY

"Bree, the dude just strolled up out of nowhere," I said, filling my friend in on the prior night's events while stuffing the last of a jalapeno popper in my mouth. I'd made a special trip to the grocery store before heading home from the cemetery to load up on spicy goodies. If ever there was a time to indulge, I think a near-death experience qualified.

I was already grabbing another one when she responded, "Do you really think a Zombie would be in on it, though? Why would he be killing his brothers?"

"I dunno," I said, speaking around the breaded gooiness in my mouth.

"Can you just swallow already and save the snack time for when I'm not on the line?" Bree griped. "You're worse than the bitches I live with."

I snorted. "Says the girl who's called me, more than once, while a guy is going down on her."

"Fair point," Bree conceded. "Carry on."

I snickered even as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It was way too early to be awake right now, but Zed insisted we up our training game.

"Who knows why Bucky is after reapers? Maybe my brother found out something he wasn't supposed to. It makes it even more important that we summon him. I need to know what Tracey knew so that we can take care of this asshat for good."

Bree let out a soft exhale. "Addie, he's like head bitch in charge over there, outside the Council. You don't actually believe you're going to be able to find anything on him, do you? Nothing that will stick anyway."

"Oh, trust me, Bree. By the time I'm done with him, Bucky the Fuckface is going to seriously regret ever messing with my family. He may think he knows about the Wells, but he's about to get up close and personal with Addison Wells."

Laughter startled me out of my impromptu moment. And it wasn't just coming from the phone, although Bree's cackles were definitely coming through the speaker. My eyes darted to the left where Zed was walking up the drive. He'd heard every damn thing I'd just said.

"Et tu, Brute?" I asked Bree. I wasn't surprised Zed would laugh in my face, but I'd thought Bree would know me well enough to believe my threat.

"Adds," she laughed. "As soon as you start referring to yourself in the third person, I'm out."

I sighed. "I have to go anyway. The sadist is here."

"Have fun getting sweaty! Oh, and if an opportunity to just bang one out with him presents itself, you should totally take it." The line went dead, and I gaped at my phone before shoving it in the pocket of my hoodie.

Zed was standing just in front of me by that point, and he snatched the uneaten popper out of my hand.

"Hey!"

"You're in training," he said, sending the pepper flying in the air. "No more junk."

"But… but… I was going to eat that, you asshole," I complained.

"What you're supposed to be doing is running," he said, glowering in my direction as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Not eating your feeling while gossiping with the succubus who lives in a house full of other succubi… all who have advanced hearing, by the way. Awesome oversight on both your parts there." Zed grabbed the hem of his shirt and whipped it off, tossing the material on the porch next to me. My jaw dropped open for more than one reason.

"What crawled up your ass today?" I said, getting to my feet and trying, and failing, to not ogle Zed's body.

"Someone just had to go and run their mouth last night, getting me into some serious trouble with the president. All of this after she left her house and did the exact opposite of lying low like I asked her to."

He turned, and that warm brown gaze seemed to see straight into my soul as I ate up every delectable inch of his perfectly sculpted abs. As my eyes wandered up, I noticed that his entire chest was covered in tattoos. Two scythes spanned the width of it, crossing at the handles. Above them, his last name stretched across his pecs. "That a you-thing or a zo.. reaper-thing?" I asked, catching myself and nodding toward his chest.

Zed rolled his eyes but still answered.

"Reaper, and before you ask, yes, Tracey had one. Once a reaper transitions over, they're tattooed to signify the change."

"Weird," I said, twisting my lips. "I am so not getting a tattoo."

"Well luckily for you, if no one knows you exist in the supernatural sense, you won't have to. Why don't you use that as your motivation for staying out of trouble? Because clearly not getting caught by the Council isn't enough."

I blinked, a little taken aback. We joked around a lot. Well, I joked around a lot, and Zed typically took it like a champ. This time, he seemed genuinely pissed. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. "Look, Zed… I'm sorry you got in trouble with Bucky the Fuckface. I'm telling you, though, that guy is shady. He's literally in the woods at the same time I was attacked, and someone called the werewolf off. What more do I need to prove that he's our guy?"

Zed shook his head, starting in on his stretches. "Reapers are sent out to check the traps regularly, Addison. There were probably a half a dozen of them in the woods when you got chased. Which really, just makes it even worse. That means even when we're looking for it we can't seem to catch the damn thing." He dropped into a runner's stretch, and I came to stand beside him, awkwardly moving my arm around like it was doing much of anything.

"Maybe you can't catch it because it's working with one of you," I said. "Ever think of that?"

"Addison, that's…"

"Brilliant," I said, finishing the sentence for him the way I wanted it to end.

"Ridiculous," he deadpanned, giving me a look. "Grims and other supes don't work together. Period."

"You and Bree are," I pointed out. Not really sure if that was the greatest example.

"That's different, and you know it. Bree and I aren't actually working together by choice. We were just thrown together because I was the dumb idiot that happened to find you in the woods that night." A muscle in his jaw ticked, and I pressed my lips together.

"You don't really think that. You know how I know?"

He looked at me. "No. But I'm dying to hear it," he said sarcastically.

"I've been nothing but an asshole to you most of the time we're together. For some reason, though, you've decided not only to put up with me but my best friend too, even though you guys are like mortal enemies. If you really thought they were so awful, you would have just washed your hands of both of us and turned me into the Council. But you haven't."

I looked at him with a shit-eating grin and the intensity that he had staring back made my skin tingle.

"Let's go running," he said, eventually dropping the conversation. I let it go. For now. "If you're going to make stupid decisions and leave the house, the least I can do is try to make sure you're fast enough to run away."

"You know, I don't really need to be faster. If you're there I just need to trip you and keep walking."

He gave me a glare, and I smiled sweetly like the asshole I was because everything was back to normal. Sort of. At least he wasn't being pouty and throwing my food in the bushes. "You owe me a snack, by the way."

Zed rolled his eyes and started jogging in place. "I'll tell you what. You beat me to the top of the hill, I'll buy you a whole case of Takis."

Now that was some motivation. Zed was already off and running by the time I got my legs pumping. It was a struggle not to stare at his ass as it flexed beneath his pants. The material wasn't snug by any means, but it hugged his man curves way better than it had any right to. It wasn't until I stumbled over my own feet that I was able to drag my eyes back up to the horizon.

I was panting hard, hair sticking to my neck and face by the time I caught up with him.

He glanced over at me, his brows lifting. "You're getting faster," he said, not remotely out of breath. "That means we can finally pick up the pace."

"What do you mean 'finally'?" I gasped, my mouth hanging open as Zed jet ahead like some kind of human rocket. My little plan to trip him as a means of escape was looking a hell of a lot less plausible. With as fast as he was moving up the hill, I could be in a car and still may not catch up with him. The guy hadn't been kidding when he said reapers were fast.

I couldn't help but wonder just how much he's been holding back with me. The thought stoked a fire in me. I didn't want to be babied. Even if I did hate every second of this. I wanted to be able to hold my own, which meant, like it or not, I was getting up that hill.

Sucking in air, I pushed my body forward, pumping my arms and lengthening my stride. The houses became a blur as I moved. By the time I reached Zed, he was already at the top, doing a few more stretches to keep his muscles warm while he waited.

Sweat dripping down his torso, one specific drop stealing my attention as it ran down the center of his abs.

The sound of a slow clap kept my eyes from dropping any lower. Even though they really wanted to.

"Good job. It looks like your power is starting to kick in. We should be able to start extending our routes now."

I groaned. Leave it to him to kill any satisfaction I felt at my achievement. "Do you kick puppies in your spare time?" I grumbled. "Or are you satisfied with being a thief of joy?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, bending his leg at the knee and grabbing his foot behind him as he stretched his quad.

"You are a thief of joy. You can't let anyone be happy for longer than two point seven seconds before you snatch it away with some dire comment."

He blinked at me. "I didn't realize that's what I was doing. Here I was thinking I was keeping your ass alive."

I glowered in his direction because he wasn't wrong, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"You know, you'd probably be the hottest guy I've ever met if you just didn't speak. I bet you'd get a lot more chicks that way too."

His gaping face as I walked by was the best part of this morning, and that was really saying something given I had eaten most of a box of jalapeno poppers. I jogged down the hill, using the momentum to keep me running. My legs were Jell-O and wanted to give out. My breath was coming so hard and fast I was partially convinced I'd pass out from too much oxygen, but I wasn't stopping. Not when stopping meant he won. I was going to show his smug face where it was at, even if it killed me a second time.

I passed the graveyard and looped around, the pounding of feet behind me as Zed ate up the pavement started to make me nervous. While soles against concrete and paws against dirt weren't the same, the instinct to run out of a newfound fear still hit me. I used that to push myself harder, making it all the way up the hill without lagging and back down once more. When the Wells gates came into view, relief filled me. My feet slowed to a stop before filling with lead as I dragged myself toward the driveway.

Behind me, Zed sprinted down the hill, at a crazy fast speed I could barely follow.

He was breathing harder when he came to a slow walk next to me.

"How did you do that?" he panted.

"Do what?" I grunted, hobbling down the driveway and mentally cursing my ancestors for putting the house so far back. I needed one of those automated walkways like at the airport to get from one end to the other.

"Run that fast," he said. "You seriously picked up speed toward the end there. I couldn't keep up."

I blinked, wiping the sweat from my eyes as the salt started to make them sting. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about. I was running the same as before." I shrugged.

"No," he shook his head. "You weren't, but that's okay. I'll figure out what caused it. Fortunately for me, we'll have lots of practice time now that I'm upping our training schedule."

He clapped me on the back, and I let out a huff.

"Do I still get those Takis?"

Zed let out a barking laugh. "You didn't beat me up the hill."

"But I beat you back to the house AND I ran the whole time. I think I deserve something! Besides, if you're upping the training schedule I'm going to need the calories to keep this rocking bod." I motioned to myself, and Zed snorted.

"You do realize it doesn't work that way, right?"

"What doesn't work that way?" I asked as we approached the house.

"You don't eat a bag of chips to stay the same weight…" One look at my face and he stopped talking. "You know what, go grab your keys. I'll buy you a bag. One bag," he added. "You're not getting this every time, though. And I expect you to push yourself this hard tomorrow, and every day after. Understand?"

"Whatever, Zed," I said nonchalantly, grinning ear to ear when he couldn't see my face anymore.

"And Addison?"

I paused. "What?"

"If you could avoid doing something stupid that almost blows this before the summoning, that would be great."

"If you bought me more Takis I'd be too busy eating to get into trouble…"

"Go get your keys," he sighed. "Before I change my mind."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Happy almost end of 2020!