JOSS

Verity walks back to the house with me, and I fight against striding ahead of her to tell Heath exactly what I think about his actions. Annoyance and jealousy vie for control. I knew Verity would arrive soon; we all did, and I'd already guessed the reaction we'll have, but the guys also agreed not to act on the desire bound to come with meeting her.

Problem: Verity's a part of me in the same way Heath and the other guys are. We're bonded by our creation, the essence inside each of us necessary to hold together five powerful beings and the natural conflict that will arise from the situation. Seriously, without this overarching need to keep each other safe, and to interact and exist in a shared responsibility, I would've walked away by now, duty or no fucking duty.

The four of us also fight like siblings, even though only Heath and Xander are. Still, we're brothers forced to live with each other in our claustrophobic, pressured lives, which often ends in conflict and Xander walking away. His volatile personality doesn't suit any attempt at harmony, but what would anybody expect of War?

We weren't aware Verity existed until three years ago. We've been here ten years, or the current version of the Four have been. Each Horsemen “batch”—because that's how I feel best describes us sometimes—fails, and more filth cross through the portals the Horsemen fail to keep closed. This time, the Fifth is a new addition, something to hold us together. The idea only fully made sense to me when Xander revealed the Fifth was a girl. We'll strive harder to keep her alive. To keep the Truth alive.

The Four are pursued, a lot, and we often find ourselves in situations tricky to escape, but immortality helps with that. Plus, Death on our team can find a permanent solution to those hell-bent on eradicating the Four.

Some supernatural races cooperate with us, especially the fae who don't have anywhere to return to and need to remain here if their population is to survive. Well, they could return to the frozen wasteland their realm became, but they refuse to speak about why they won’t, or what happened to force the population to leave.

If anything, the fae's interests lie in helping us keep the portals closed and the human world alive. They've no desire to mix themselves with the demons either. If the demons and Lucifer achieve their desire to eradicate God's creations and take the world for themselves, there's no knowing how they'll treat the fae. We allow the fae to remain untouched, if they keep their population under control, their peoples’ numbers and actions.

The Four of us are no longer sure that control's happening. Fae locating and attempting to take Verity before we found and approached her doesn't bode well for our shaky alliance. Especially considering Heath killed the fae guy.

Was he rogue? Or a true example of the fae attitude to our relationship now the demons’ tendrils spread further through every society?

I blow air into my cheeks as I walk back into the building. The whole time she's spent inside the house, Verity's face has been pale and eyes filled with trepidation. Now there's colour to her cheeks, put there by Heath. Irritation surges again. As the first to see her weeks ago, Heath warned us that Xander was right and the effect on us won't be easy to keep a handle on. I thought Heath meant when we were close to her, but not a head-splitting need to touch her from standing in the same bloody room.

Is Vee aware what happened between her and Heath outside is more than kissing the cute guy she met at work? If that was an attempt to tell herself she's capable of normality, she's turned in the wrong direction.

Girls we meet on our rare nights off “work” attempt to get up close and personal with Heath within a few hours; that's nothing new, but he shouldn't have been so accommodating to Vee.

The issue here I don't want to admit, even though the voice nags, is I wish I'd been in his place. Seeing them stabbed anger into my mind and disappointment into my stomach, unwarranted and a huge surprise.

The douche just made things awkward for all of us.

Verity meets my eyes, the way she has many times since we met, but this time she looks away and focuses on her hands instead. Disappointment she's breaking the building understanding that we're attracted to each other, and this could mean more, pushes in and I glare at Heath instead.

At least he isn't standing next to her, Verity's big protector who rescues her from demons. Yeah, well, when we've taught Vee how powerful she is, she won't need his bullshit knight-in-shining-armour act.

Heath notices my look and inclines his head to Ewan, with a small shake. I'm half-tempted to tell Ewan what Heath did, but if Vee sees us in full-blown conflict mode, she'll definitely run for the hills.

Still shirtless, Ewan's laptop-free for once and scouting the kitchen for food. Ewan's denied Vee had any major effect on him, but come on, the guy must know walking around seminaked in front of a girl fated to be attracted to him sends her signals.

But I guess Ewan's a slob and has sworn off spending time alone with her; maybe I'm overthinking this, and one of us at least has his head screwed on around Vee.

Vee sits at the table again, arms crossed in the defensive way she has most of the time she's around us. She runs her tongue along her lips, stirring my desire to do the same, and I look away.

"Four Horsemen?" she asks in a low voice. "Is this why a fae invaded my home last night?"

"Yes."

"And I've always had this"—she makes inverted commas with her fingers—"uniqueness."

"Yes. We've only recently discovered you exist, and we’ve spent the last few months looking for and choosing the right time to approach you," says Heath.

Vee nods, as if the words have added believability coming from his mouth out of the three of us.

"We were hoping to gradually get to know you rather than this mindfuck as you call it," I put in. "Sorry."

She narrows her eyes at Heath. "Is this why I didn't hurt you with my car?"

"Yeah, you can't kill Death." One corner of his mouth lifts up in a smile. "Or any of us. No human can."

"But I can be killed? Nice. I'm in your gang and not equal."

"No, you can't be killed," replies Ewan.

Her mouth parts in surprise. "What? Because I'm Truth. Ha. People kill the truth all the time."

"Not really," says Heath with a smile. "The Truth always survives. We all do, none of us can be beaten."

"At least you're not Famine," I put in. "I spend half my life accidentally soaking up and experiencing the emotions of others, which can leave them hungering for basic human needs. Food. Warmth. Comfort. Love." Vee's troubled look pushes me to explain myself, which I hate. "Not deliberately. I have control and can save my talent for those who deserve to be starved of those things."

"He's a good cook though," pipes up Heath.

"Screw you."

"And what do you do?" she asks Heath.

"I'm usually out helping my brother, but sometimes he works without me," he says evasively.

"Or sometimes they hang around here fighting," Ewan replies.

"Seems you all like to do that," Vee says. "Are you all related?”

"No but we may as well be," mutters Ewan.

I zone out and leave the talking to Heath and Ewan, although most talking comes from Heath. Don't they understand that all the time spent talking to Vee equals time lost to track down who's behind the attack on her? Ewan may've warded the property, but Vee has a job and life, which I doubt she'll give up readily to fight alongside us. Whether she'll have the choice or not remains to be seen, but Vee definitely won't be able to continue her human existence indefinitely.

* * *

I catch up with Heath as he sorts through his weapons in the lounge room, removing each knife from its sheath and inspecting the blade. When he hears my footsteps, Heath slams the long black case closed and spins around.

He purses his lips at me. "Oh. Thought you might be Verity. She isn't a fan of weapons."

"She prefers to be called Vee."

Heath shoves thick dark hair from his brow and studies me. "Don't walk in here and start lecturing me."

"Start? What the hell was that? You and her?"

His eyes widen, and he walks to the door, closing it quietly. "It wasn't supposed to happen."

"Damn straight, Heath."

"I thought Vee was leaving, looked bloody terrified, Joss." He scrunches his face as he pauses. "And she cried, for fucks sake. I held her hands, tried to let Vee know we were here for her and wouldn't hurt her and..."

"And what?"

"Fucking boom." He makes exploding motions with his fingers. "Her energy slammed into my chest. I could hardly breathe for a moment, and then suddenly I was kissing her and she was kissing me, and it was so bloody intense."

"Which is exactly why we were told to keep hands off her! No. Touching. The. Fifth."

"Yeah, well I'd touched Vee a few times helping out in the last day or so and nothing happened. I thought Xander had exaggerated and we'd be okay."

I dig hands into my pockets. "You know this isn't because she wants you, right? Could be any of us. All of us."

Heath shrugs. "Yeah, whatever. I think we sparked before she knew who I was."

"No, listen. It's unfair. She feels what you do, but for all of us, if we touch. The four of us guys? Yeah, we can notice each other's power and unite to strengthen that, but she has the guy-girl thing to deal with on top of the bond."

"You heard from Xander?" he asks.

I narrow my eyes at his subject change. "No. I've only spoken to his voicemail."

"There's something bloody strange going on." Heath turns back and reopens the black case, then runs a finger along above the knives before selecting the same one he took yesterday. Short, carved-ivory handle. Iron blade. "You know what I think?"

I shake my head at him as he turns. "Someone's trying to distract us."

"Obviously, otherwise they wouldn't have got to Vee before us."

"No, trying to distract us from investigating Mr Big's latest venture."

Mr Big, our unoriginal nickname for the head honcho demon, Lucifer's guy on the ground. AKA Evil bastard. His web extends around the world, wrapped around people and organisations I'm sure we only know the half of it. Every time we track him down, he's moved on, leaving footprints in trails of blood behind. Sometimes literally.

"Big's attempting to hook up with the Nightwalkers again."

"Huh? Nobody can negotiate with that vamp clan. They don't have the brains to join in scheming."

Heath pulls a derisive face. "Did you think perhaps that's the reason he chose them? They're brutal. Handy allies who're easily influenced."

"Man, this is all getting too hard."

Heath gestures at the door with his knife. "We have the Fifth now. We're stronger."

In some ways, but what about divisions the Fifth causes already?

Ten minutes later, I watch through the kitchen window as Vee walks to Heath's SUV with him. Heath's distance from her is a lot bloody better than the last time I saw them together.

I just hope he listened.