Chapter Seventeen

                                    

                                          
There wasn't any spare time left over for anyone to do anything, anymore. For Kendra, every waking moment was spent training with her M24 rifle with all the fancy scopes on it, prowling the streets for demons with Noah, or poring over the Enochian Manuscripts with the rest of the boys. Or just being around Noah in general. 
Since their run in with the fiend, and the horrible dreams she kept to herself, she had become clingy to Noah, refusing to leave his side for more than a few minutes at a time. She couldn't blame herself; the dream of losing him had scared the shit out of her. 
No one - not even Noah himself - had seemed to mind though, and it was easy for the guys to just... accept her in. Noah even cleared out a part of his closet to store some things, since she shifted to staying at the house, either falling asleep on their couch, or in Noah's bed. 
A few days after Kendra was burned, her hand healed within a day thanks to Nicholas, Jolly had texted her and Noah both that they should be safe if they touched the book. After their shift, on a Thursday morning, they brought breakfast to the house, where every flat surface turned into a desk for everyone to reference and cross reference notes to, and they spent a few hours flipping through the book. By Saturday morning, Kendra was back to being exhausted, the Enochian symbols no longer making any semblance of sense in her mind, worse than it had since Jolly had brought the book home. But at least there hadn't been more demon encounters for them. For now.
By Sunday morning, she was a zombie, and even though she was excited for another day off, she was practically sleeping standing in the elevator up to their floor, leaning her head, and her weight, into Noah, who wasn't faring any better than she was. They both slipped into his room, letting the door firmly close, and through the portal they went, stumbling into a stupidly bright summer day, the sun bashing their tired eyes.
"Good morning, sunshines!" Nicholas said, flicking pancakes at the stove. The tired couple groaned in greeting, Kendra sitting heavily on a stool and laid her head down on the countertop, Noah flopping onto the couch. "Jolly is flying reconnaissance over the club, and Nick should be here soon, so I am making breakfast. There's bacon and hashbrowns in the oven, cold brew in the fridge for you, Kendra, and the pancakes are coming along nicely. Fresh fruit in the fridge, bananas of course for me, kombucha for Jolly and Noah, and lox and bagels for Nick."
Kendra pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped a message to Noah.
KENDRA: What the fuck.
NOAH ♥️: I know, annoying isn't it? Probably because he gets more than four hours of peaceful sleep a night. Or he's on something.
Kendra let her phone fall to the countertop in front of her face... and then an idea popped in her head. She lifted her head and let her chin rest on her hands, her elbows planted firmly on the bare countertop. All the papers had been scooted into a messy stack. She stared at the back of Nicholas's head, and then let a thought drift out to him.
Psst, Nicholas, hey, it's Kendra... can you hear me?
She watched as Nicholas perked up, but didn't turn his head towards her.
You don't need to try that hard, he said, pouring pancake batter into the skillet after pulling off finished ones.
Okay, first off, this is so fucking cool. Secondly, you need to train me on how to block people out of my mind because who knows who else has this power, and-
Smart girl, Nicholas purred, interrupting her.
-and thirdly, Kendra continued, I need to ask a favor of you.
This had Nicholas turning his head towards her, examining her from the side of his eyes.
Back in the day it was frowned upon to ask witches for help, he said, nudging the pancakes, But what do you need?