Taste of Grief (Just One Bite #3) by Kay Glass

knew there'd
be a full house before all was said and done. In the meantime, she locked
herself in her vehicle, laid her head down on the steering wheel, and sobbed
her heartbreak at the death of Alexar Thompson.

 
Chapter
Fourteen
    Diandra was sobbing into a tissue, Adrian's arms around her,
when Lizbeth got home that night. Adrian glanced up when she came in and fixed
her with a hateful look that startled the Hell out of her. Diandra merely cried
harder. All traces of exhaustion gone, Lizzie rushed to the loveseat and
dropped to her knees in front of Dia. "Baby, what's wrong?" she
asked, desperately searching the room for RaeLynn. Had something happened to
the baby? She felt the blood in her veins turn to ice at the thought.
    Adrian looked up at her before rocking Dia in his strong
arms. "The murder of your friend made the news," he said simply,
causing the color to leave her face.
    "Oh, God, Dia. Baby, I'm sorry. We thought we had a
lock on the media. No one was supposed to know yet," she babbled. She
reached out for Diandra, hurt and surprised when she was rebuffed.
    Diandra struggled to calm herself long enough to speak.
"I had that fucking radio- the scanner thing on. I heard 'officer down' go
across the scanner. I couldn't reach you on your cell phone. Until I saw the
goddamned news I didn't know if you were that officer." Guilt rose to
swallow Lizbeth whole, dragging her under, lower than the grief had dragged
her. She started to speak but Dia wasn't done. "I thought you were dead,
you selfish, inconsiderate bitch. And then I find out from the news that no, it
wasn't my lover, but someone who had been a very dear friend to me for ten
fucking years, Lizbeth. Ten years, and he's gone, and I found out listening to
some chirpy bitch reporter on the six o'clock news." She sank further into
Adrian's arms and sobbed as though her heart had broken. As far as Lizbeth
knew, perhaps it had.
    There was nothing to say to that, and Lizzie didn't even try
to defend herself. She sat down in the overstuffed chair across from them and
waited to see if either of them would speak to her. It became obvious that
neither was willing so she prepared to defend herself.
    The words halted when an ivory cat came streaking into the
room. He, for it was definitely a he, launched himself into her lap, purring
and snuggling against her. She laughed and set him on the floor, the pain in
her heart lightening just a bit as Eamon shifted into human form. He was
clothed- a fact that surprised her greatly as she always expected to see a
naked human after the change- in a pair of jeans and a black tee shirt. The
shirt was snug, emphasizing the solid musculature underneath. The jeans were
snug across his hips and thighs, only slightly looser below the knee where the
hem ended over bare feet. He peered at her out of his intelligent blue eyes,
the pupils slightly elliptical. Right now that bright blue was softened with
sympathy, and the first sob shook her. His ivory hair was getting a bit shaggy,
matching the thick coat of the cat he could shift into.
    "Hey kiddo," he said softly. He perched on the arm
of the chair and wrapped his arms around Lizbeth, instinctively mimicking the
way Adrian held Diandra. "How ya holding up?" he asked softly.
    In the meantime, Dia's tears had dried up as she watched
Eamon with undisguised curiosity. She was startled by the way he had gone to
Lizbeth and not her. "Why'd you go to Lizbeth?" she blurted out
before she could stop herself.
    Eamon turned a look of reprimand on her, and she flinched
back into Adrian's arms. "Because she needed comfort as well- you're so
busy holding onto him and castigating her that you forget her loss." He
rubbed lightly at Lizzie's back, a friendly, comforting gesture. "I
understand your loss, Diandra, but you must understand hers. He'd become a very
close friend as well as a mentor to her. He helped her get her life back, and
now he's lost his. You're not the only one suffering."
    Now the guilt