“You should be grateful to me. If it wasn’t for my wake, you wouldn’t have bagged Katie.”
“Good call. Man, I’m stupidly happy. Who would have thought?”
“Not me,” Johnny said in all sincerity.
The whole band gathered around a table in the back of the bar and Johnny ordered them a round of drinks from Jacob, the bartender. He was feeling generous. Katie snuggled up next to Cort, and Stella took a stool next to Wyatt. Drake was messing with his fang implant. Saxon was smearing ChapStick on his lips.
“I can’t believe you guys were hanging with Raven the other night. I was like, seriously?” Johnny said, shaking his head. It had been highly entertaining following his friends throughout their night of drunken ridiculousness.
“What?” Drake stopped messing with his tooth. “What do you mean?”
“I’d have thought he was your long-lost brother the way you were cutting up with him. Cracked me up. He was with you most of the night, at the casino, at the Bourbon Cowboy, the wedding chapel . . .”
Astonished faces met him. “You mean Raven wasn’t trying to kill Saxon?” Wyatt asked.
“No, though Saxon did borrow five hundred bucks from him. He seemed to think he knew how to play blackjack.” Johnny gave Saxon a look. “Word to the wise. Don’t play blackjack. But yeah, you were the five amigos, having a great time. Six, actually, if you count the priest. I was kind of jealous, I’m not going to lie. I think Raven was flattered actually. The guy doesn’t have a lot of friends.”
“How did Benny end up with us?” Stella asked.
“Who the hell is Benny?”
“The priest. The stripper priest.” She waved her hand around. “You know, the guy in the robe.”
Johnny shrugged. “He was just walking down the street and Cort grabbed him and asked him to marry him and Katie.” He turned to Katie. “Beautiful ceremony, by the way. The rings were a nice touch.”
She flushed. “Thanks.”
“Though I can’t believe you gave away my Elvis cookie jar. I loved that thing and it wasn’t cheap.”
“eBay, dude, eBay. Buy yourself another one,” was all the sympathy he got from Cort.
Jacob brought over their drinks, juggling them all with consummate bartender skill. He was distributing beers all around.
“So I guess the only question that’s left is who drugged us? Why did we all black out?” Wyatt asked.
Jacob didn’t miss a beat. “I did.”
“What?” Cort’s foot fell off his stool to the floor and he gaped at Jacob.
“Yeah, you were all so broken up over jackass here dying.” He shot his thumb at Johnny.
“Hey.” Johnny knew he deserved it, but still.
“So I slipped you all a little happy drug. I had no idea you were going to black out. That doesn’t happen to werewolves.” He put the final beer down. “My bad.”
Johnny let out a crack of laughter. Now that was some funny shit.
“Living on a prayer, dude,” Saxon said.
As usual no one seemed to know what the hell Saxon was talking about. So Johnny raised his beer. “To friends.”
“To sex, blood, and rock ’n’ roll,” Drake said.
“Cheers.” Stella raised her beer. “Wait, this isn’t drugged, is it?”
Half of them were already drinking.
Jacob paused. Then he grinned and shook his head. “Nah. I don’t think it is.”
Johnny drank it anyway, not worried about it.
You only lived once. And forever.