Chapter 4
JASE
There’s a soft knock on my door, but my nose is confused by what hits. I know that scent and it’s not Danica Young’s.
My temper sparks as I rip the door wide. “What the fuck?”
Bailey’s mouth opens but before she speaks, I do. “Is there something wrong up here, Bailey?” I tap my noggin and add, “I mean… what in the actual fuck is wrong with you?”
She jerks back, but not as if I’ve struck her, which has become the norm the last couple interactions we’ve had. No, she scowls before her face does something I’ve never seen – it hardens.
Instead of clutching her heart like I’ve wounded her, Bailey points at me.
“Fuck you, Jason Creed. Just… fuck you. How did I never realize what an asshole you are? Wow. I had stupid stars in my eyes.”
I’m seething. Why would she follow me like this? I’ve been trying to be gentle with her, but it hasn’t worked. But in addition to ticked off, I’m also shocked at her reaction.
“How about you explain yourself,” I grind out and it’s probably too aggressive.
But she’s just as aggressive when she snaps, “Yep. The nail in the flippin’ coffin. Like I hoped for. Dani has a coven emergency. She wants me to accompany you to Romania.”
Huh?
She keeps talking. “Let’s just get a rideshare back to the airport and get this bullshit done. I’ll see you outside.”
I catch her by the wrist. “What the fuck is this, Bailey?”
Why the hell would Danica send Bailey here? This doesn’t make sense. A witch needs to deliver these artifacts in case the Starling coven tries to intercept. I may have might, but I don’t have magic at my command. And Bailey has neither.
She’s staring at my hand on her wrist with a glare.
“On what planet does having you stand in for a witch during this shit make any sense?”
She yanks her arm away, scowling at me like she wants to throttle me. I’ve known Bailey Blackwood her entire life. I was the fifth person to hold her the day she was born, directly after Grey. And I have never, not once, seen this girl scowl.
“It makes no sense other than that she had an emergency, and I showed up, so she asked me for a favor. I could hardly say no!”
“And why the fuck did you show up?” I grind out.
“Because I’m an idiot, that’s why!” she fires back.
My fingertips go to my temples. “Make this make sense, please.”
“I overheard you might come up against danger on this trip, and it didn’t sound like anyone was all fired up to do something about it, so I rushed here to give you some things that might save your arrogant ass.
You didn’t answer my calls and brushed me off by text because you can’t see past your own mountain-sized ego. ”
She huffs out an exasperated sound before continuing with, “I messaged Dani and she had just gotten to the airport, so she dropped me off here asking me to go with you. She didn’t tell me what her emergency was but said it’s imperative you don’t go to Romania alone, so said it was fortuitous that I got here when I did. Like Fate is intervening or something.”
She rolls her eyes, shoves her hand in her shirt, and yanks something out of her bra, making me startle and avert my eyes.
“Here!”
She jiggles a plastic sandwich bag before slapping it into my palm.
I don’t know what’s in it. All I see is a sheet of paper towel. My eyes move to her face. I’ve never seen her this pissed off. She’s like a stranger to me right now.
“I got my plane ticket switched. I’ll get us a ride. We’ll get this done and then we’ll go home and you can do whatever while I finally do what I need to do.”
She storms off, pulling her phone out as she goes, and she’s gone before I get another word out of my mouth.
I growl out exasperation before I shove the bag she handed me into my pocket, reach into the room and grab my backpack, then head out, dropping the room key on the empty reception desk on my way out.
The front door to this small inn is locked and I don’t see Bailey outside. There’s a sign taped to the door that reads side door please.
I walk out the next entrance, where I see trash cans and shoulder-height gates, cordoning off the trash area. Bailey is just outside the gate, standing with her arms over her chest, face red, her bag by her feet.
“The ride will be here in five minutes,” she mutters, not looking at me.
I guess we’ll sit in the airport for the next five fuckin’ hours.
A black car pulls up to the curb not two minutes later and the driver rolls the front passenger window, greeting, “Buongiorno! Uh…”
“Ride share for Bailey?” she asks. “Aeroporto?”
“Si.”
“That was fast,” she says snatching her bag and reaching for the back passenger door handle, climbs in and scoots over.
I climb in beside her, shut the door and start to say, “Listen–”
But she cuts me off, holding her palm three inches from my face.
“Save it, Jason.”
“Save it?” I fire back with my brows up.
“I don’t need your platitudes or whatever.”
“Kiddo…” I try for gentle.
“No! You listen for a change. I don’t need your words.
I don’t need anything from you. Let’s just get on the damn plane and go to the damn–” Her eyes dart toward the back of the driver’s head.
“…place. And… and then we’ll go back home and that’s that.
I don’t need you giving me crap for coming.
I know how it is; you don’t need to make something clearer when it’s already blindingly clear. I came because I… I…”
A cloying floral scent hits my nose and things suddenly feel amped, but as I take in what’s happening around me, things mysteriously slow down. The driver is watching us in the rearview mirror with a calculated expression.
He’s now wearing a respirator mask. The vehicle is again against the curb instead of moving down the road.
Bailey’s not speaking. She’s slo-mo flopping toward me, eyelashes shaking like she’s trying to fight it.
Fuck! Now all I see are the whites of her eyes.
I catch her as she slumps against me, a complete ragdoll.
What the fuck?
“Buh-” My vision doubles, triples, no… it goes completely blurry and everything melts into darkness at the same time as another strong, but incredible scent also hits me.
Warm apple pie. No, better than that. The apple pie from my dreams. And I know, to a cellular level, to the core of my wolf’s soul… it’s her I’m smelling. As I’m plummeting toward unconsciousness, of course this is when I’d smell my fated mate.