Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
bloom
The enforcers woke us up bright and early by knocking on the door loudly. I’d asked them to let us know when we needed to be up.
Even though I hated that Maverick refused to space the fights out, I’d known he would be pissed to miss them.
He rolled over in our bed, still in his wolf form as he nuzzled my neck.
“You’re so cuddly like this,” I said into his soft, warm fur. It was replaced quickly by deliciously smooth skin, and he pulled me into his arms.
“I’m always cuddly.”
It took serious self-control not to groan in pleasure at how amazing his body felt against mine. And even more control to pull away so I could check his wounds and coloring. He’d barely seemed alive last night.
“You’re completely healed,” I said in shock.
“Werewolves heal fast, remember?”
“Yeah, but you were so out of it, and it’s only been like...” I glanced at the clock. He’d gotten home from his last fight around 1 AM. “Four hours.” We’d gone to bed around 2 AM, and it was 6 now.
No wonder I was so exhausted.
I really missed my lattes. Was it too soon to go back to them?
…Probably.
“It’s going to be an energy drink kind of day. I’ll need to nap between rounds,” Maverick said.
“I wish you were talking about sex.”
He cracked a small grin. “So do I.” He lowered his mouth to mine and gave me a slow, soft kiss. I buried my hands in his hair, and he pulled me against him tighter.
He was already hard again, and after last night, I was no longer surprised in the slightest.
“This relationship is extremely abnormal,” I murmured against his lips, as the enforcers knocked on our door again.
“How do you figure that?”
“It got really intense really fast, but not just physically, you know? Like... emotionally. It’s weird. I should be concerned, but for some reason, I’m not.”
“I was just thinking we should bite each other to make it a little more emotionally intense, actually.”
“Really?”
Maverick grinned. “Yup. Thanks for last night, Sugar. No one’s ever done something like that for me.”
“I thought you and Rhone would’ve washed each other’s balls at least a dozen times by now.”
“We’d just throw each other in the shower and call it good.” He kissed me again, a little harder.
Then he rolled me onto my back, and his weight disappeared. He was striding to the door.
“Don’t forget pants,” I called after him, propping myself up on my elbows.
He took a detour to the closet, calling back, “Have fun with Harper. Don’t touch anyone you don’t want me to kill. And if you decide to make cookies today, I get all of them.”
“You’re so needy,” I yelled after him.
“Love you too!” he shouted back.
He was just joking.
...wasn’t he?
He had to be.
Anyway, it was time to switch gears. Maverick wasn’t the focus anymore.
Harper and I were determined to maximize our last few days, so we’d only budgeted in a few hours for sleeping every night until Thursday arrived.
We weren’t talking about what was going to happen that day, now that we’d acknowledged it and made a plan. Because there was no way to know what would happen to me afterward, I wasn’t holding on to any kind of hope for a future, either with Maverick or in Vast City at all.
I hadn’t told Harper, and she hadn’t considered it, but there was a real chance the Guild would try to kill me for keeping her secret.
Neve was going to be furious.
My death wasn’t likely, but it was a possibility. According to the rules, I should’ve turned her in immediately upon discovering what she was.
That was Friday’s problem, though.
Even if my life was at stake, I wanted to make sure the time my best friend had left was everything she wanted it to be. There was no reason to bring up the dark, shitty truth anymore.
We were done hiding from it.
We’d convinced the enforcers that Harper was on a medication that made her space out sometimes, and thankfully, they seemed to buy the lie.
That was one plus of being surrounded by werewolves, I guess.
They knew next to nothing about what it was like to be human.
Growing up surrounded by wolves instead of humans pretty much guaranteed that. They even had their own schools.
My hair was still slightly damp from the bathtub the night before, but I wasn’t going to bother washing it.
We had other shit to do.
There was a list. It was going to be glorious.
So, I pulled on a pair of leggings and a gigantic sweater, spent two minutes answering emails from Carter and Phyllis (they were still butting heads, unfortunately), then headed across the hall and knocked.
Harper had decided to take what she considered a small risk to hook up with Ryker the night before. They got along well, and I supported her completely. If I only had a few days left, I might want to hook up with someone random too.
Or maybe someone not random.
Like Maverick.
He was so busy with the fights that even if this was my last hoorah, we weren’t going to be screwing. I wasn’t going to risk his life for one last hookup. I cared too much about him for that.
There were two new enforcers in the hallway. Emma and Karl had been on duty since the night before, so I figured they’d be swapped out soon.
I exchanged pleasantries with them and checked my phone for updates even though Maverick hadn’t started fighting yet, while I waited for Harper to answer.
She was grinning when she opened the door, so that confirmed my theory.
“How are you feeling?” I checked.
“Pretty great.”
Translation: she felt some bloodlust, but could handle it just fine at the moment.
That was good.
It was only Tuesday morning, so we only needed to figure out a way to keep it under control for two and a half more days. I had a feeling it would be rough by the end, but we’d figure it out. There wasn’t any other option.
Harper invited the enforcers in, and just like Elise and Ryker the day before, they agreed.
We spent the morning making candles, then soap.
Harper gave me a knowing look every time I (obsessively) checked for an update about Maverick. I was sure whoever was messaging me wasn’t being entirely honest about his injuries, but the messages meant he was alive.
That was what mattered.
Around lunch time, we set to work figuring out how to make homemade pasta. Emma basically saved the day when we somehow managed to screw it up.
We made all-natural hair and face masks after that, and painted our nails and toes too.
Harper’s were white.
Mine were light purple.
As far from the colors of death as we could possibly be.
Both of the enforcers went with hot pink, because Harper dared them to.
When Maverick showed up, he told me I could paint his nails before he crashed on the dog bed. I made them match mine, of course.
We were wiped out by the late afternoon, so we turned on a romantic drama movie that everyone was talking about on the internet.
It was somehow both sad and thought-provoking, which was unpleasantly addictive.
One of the enforcers who replaced Emma and Karl provided couple of bundt cakes someone in the pack made. After Maverick sniffed them for poison, we were allowed to eat them.
I didn’t protest the sniffing.
Being poisoned sucked, and my luck was nowhere near good enough to survive it twice.
When the movie was over, we broke out some disgusting energy drinks (since I was still avoiding coffee rather than scaring the hell out of Maverick by drinking it) and used the caffeine to keep ourselves awake while we made homemade ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt, and custard, because we weren’t convinced there was a big difference between them.
We were wrong, and enjoyed being wrong because it meant we had to eat more of everything.
While the ice cream churned, I gave in to the tiny voice in my head that told me I knew what I had to do, and I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t know a good recipe for cherry ones, but something told me Maverick wouldn’t complain.
Wherever the enforcers were getting all of these supplies, I didn’t know, but I was here for it. Every time we asked for something, they just handed it over.
Sometimes it took two hours or so, which made me think they were sending someone to a store, but that was fine.
If Maverick wanted me trapped, he could fund the entertainment.
And if he had cared about the money, I would’ve paid him back. I wasn’t trying to save a few bucks during my best friend’s final days.
When Maverick came back and saw the cookies, he kissed me until Harper threw one at his head.
Then he ate all of them except the small plate we had already devoured with the enforcers.
At that point, we were so exhausted from all the sugar we’d eaten that we turned on a superhero movie we’d never gotten around to watching.
As we watched, my realization that I was absolutely sidekick material solidified, but I had no problem accepting it.
Most of the bad things happened to the heroes, after all.
The way Harper’s energy faded during the day worried me, but I tried not to let it show. When I asked how she was feeling while the enforcers argued about something after the movie ended, she said she was okay.
Translation: the bloodlust was a constant irritation now.
She’d spaced out a few more times during the day, too.
Only one and a half days left, though.
We could make it.
Harper brightened back up when Ryker showed up again that night for another hookup around the time I knew Maverick would be getting back. They’d planned it the night before.
She hugged me tightly before I left, and I squeezed her hard.
“Call or knock if you need anything,” I whispered.
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
She released me, and I went back to our room just as Maverick came shuffling down the hallway with one of his hands braced against the wall for support.
He looked even worse than the day before.
Worry made my stomach clench for him, too.
Was everything going to go to hell at once?
Probably.
It took even more effort than the day before to get him clean. He was too out of it to talk much, but he admitted that the fights were worse today.
When he was finally snoring in bed, curled up against me in his wolf form again, I picked up my phone and called Rhone.
It went to voicemail.
I hesitated... then called again.
“Did he bite you?” Rhone growled into the phone.
“No...”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“He was so wrecked he could hardly talk after the fights today.”
Silence followed for a moment. “Where’s his deepest injury, and how bad is it?”
“There’s one on the back of his leg. It didn’t hit the femoral artery, but it was close. It must’ve been awful when it first happened.”
“Is it still bleeding?”
“No, it’s finally starting to scab.”
“Does he have anything else that large or deep?”
“No. The rest are just superficial, but there are a lot. I counted thirty-six when I was helping him clean up.”
“Are any of them still bleeding?”
“Not anymore, but a bunch of them only stopped recently. The enforcers made it sound like the last few fights were pretty rough.”
“How much did he eat?”
“Everything they brought him, but he only has about six hours to sleep, and he’s significantly worse than he was yesterday.”
“If he’s eating enough and nothing is bleeding anymore, everything will close up before his next fight starts.
Just try to stay calm and trust him. He’s been through worse, and he’s not going to do anything that he thinks will genuinely risk his life now.
Not when he’s found you, and he knows you’re in danger. ”
My throat swelled.
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded, though Rhone couldn’t see it.
I didn’t know what Maverick was going to do when he found out about Harper, but it wasn’t something to worry about now. Now, I needed to get him through the fights, and Harper through her last few days so we could get to the Guild on Thursday.
Since we had the code to the door, getting away from the enforcers was going to be simple. Everything that came after, not so much.
“What if he overestimates what he can handle?” I asked quietly.
“Then he’ll handle more.” Rhone’s trust came from centuries of basically being family.
I didn’t have that.
Just fear.
“Alright,” I said.
Rhone let out a quiet breath. “I’ll have the enforcers move the two early fights tomorrow to Thursday. He should only have fourteen tomorrow and twelve on Thursday, unless someone backed out in the two hours since I talked to Ken. Have you heard anything?”
“When Elise brought the food, she said one of the fighters tomorrow and one Thursday took off after Mav killed the challenger he fought last tonight.”
“That makes it easy. With eight hours of sleep, he’ll be good as new.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Thanks, Rhone.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “Thanks for having his back. He told me today that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”
My face flushed. “I’m really not.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“Have you had any luck finding the murderer or the tech guy?” I asked.
“No. At this point, we’re just waiting for the turned vampire to devolve and watching your coworkers closely.”
My eyes widened. “Oh.”
There was a tone as the call ended, and I looked down at the screen.
Rhone had hung up.
It was so weird how he always did that.
I lowered my head back to the bed and texted Harper.
Me
How are you really feeling?
Harper
Like I should’ve bitten Ryker instead of screwed him
Me
Is he still there?
Harper
No, I kicked him out as soon as we were done
His throat was too tempting
Me
I’m sorry
Harper
It’s not going to be my problem soon
Just have to make it until tomorrow afternoon, which is seeming more unlikely by the moment
Me
I had an idea for getting through it
Harper
***
Me
Alcohol
We’ll tell them we’re trying weird mixed drinks, and sip them all day tomorrow and the day after
It should help with the problem a little
Harper
I guess it’s worth a try
Me
Way to be enthusiastic
Harper
I don’t really want to spend my last day and a half drunk
But I guess it would be better to be tipsy than starving
Me
That’s the spirit
Harper
Thanks for doing this with me
Me
You know there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing
Other than hanging out with you without this problem
Harper
Promise me you’ll at least try to make Maverick see things your way after everything goes down
You love him, and he’s obviously in love with you
Me
I’ll try
No, I wasn’t going to approach the love conversation.
I didn’t know if I’d keep the promise, either. I might get killed, and I might need to make a run for it.
Harper just didn’t need to know that.
Harper:
K
Come in whenever he leaves for his fights. I’ll probably still be sleeping. Sleep might help with the problem
Me:
Love you
Harper:
Love you too
There were a few messages on my family group chat, but I forced myself to ignore them.
They were going to be furious, but there was a chance I might not lose them when all of this came out. I was holding on to that.
I put my phone away and finally curled up completely with Maverick, closing my eyes. I wanted to enjoy the moment, but instead, I was out almost immediately.