13. Henley
HENLEY
“In my head, people like the ranger were smarter than average.” They clearly weren’t. “He’s also supposed to be nicer.”
Rude and stupid were not a good combination no matter how attractive he was.
“He drives well, though.” Following him through the backroads hadn’t been hard but it had been boring. “He even took that stoplight carefully so I didn’t get cut off. That’s harder for people than you think.”
Hmm.
I reached over and petted Blade’s head where it poked through the seats. “I’m flexible on a lot of things but not bad driving, so please understand you need to be safe behind the wheel and not a dick.”
I was pretty sure the universe wouldn’t have sent me an asshole for a mate, but sometimes it seemed the universe liked to test people. Blade’s huff made me think I didn’t have anything to worry about, but I wasn’t sure if that was me hearing what I wanted to hear.
“Based on the time frame he gave us, we should be there soon. I want you to remember that we leave anytime we want to, though.” I wasn’t going to be held hostage by evil witches. I’d seen that movie and I wasn’t going to live it in real life. “If they’re evil or nuts, we’re out of there.”
His huff and low questioning whine made me realize something I’d forgotten. “I think I forgot to tell you about that part of my plan.”
Oh well.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m managing a lot here.
” Taking a deep breath, I did my best to project calm and confidence.
“I put some of the marbles in my pocket so we’re good for a distraction if we need to leave.
I’ve also got a bracelet thing in my pocket that looks a bit feminine but once I put it on all magic in about a twenty-foot radius is suppressed for a few minutes. ”
Weird people were amazingly grateful when you weren’t a dick to them…and didn’t argue about possible serial killers.
Blade’s pleased purr said he was glad to hear about my goodies. “It seems completely inert until I actually put it on. I didn’t think about it the other day because it’s been ages since I had to use it and then I wasn’t sure what it would do to you.”
His almost sneezing kind of sound had me shrugging. “Yeah, it didn’t seem right to just randomly start messing around to see what would happen.”
I wasn’t sure how we could end up in a worse situation but I hadn’t been willing to take the chance. At the moment he could respond to me and had figured out how to use the toilet in the trailer, so I wasn’t going to start fucking around with magic.
“Okay, we’re coming back into town. I recognize this turn. It looks terrible from this angle but town gets cute really fast.” Blade was looking around and taking in everything, but I couldn’t tell if he thought that intersection was as bad as I did. “See? Boom. All the sudden it’s cute.”
They needed to work on their first impressions.
“There seems to be a variety of stores but it’s tiny as far as Southern towns go.” Most I’d seen were at least twice this size, but it was cute. “This is the main four-way stop and after about a block in every direction it’s just houses and then it goes out to farms and more industrial stuff.”
I’d clearly missed the magical bits and still couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary as we slowly made our way through the intersection and toward where I knew the nicer houses in town were.
At some point I hoped Blade would tell me stories about growing up around there, but I wasn’t sure he was in the right headspace for that.
He was still staring out the windows but it felt like sadness or something like dread was creeping over the truck. “Hey, we’re in this together. Mate, remember? Ugh. I might have to actually talk about that sooner than I expected.”
That got a laughing sound from him that made me smile. “I’m going to be throwing that word around left and right with these coven idiots. It seems to hold a lot of weight and might help them remember you’re real in there.”
The ranger seemed to forget that every time he opened his mouth. “For a people who run into shifters and Bigfoot and just weird shit on a regular basis, they’re certainly judging based on your cover.”
Blade’s grumbling sound made it clear he didn’t appreciate being ugly. “Looks aren’t everything.”
I really hoped for his sake he was as cute as he seemed to think he was. Most people had a slightly skewed sense of what they actually looked like and I just wasn’t sure how Blade had always seen himself when he had a human-looking body.
Please let him be happy with himself.
“Stop licking me while I’m driving, dork.” As the ranger started to slow, we both sucked in a breath. “I…I think we’re here.”
Duh.
He’d stopped his truck so it was obvious, but I couldn’t help myself.
“What is he doing?” Parking on the side of the road next to a huge white house with columns and an impressive front yard, he climbed out and waved me around the corner. “He needs to give better fucking directions.”
Easing up beside him, I rolled down the passenger side window. “Where should I park?”
Thankfully he seemed to understand it was a reasonable question and didn’t even give Blade his usual wide-eyed jolt. “Drive around the block and you’ll see the rear entrance. If you pull up beside the small garage you should have enough privacy that the neighbors won’t notice you.”
Blade.
The neighbors wouldn’t notice Blade.
“Fine.” I probably should’ve rolled up the window and left it at that, but he’d already proven he couldn’t make good decisions.
Fuck it.
“I just want to very politely remind you that if anything happens to my mate, I will bring holy hell down on this entire county. I might be human but I’ve met the most interesting people who aren’t.
” I also knew some just generally terrible humans who were really good with guns.
“Don’t test me on this because my views of right and wrong are slightly skewed. ”
I knew that.
Blade knew that.
It was probably a good idea that the ranger knew that.
Wide eyes.
That was very good in this situation.
Swallowing hard, he nodded slowly. “We’re not the bad guys. I promise.”
“Let’s hope so.” Giving him a bright smile and a wave, I rolled the window back up and started around the corner.
Blade licked me again.
“Still driving, dork.” His chuffing laugh made me roll my eyes. “Some people don’t learn lessons the first time and the deputy seems stubborn. I wanted to make my point clear so we wouldn’t have any problems.”
He could give decent directions, though, because finding the back of the house was easy. The only issue was the woman waiting for us who was definitely an adult but not adult enough to be in her forties. I was terrible with women’s ages, but I was going to guess she was somewhere in her thirties.
Not that I was going to say that out loud in case I’d gotten it wrong.
Unlike the ranger, it only took me once to learn an important lesson.
“Let’s remember the plan. I won’t threaten them and you won’t attack unless absolutely necessary.
If shit goes wrong, the flashbangs go off and the bracelet goes on.
We run back to the truck.” It was probably entirely too simple of a plan but it was the only thing I had.
“I think the fact that we’re in town will work in our favor.
There will be too many witnesses this early in the day. ”
Blade gave me another lick but I was pretty sure that was to calm me down. “I’m not worried. It’s smart to know your backup plans.”
I just wished we had a Plan C as well.
The only one I could come up with involved my gun and a lot of messy violence and I was hoping it wouldn’t come down to that.
We’d end up on the news and then my family would definitely find me.
Turning off the truck, I did my best to look serious and neutral the same way I would if I were going to see my family. If it worked on one set of dangerous idiots, it might work on another. “We’re polite but we don’t take shit from anyone.”
I could fake it for a while and it generally looked believable. I wasn’t sure Blade liked it, though. He let out another rumbling purr and nodded before nuzzling his face against mine. “Thank you.”
We could do this.
“I’m going to get out first, and provided they don’t attack right away, I’ll keep the door open for you.” We were going to stay together. “We’ll get the tablet out if we need to, but like I said before, I want both hands free for the time being.”
Giving me another nod, he did his own version of a deep breath and then whined out what I thought was the start of the Superman show we’d been watching. “Yes, no matter what, later we’re going to do nothing but relax and watch another episode.”
As long as we weren’t on the run.
From what I could tell, the ranger hadn’t figured out where I was staying so that would work in our favor too. “Let’s do this.”
Blade wanted his body back. We were going to make it work.
Fingers crossed.
Calm.
Confident.
Frown.
Everyone took frowning men more seriously than they did happy ones, so I did my best to channel my father or one of my brothers as I climbed out of the truck.
So far so good.
No spells.
No sudden movements.
“I’m Serena.” The woman who was waiting for us took several steps back toward a tall gate. “I know you have no reason to trust us but we’ve been waiting to help for a very long time.”
“I’m glad.” Keeping my name to myself just in case, I turned to Blade and nodded.
He gracefully climbed into the front seat before jumping down. It took Serena a bit longer before she could see him but she sucked in a breath as soon as I shut the door.
I was ready to let her know how rude that was, but she let out a soft sympathetic sound. “I’m so sorry this was done to you, Sir.”
Well, maybe she did have at least a few more manners than the ranger.
Turning her focus back to me, she smiled. “I’m very glad he found you.”
Me?
Blinking, I reached down to stroke Blade’s head. “Why?”
I wasn’t worried about looking stupid because there was no way I could’ve been prepared for any of this. They were the stupid ones for having fucked this whole thing up so badly.
“We think finding you is the reason he can think so clearly now.” Shrugging, her hands came out in a helpless kind of gesture as she glanced between us both.
“We’re just doing our best to reason through this, but we think the magic involved in finding his mate is fighting back against the original spell. ”
That made sense in a strange kind of way.
“Will it affect how you fix the situation?” Would my being in his life help or hurt Blade? “I’ve never researched anything like this.”
Frowning, she looked between us. “To our knowledge no one has. But we’ve done our best to work out what Betty did and I think if it does anything it will make reversing it easier.”
I hoped so.
“Good.” Still keeping my hand on Blade, I looked down at him. “Ready?”
If he’d changed his mind, we’d leave.
He nodded.
“Alright.” As I turned to Serena, she slowly turned toward the gate and opened it carefully. “Stay with me.”
She pretended not to hear us and smiled as she stood back from the gate. “I’m going to head in first. You’re going to see other members of the coven waiting for us but no one will harm you. We were prepared to have to render Mr. Singletary unconscious but that clearly won’t be necessary.”
“Hey, like that state park.” That was cool. “Oh. What’s his first name? The ranger wasn’t much help and I couldn’t find any missing person reports that matched the right time frame.”
I’d also been a bit worried that asking for Blade’s name would have the ranger asking for mine, and I had no plans on giving it to anyone until I absolutely had to. Even with all our technology, it was harder to track someone when you didn’t have a name to start with.
And since the plates on my truck were spelled to look different every time someone saw them, I wasn’t worried about that helping them.
Serena smiled. “Blaine. We did our best to protect his family’s privacy and spread the rumor that he’d taken a job in California.
Rumors have a way of just taking on a life of their own, so everyone quickly decided there had been a falling out with his family over…
personal issues. It seemed like the best way to handle the situation because we were hoping it wouldn’t take long to find him. ”
Well, that hadn’t worked like they’d expected.
Issues?
Oh, the gay thing?
Well, I guess that made sense back then.
“Our goal was to be able to have it seem like they reconciled after a while and then he’d come home.” Her face tightened as she sighed. “It just took them longer than they thought to figure out how to undo the spell and then they couldn’t find him.”
I could see how all of it had been one big clusterfuck, but the important part was that Blade was still calm and had a name again.
Blaine.
“I’m sure he’s going to have more questions for you, but thank you for some of the history.” I knew I had a thousand questions but it seemed like they could wait. “We’re just going to take this one step at a time.”
Blade…no, Blaine’s low rumbling purr said he agreed with me, but the way he turned his head and gently licked my hand said everything was going to be fine.
I really hoped he was right.