33. Daphne Basic Dental Care
thirty-three
Daphne: Basic Dental Care
“You’re leaving?” Finn scoffed as he pulled into our client’s driveway. “Two death dealers show up, and suddenly everything you worked for doesn’t matter anymore?” He licked his lips. “Poof. All gone. Just like that?”
“Did you miss the part about my friend getting shot?” I tilted my head at his indifference with a heated look.
“I’m starting to think that’s routine in your world,” he said, dismissing Blade’s wound with a sneer. He’d clearly investigated the men who dragged me from the clinic two days earlier and had opinions. “You’re just hiding behind that excuse.”
“For what, Finn?”
“I don’t know, Daphne. To cover up for whatever truth those two are feeding you to fuck with your head.” He made a face, the arrogance in his eyes tingling with judgment. “Are you really fucking both of them?”
I blinked as a rush of anger blazed in my lungs, hot and violent.
“Here’s the truth: if I want to go home and care for someone who helped me survive, paid my tuition, and fed me… then I will.”
I stepped out onto the pavement, meeting the cool air in a broken stride.
“Because no, Finn. Getting shot is not normal. And even if it were, I don’t need your approval.”
“Yes, you do.” He slammed the door shut and jerked the medical kit from the backseat. “Because no one else in your life is going to say it to your face.”
“Say what exactly?”
“That this is a goddamn mistake,” he said, stepping close, two inches from my body. “You’re tossing away your future. For what? To rot away with criminals? To waste the spark you fought for because the monsters can’t live without you? I don’t know. Pick a lane, Daph.”
“You’re right,” my voice shook. “You don’t know shit.”
I shoved him with my shoulders, crashing into his chest.
“I know if he loved you the way you say he does, then he would have walked the hell away instead of dragging you back into the shit you just escaped from. They both would have.”
“Really?” The sky broke open. “How do you show your love, Finn? Show up with flowers, fuck her sweetly, become her crutch in the hard moments? That’s not love. That’s Valentine’s Day bullshit.”
“No, Daphne, that is a healthy relationship, which you clearly know nothing about.”
“You weren’t there,” my voice cracked. “Dying in someone’s arms night after night, watching the world choose everyone else but you.
You weren’t there for the gunshots. Or hiding in dumpsters to survive the storms. You’ve never had to shiver under a bridge, with one other heartbeat keeping you alive. ”
A messy tear streaked down my face when I let the wave hit.
“Daph?” Finn took a step back, but it was too late to recover. Where could he possibly run that the sunshine could not find him?
“And you really weren’t there when I had to shove used napkins into my panties because tampons were two dollars too much, or give that one guy a blow job so I could pay the drug dealer fifty bucks for antibiotics for an abscessed tooth.”
Finn swallowed, his beautiful existence cutting down his perfect throat.
“What?” I laughed, throwing my hands in the air.
“You’ve never had to suck a dick for dental care?
That’s lucky for you.” I laughed, letting my life spill in strange splotches.
“But do you know who was there? Not just to wipe the cum from my lips, but to break the bastard who made me do it.” I moved closer, feeling like a shadow. A cat. A fucking Wolfe.
“Thay!” I pointed to my heart. “Wolfe,” I clawed. “Nathem. Jessie. Blade. We’re all there for me. Have you ever loved anyone that much?”
I held his gaze.
“Well, have you?”
Finn didn’t speak.
“No. You haven’t. I didn’t ruin my life, Finn. That already happened. He’s the only thing that makes it better.”
Tears streamed into my throat, my marrow, the place you hope God listens.
“You can’t save him simply by loving him enough, Daphne. And just because you are a good person doesn’t mean that he is,” Finn said, putting both hands on my shoulders and looking me square in the eye.
Finn was whole, and I did not want to break him.
“Tell Sylvie, I am sorry I had to leave,” I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve. “Make sure she is sleeping on her left side, and tell her to quit eating the salty shit or she is going to end up on fetal monitors and Pitocin.”
“Daphne,” Finn caught my arm, and I stopped. “I am always here if you need to get out.”
“Get out? Of Thay?” I smiled, hoping he would hear me clearly. “That is never going to happen, Finn. Not ever.”
Finn’s eyes dulled, but I didn’t care. In hours, they’d brighten again, the weight of me evaporating under the sting of a hot shower. I squeezed his arm and veered into the street.
Buzz.
“Hey?” I answered, pulling away when Kandy shouted at me from the other line.
“I forbid you from leaving Maine,” she ordered in a cold huff, and I could all but picture her standing in the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
I had texted her this morning to let her know that some of the crew would stop by to grab a couple of my things.
“And from moving out to live with your trauma daddy!”
I hung up the phone instantly and buried it deep into my pocket when a series of angry buzzes vibrated against my thigh.
Nope.
Just breathe, Daphne. Just motherfucking breathe.
Thay advised me to stay put for a couple of days so they could address the threats against my life.
I didn’t let my mind venture too far past the idea of Lyla lying cold in a basement in Seattle.
Her death might not have been directly my fault, but the Underworld was such a tangled mess that you never knew for sure.
In fact, they probably kept it that way.
If you did not know who was pulling the strings, you never had to feel sorry.
The benefits of cortisol and survival mode.
My phone chimed again, and with a breathy sigh, I pulled it free.
Shit.
“Hi,” I answered. It was my preceptor in Seattle.
“Hey, Daph,” she said in a hurried stride. “I just got your email. I am so sorry about your friend and all the things happening.”
“Thanks,” I replied, heading toward the cabin.
“Don’t hate me, but I want to ask you a question.”
My chest felt heavy with longing, reaching for someone who was not here.
“Okay,” I mumbled, not giving her an inch. If she was about to steamroll me like the others, I did not want to hear it.
“What would you accomplish by coming home? Because I have been reading the reports from Finn and the other midwives, and they are in love with you, girl. You have unbelievable talent. And if all you will do in Seattle is run triage or watch your friend recover, I want to urge you to reconsider leaving Maine. This is your moment.”
I should not have leaned on Blade’s injury, but somehow helping a friend sounded less crazy than confessing I had married my soulmate and couldn’t live without him. I chewed on my lip, wondering if that made me a liar.
“It is not just Bl…” I paused. “Christopher. It’s my family. Also, my husband needs me, and I need him. Maine just doesn’t fit, Celeste,” I said outright, loving the tingles it gave me. “So, don’t hate me. But I am returning to Seattle.”
“Husband?” her voice cracked. “When did you get married?”
“Yesterday,” I peered at the ring, pushing it to my chest.
“What?” She laughed at me, but it was better than disdain, so I took it. “Shit, girl. I tried!” She laughed again. “Call me when you return, and I will get you back on my schedule.”
“Thank you,” I repeated, but this time I meant it.
“Oh, and congratulations,” she added before hanging up the phone.
A pang hit my chest… and suddenly, I was done with Maine!
The blue skies, boutique food, and the way it roped around my neck.
If things weren’t better in Seattle, then the threat on Lyla was more complicated than a petty hit on Wolfe’s new queen, which meant this wasn’t about me.
And I failed to see how forty-eight hours would improve the situation.
Fuck it, I decided, punching in the number for the airline.
“Portent Air, how may I help you today?”
“Yes, I need to book a return flight to Seattle, Washington.”
“Very nice. And what is the departure date?”
“Today,” I smiled into the coastal haze, wishing for rain. “I would like to leave today.”