Chapter 11 #2
“No.” I shrugged. “He volunteered. Won’t take no for an answer.”
“And you trust him?”
I did. He was broken and scarred like me, and had some major blind spots, but he would never let anything happen to Kes or the kids.
“He’s smart and difficult to kill, and he knows about the danger Blake poses.”
And I was pretty sure his attachment to Kes was more than memories or obligation.
“Then what are we waiting for?” That was Ryker for you. Why think twice when you could just act and deal with the consequences along the way?
“Timing and a plan,” I admitted. “I’d like to keep our new location as secret as possible for as long as possible.”
At this point, every Idrian bounty hunter on Earth seemed to know where we lived. If I could shake them off for a few weeks, or even a few days? It would give us some breathing room to deal with this new crisis.
I knew who I needed to call next, I just didn’t really want to. Didn’t want to ask for yet another favor, but in the end…
I dialed the number.
“You’re awake.” Faris sounded awfully awake himself for only about eight in the morning.
“I am. But Faris…”
“I’ll be there in two minutes.”
And then he hung up on me.
I sat there, phone still at my ear, mouth hanging open. I knew the man was a landslide in human form, but somehow he kept managing to catch me off guard.
Sure enough, not much more than two minutes later, someone pounded on the door hard enough to shake the entire building.
In those two minutes, I’d managed to drink a glass of water, wash my face, and pull my hair into a neat-ish ponytail, so I could face my boss feeling slightly less than humiliatingly disheveled.
He walked in, took a critical look at me, and grunted. “How is he?”
“Same,” Ryker told him.
“We’ll fix it,” Faris said gruffly, and I had to fight once more to maintain my composure. “Don’t worry. There are a lot of people on your team.”
I swallowed and bobbed my head to show that I understood. For some reason, I was struggling to form words, but Faris didn’t seem to be having the same problem.
“I’ve given notice that I need an experienced herbalist. Most freelancers know it pays to have the Shadow Court owe them a favor, so we should be able to find someone within hours.
And Marilee is back in town. She’ll be available to cover your shifts until you tell me you’re ready to return to work. ”
I’d always wondered if he’d given me a job more out of pity than need. But even if this was proof, I no longer cared.
“Thanks,” I choked out. “I wish I could say that’s all I needed, but…”
“Say it.”
“I may need help getting Kes and the kids moved into one of the apartments up here.”
His green eyes flared with a spark of emerald magic. “Done. Isaacson too?”
Hah. For a gruff and grumpy male, he didn’t miss much.
“Pretty sure the answer is yes. Also, I need to know who ran the fingerprint search on the kidnappers’ van.”
“For the human with the missing kid?”
I nodded. “Monique.”
“Give me her address. I’ll make sure it happens today. Anything else?”
“Start me a tab?” I joked, only mostly kidding.
Faris glared.
“I know,” I said, sobering. “It’s family. But someday, I hope this family thing won’t be so one-sided.”
“It won’t,” he rumbled. “Someday I’ll be too old to threaten people properly. Then maybe it’ll be Logan’s job.”
Logan’s job…
I didn’t know if he’d done it on purpose, or the words had just slipped out, but the way he’d said that…
It painted a picture of us staying here, with this family, until we were all old and gray—of him treating Logan like his own son—and I was hit with a wave of longing so intense that it took my breath away.
But first we had to survive this. Had to make sure all of us made it through to see that future.
I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go see Callum. And then I’m going to go help Kes and the kids pack up. I don’t want anyone to know where they’re going, so we’ll probably move them out one at a time. Try to hide the truth.”
And then, once they were safe, I would focus on the next most urgent task.
Finding Jeremiah.
I had to take a few moments just to breathe and steady my heart before I walked into the bedroom.
Because if Callum was in there somewhere—able to hear me, sense my thoughts, feel my emotions—I wanted to be calm.
Strong. To show him I had everything together, and that I was going to fix this.
He could count on me, the same way I’d been able to rely on him so many times.
But then I saw him lying there—still and gray and helpless—and all my resolve crumbled. I had no false bravado, no blustering confidence. Only fear for his life.
I sat on the bed beside him, lifted his hand, and pressed the back of it to my cheek.
As always when I touched him, I could feel his presence and his emotions through our bond, and had to choke back a cry as I realized they were already dimmer than yesterday. The coils of despair seemed to have drawn tighter, and the light of his power was flickering.
No. I would not focus on that. I would not feed this darkness with my own. Maybe my efforts would be in vain, but I wasn’t going to stop fighting until there was nothing left to fight for.
“This sucks,” I told him bluntly, gripping his hand as if I could somehow tether him to life through physical effort alone.
“We didn’t get much time, did we? Sometimes it seems like the entire universe is coming together to tell us we’d be better off apart.
Sometimes it’s hard to be sure that I’m remembering everything correctly.
That you actually chose me and want to be with me. ”
Tears fell, trailing down my cheeks and across Callum’s hand. I hoped he couldn’t feel them. Hoped he wouldn’t have to bear the weight of my pain in addition to his own.
“But you did,” I went on. “You did choose me, even if I don’t always know why.
You chose me, and I won’t ever let that go.
I can’t. You’re so much more than I ever dared hope for, and I…
well, you know what I am. An aberration.
Someone who fits nowhere. A weed that refuses to die.
And I’ve always thought that was a bad thing.
But maybe… Maybe the best thing I can do right now is keep being that weed.
Keep refusing to die or give up or go away. ”
I felt something then—a stirring from somewhere inside the shadowed corners of his heart.
A flicker of light, heat, emotion. It was gone almost as soon as I sensed it, but it stirred my stubbornness to life and gave it hope.
He was still in there. He heard me. And there were things he needed to know.
“I won’t give up on you, Callum. I promise.
And I won’t give up on us. No matter who stands between us, no matter what anyone says.
Not until you tell me with your own lips that it’s over.
So no matter what happens, no matter how long it takes, no matter what things look like when you wake up…
I’m still here, do you hear me? I’m still here. ”
Some subconscious sense must have alerted me to a third presence, because I turned my head slightly and saw Tairen-li-Corva standing in the doorway. Watching me with an unreadable expression on her stern face.
I had no idea how much she’d heard and suddenly realized that I didn’t care. I hoped she would come to like me. But if she didn’t? That had nothing to do with me.
I’d said what I needed to say, and she deserved time alone with her son, so I lowered his hand to the blanket and squeezed it once before letting go and standing up.
“I’ll leave you two alone.” I started towards the door, assuming she would step aside to allow me to slip out. But she stood firm, blocking my exit.
“Where are you going?”
I couldn’t read her tone. “I have to get my family moved, and I have a missing boy to find.”
“Then you are going to leave him.”
I wanted to snarl at her, but somehow I didn’t. “The fight for his life isn’t just happening in here. It’s out there.” I pointed to the door. “I can’t find his poisoner by sitting at his bedside and crying. I can’t find an antidote by waiting here for him to die.”
I thought she flinched at that, but I wasn’t finished.
“And life doesn’t just stop for moments like these. I have a family to protect. There is a missing boy out there named Jeremiah who has no one but his mother to care that he’s disappeared. So I have to keep going, because those people need me. And because that’s what Callum would want me to do.”
She stared for a few more seconds before nodding slowly. “Then you do understand his heart.”
I was too surprised to answer.
“Go,” she said. “Do what you have to do. We will call you if there is any change.”
It was not quite approval. But it seemed possible that we understood each other, and that was a good place to start.
“Thank you.” I glanced around the living room. Ryker was talking quietly to Kira and Skye, while Angelica hovered nearby, glowering. “Kira, Ryker, and Faris have my number. I’ll be in and out today with getting my family moved, but tell me if…” I couldn’t finish that sentence.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Kira announced grimly. “I’m coming with you. There are plenty of people to look after Callum, and you…” She shot me a look of pure stubbornness. “You shouldn’t be alone today.”
I didn’t ask how she knew, but I could guess. She, too, had been separated from her mate while he lay injured and unconscious. She’d had to keep going, forge alliances and plan an attack when she had no idea whether she would ever hear his voice again.
“Thank you,” I murmured. “I won’t say no.”