Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Abi
Beckett emerged from the night like a harbinger of doom. He carried a crossbow—which must have been the source of the bolt in Josephine’s back—and his eyes were dark with fury as he looked from me to Josephine.
As I possessed more than a few brain cells that wandered around my brain, I recognized now would be an excellent time to remove myself from the situation. I rolled away from the still moaning Josephine, wincing whenever I scraped my bruised side.
When I rolled into a bush of the lake house’s elaborate landscaping, I scraped myself up and pressed my back against a wall of the house. By that time the fight—if you could even call the one-sided event that—was almost over.
Josephine hobbled to her feet and tried to run. Faster than lightning—faster than the laws of physics—Beckett was in front of her.
“No!” Josephine yanked her beaded necklace off and threw it at him.
Beckett caught it with one hand and crushed the beads in his fist, creating a tiny cloud of acid green smoke. (I didn’t know magic, but I’d hazard a guess that whatever Josephine had tried to throw at him wasn’t good, and Beckett had just destroyed it with his bare hands.)
Beckett silently picked Josephine off the cobblestone by her neck. He held her eye level with himself, but since he was so tall, her shoes couldn’t even touch the ground.
She gurgled, clawed at his hand, and kicked her feet, but her attempts were nothing under the overwhelming pressure of Beckett’s power.
Beckett didn’t even blink when her nails sliced into his skin.
“Be still,” Beckett said, his voice eerie.
Josephine immediately went lax.
Beckett did some kind of fancy move—I’m not sure if he hit the back of her head or up the side of her head. Either way, her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.
He tossed her aside like a rag.
Josephine bounced when she landed, but didn’t change positions, even though her limbs were askew and the way she landed awkwardly poked on the crossbow bolt that was still in her back.
I recognized from my reading that Beckett had issued a command, and Josephine’s immediate and continued compliance meant Beckett had to be very powerful to force her.
Wow. I knew he was powerful when he beat up those bug-monsters that upset the gnomes, but this is a totally different level of power!
Beckett pivoted, turning so his gaze landed on me where I was still pressed against the wall of his lake house.
I pushed my glasses—which had miraculously survived my misadventure—up the bridge of my nose. “So… hello.”
Beckett approached me as I climbed out of the landscaping and joined him on the cobblestone walkway.
“Thank you so much for coming—what? Oh.” I blinked in confusion as Beckett maneuvered my body, gently holding my arms up as he circled me.
It wasn’t until he narrowed his eyes when he saw the cut the underbrush had scored on me that I realized he was looking for injuries.
“I don’t smell any blood besides the cut, but did she hurt you? I brought a first aid kit, since potent fae potions are dangerous for regular humans.” Beckett finally looked me in the face.
His deep red eyes were so warm and gentle I almost burst into tears from both the relief that the event was over and the knowledge that he so clearly cared.
Both Josephine and I had been wrong.
I wasn’t alone. Beckett had come. Despite everything he’d said about searching for the vampire and everything it meant to be here, he’d come.
I sniffed, and my eyes burned with the threat of tears.
“Abi?” Beckett said, his voice laced with panic. “What’s wrong? Did I miss an injury? Is there something severe?”
I attempted to laugh, but it came out sounding like a frog croak. “No, no. I’m just so glad you came for me. I’m so thankful you handled Josephine despite everything.”
“Of course.” Beckett nudged me towards the house’s front stoop. “I nearly lost my mind when Daphne called me.”
“Ahh, that’s how you found out?”
“Yes.” Beckett helped me sit, then momentarily disappeared into the night, reappearing with a canvas bag.
He spared Josephine a glance—she was still out cold—then knelt down in front of me. He set the canvas bag down and rummaged around it, digging out the first aid kit he’d previously mentioned.
“I made a mistake,” Beckett said as he ripped open a disinfectant wipe.
“What do you mean?” I stretched my leg with the cut out in front of me and held my hand out so he could give me the wipe.
Beckett passed it over. “Use that on your hands.” He ripped open another wipe and carefully dabbed at the cut on my leg.
I clenched my teeth to hold in a hiss—it stung. But I wasn’t going to risk interrupting this important conversation.
“And I mean that I should have helped you look for the vampire from the beginning,” Beckett continued. “At least, I assume it was my reluctance to help look for the vampire that caused you to call Daphne and not me?”
I cleared my throat as I used the wipe to clean the grit and dirt caked on my palms and avoided meeting his gaze.
Beckett sighed and rested his hand on my knee. “I’ll regret tonight for the rest of my immortal life—regret that you believed you couldn’t call me.”
Feeling weirdly guilty, I scrambled for something to say. “Well, yes, but you know it was pretty impulsive and stupid of me for jumping in and talking to Josephine and trying to save Lina like I did.”
Beckett narrowed his eyes, and he tapped his fingers on my knee, which felt both ticklish and intimate. “Now that you say that…”
Oops. I regret pointing out the obvious.
I grimaced and shut my eyes, bracing myself for the inevitable lecture coming my way. (Even worse, I knew I deserved it! When my mom found out about tonight’s escapade, I’d be lucky if she didn’t drive up here herself with my father in tow and tell me I was moving back home.)
“I wish you would take care of yourself more,” Beckett said, his voice low and tender.
My eyes popped open against my will, lured by the rumble of his voice. “Why?”
“Because I care for you,” Beckett said. “The way you’re so willing to sacrifice yourself causes me immense pain.”
“You care for me?” I shyly leaned closer to him.
Beckett mirrored my movements, drawing so close that our foreheads brushed as he picked my left hand up and placed it on his chest. “Of course. I love you.”
Something in me shivered in delight, and I slowly placed my right hand on his chest, too, before leaning in and resting my chin on his shoulder. “I love you too, Beckett.”
I don’t know who kissed who first, all I knew is my lips were molded to his and everything was perfect.
Metaphorically, that is. Between the moths fluttering around the porch lights and mosquitos swarming the air, not to mention the unconscious Josephine sprawled nearby, the time was anything but perfect.
But cradled against Beckett’s chest, knowing I wasn’t alone and that he’d come for me—that in the future he’d be there for me—not to mention the sensation of his mouth against mine and the way his hand glided along the small of my back as he tugged me closer…
I had never imagined a happiness like this existed.
We parted briefly, then kissed again—this kiss, however was much more short lived, with Beckett ending it grudgingly.
“As much as I would love to continue this moment, I am reluctant to do so given that I need to devote at least some of my senses to make certain that ratty vampire stays unconscious. Might I have a rain check for a later date?” Beckett kissed me on the forehead, then stood up.
“Yes.” I took in a gulp of air. “A raincheck sounds fabulous.”
Beckett made a pleased sound and helped me when I shakily got to my feet. He then kissed me on my right temple while I tried to restore brain function and thinking.
I slow blinked while Beckett tucked me against his side.
If I let him keep holding me like this, I’m not going to be productive, much less helpful.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, then glanced at Josephine. “I see she’s still out of it, but will she survive that crossbow bolt?”
“She’ll survive long enough to receive the consequences of her actions,” he brusquely said. “I’m more concerned about you. Is the cut really the only thing that needs disinfection?”
“Yes. I’ll need to go to an emergency room to be checked for a possible concussion tonight, but Josephine never got a chance to feed off me if that’s what you’re asking.”
Beckett narrowed his eyes. “Explain. Please.”
I gave him an abbreviated version, hitting all major events but keeping it as short as possible considering the situation.
By the time I finished, Beckett was staring at Josephine with a hard look that made me suspect he was considering that another crossbow bolt probably wouldn’t bring her that much closer to death.
I need to distract him! Quick!
“So, I have the seagull-possum griffins to thank. Once this is all over I want to bring them a snack they’d enjoy. Would that be okay?”
“If that’s what you want,” Beckett said, slowly.
He looked away from Josephine to nod to me, but judging by the stubborn downturn of the corner of his lips, my attempt at diverting him hadn’t been totally successful.
Thankfully, his cellphone rang, thoroughly distracting him as he dug it out of his pocket. “The call is from your phone.”
“Really? Josephine chucked it before she grabbed me,” I said.
“The Ahnapee River Pack could have found it.” Beckett answered the call and put it on speaker phone. “Hello?”
“It’s Daphne,” my friend’s voice burst over the speaker. “Flint found Abi’s phone.”
“Good. I found Abi,” Beckett said.
“You found her? Is she okay?!”
“Hi Daphne, I’m fine.”
Beckett added, “A few minor injuries. A visit to the human hospital and I think she’ll be fine.”
“Abi! You’re okay—Mom, Flint! Beckett found Abi, and she’s okay!” Daphne’s voice was momentarily muffled—she must have put my phone away from her mouth to call out to her werewolf family.
The muffled voices in the background were probably the Pack responding.