Chapter 29
Dawn broke, pale and unrelenting, creeping through Olivia’s bedroom window to dance across the floor. She lay perfectly still, watching the fiery red and gold blaze across the sky through the open drapes, and her heart lay like lead in her chest.
“You’re doing it again,” Theo mumbled as his arm snaked around her, pulling her in close.
“What?” She rolled over to face him.
“Thinking too loudly.” He smiled with his eyes still closed. “I can hear you thinking all the way over here.”
With her fingertips, she traced the silver moon hanging from his neck, the metal warmed by his bare skin. He caught her hand and rolled her onto her back, leaning over her and taking her lips in a soft kiss.
“Talk to me,” he breathed as they broke the kiss. “I don’t like it when you’re sad.”
“I’m not sad.” She traced his jaw absently. “I just... it’s hard knowing that today I have to face my dad.”
He propped his head up on his hand and watched her intently. “You don’t have to do it alone, though.”
“I know.” She blew out the breath she’d unconsciously been holding. “It just hurts to look at him, knowing what he has taken from me and wondering–”
“Wondering what?”
“If he ever really loved me at all, or if it was all just another lie,” she admitted quietly.
“I can’t answer that for you, love.” He tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Don’t call me that.” She pulled away irritably.
He pinned her down gently. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s the truth.
I know I’ve not been here for long and you need time, but.
..” He shook his head. “It feels like I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.
Right now, you’re hurting, and you’re scared, but it doesn’t change the fact that I love you, and I’m going to keep telling you until you believe it. ”
A hot, uncomfortable ball of emotion burned in the back of her throat as she blinked back the tears. “I don’t want to love you,” she whispered.
“Then just let me love you,” he murmured against her lips before he took her under.
She knew he loved her, she could feel it in every soft, teasing glide of his fingers, in every stroke of his tongue, and every brush of his lips.
She couldn’t say the words he deserved to hear, and she hated herself for it.
He slipped between her legs, and as it did every time he touched her, every thought drained from her mind except him.
There was nothing else. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him in as close as she could, and when she felt him slide inside her, she arched as her thoughts scattered.
Theo hung on, clutching onto what little sanity remained when he felt her surround him.
She was truly everything. As they moved together, he absorbed every movement, every sound she made.
It was all his, even if she didn’t know it.
He knew she couldn’t say the words, knew that her fear was holding a part of herself back from him and he ached for her, ached to hear the words tumble breathlessly from her lips while he was deep inside her, but he knew she wasn’t ready.
She may not have been able to tell him she loved him, but he knew it.
She showed him in a thousand little ways she wasn’t even aware of.
What she couldn’t tell him with her voice, she showed him with her body.
He could wait for the words. After all, he’d waited three hundred years for her. He could wait a little while longer.
* * *
Mac hung up the phone and frowned. He had the uncomfortable feeling that something was going on.
After her statement the day after she had been released from the hospital, Olivia West had been dodging his calls.
He’d even driven out to the lake house to see her, but she’d told him she was busy working.
He wasn’t stupid and knew how to read people, and she was definitely trying to keep something from him.
Now Jake had mysteriously called in sick.
Jake was never sick. Mac had gone over his file, as he had with all the staff files when he’d temporarily taken over the department, and Jake had never been sick a day in his life.
Now he suddenly had the flu and was not answering his phone.
Neither was his sister, Louisa, or his girlfriend, the one he insisted wasn’t his girlfriend, who just happened to be Olivia’s lawyer, Erica Kelly.
All of a sudden it was like total radio silence and all his hackles were up and tingling.
They knew something and were purposely keeping him in the dark.
In the week since he’d fled, there had been no sign of Thomas Walcott.
The guy was completely off the grid. Mac had no idea how he was surviving with no money and no supplies, but he had definitely not resurfaced.
Mac was almost expecting to find his body in the woods somewhere, dead from hypothermia or exposure.
The temperature had plummeted, and winter had firmly set in.
There was no way someone could survive in the woods under those conditions without specialist equipment unless, Mac mused, he’d fled Mercy completely.
He’d put out an alert to all the surrounding law enforcement agencies, but nothing.
All he could do now was wait for him to turn up, alive or dead.
The only thing he knew for sure was that if Thomas Walcott was still alive, he wouldn’t stray far from Mercy.
He was too obsessed with Olivia West and her father.
Which brought his thoughts back to Olivia once more. What the hell were they up to? His fingers tapped a restless rhythm on the desk as his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
They’d had confirmation that the third victim was Lucas Campbell, and they’d also managed to ID the fourth victim.
The guy’s name was Daryl Ward, an independent graphic designer and artist living in Mercy.
The weird part was that he was also connected to Olivia.
When she’d first arrived back in Mercy, she’d spoken with him briefly about designing the illustrations for the children’s history book she was working on.
She’d even confirmed it herself on the one brief occasion he’d managed to actually speak with her.
That meant she was connected, however loosely, to all of the victims. He didn’t think for one moment she was the killer, but it could mean the killer was somehow connected to her.
Suddenly uneasy, he picked up the phone and called through to the County Sheriff’s department to check they’d assigned at least two guards to watch Olivia until Walcott was back in custody, only to be told that he himself had canceled that order earlier in the day.
Grabbing his keys from the desk, Mac stood abruptly and pulled on his coat. Now he knew there was definitely something going on, and there was only one way to find out what. He was just going to have to drive out to the West place and have himself a little nosy around.
* * *
“Good, you’re here.” Olivia opened the door and stepped back, allowing Jake to enter. “Does anyone suspect?”
He shook his head. “I called the Sheriff’s Office earlier, pretending to be Mac, and got them to recall the guards, so we’re all clear. Erica’s at my place. She’ll cover for me in case anyone decides to check on me.”
“What did you tell her?” Olivia chewed her lip, a small crease marring her brow.
“The bare minimum,” he replied. “I don’t think she’s ready to deal with demons and magic just yet.”
She nodded in understanding. “Theo’s waiting in the library.”
Jake followed her through the hall and into her favorite room, reaching down and petting the fur ball trying to climb his leg.
“Beau.” She whistled for him, and he scrambled to catch up with her.
“Jake.” Theo nodded in greeting as he entered the room.
“Is everything ready?” Jake asked.
“Yes… Here, take this.” Olivia offered him a small silver crescent moon on a chain, hanging from her fingers. “Put it on.”
“It’s a bit girly.” He eyed her warily.
“If I have to wear one, so do you,” Theo replied, pulling his own from the neck of his sweater.
“Fine,” Jake grumbled, taking it from her and slinging it around his neck.
“Don’t turn your nose up,” Olivia told him pointedly. “It might just save your life before all this is over.”
“Sorry,” he muttered.
She handed them each an object wrapped in black velvet and watched as they unwrapped them.
“Holy shit.” Jake’s mouth fell open. “Are these the hunting knives I brought you?”
She nodded, watching their reactions in amusement. Theo was fascinated and, as he did with everything, he was studying it in minute detail, trying to figure it out. Jake, on the other hand, was a kid with a new toy.
“What did you do to it?” he asked enthusiastically.
“It’s a bit hard to explain.” Olivia frowned thoughtfully. “They are now imbued with Hellfire and ancient magic, but it’s not something I can recreate. These knives are two of a kind and can’t be replaced, so be very careful with them.”
“I’ve got a magic knife.” Jake smiled like a little boy with a lightsaber. “What can it do?”
“It should be able to kill hellhounds. I’m also pretty sure it can kill most supernatural creatures.”
“Most?” Theo asked.
Olivia shrugged. “It doesn’t exactly come with a manual,” she answered.
“It was made with Hellfire, hot and fresh straight from the Hell dimensions, so logically, it should be able to destroy creatures from Hell, but it’s not an exact science.
Try not to experiment too much. They’re so you can defend yourselves.
Don’t go looking for trouble.” Theo nodded. “Jake?”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard, don’t go looking for trouble,” he answered absently as he turned the blade and watched in fascination as the writing inscribed in the blade glowed blue. “Cool…”
Olivia sighed, shaking her head in resignation. “So… are we clear on how it’s going to go down?”
“More or less,” Theo replied.