CHAPTER TWO
KENNEDY
It’s been a few days since I spoke to Salem.
The decision to move back to Boston after working with her and Michael for the last year was a difficult one, but one I had to make for my own sanity.
Despite having an advanced degree and a PhD in human behavior, I’m unsure if I stayed in Colorado for work or because I hoped that Reaver would return.
My gut tells me it is the latter, but I want to believe I stayed for my job.
I’ve barely pushed Call before I hear Salem’s voice on the other end. “Hey, I was just about to call you. What’s up?” she asks. Sometimes I hate the fact that my oldest and dearest friend is a witch who has a natural sense of when those close to her need her.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly, because I don’t know what this feeling of dread and doom is that seems to be seeping into my life is lately.
All I do know is that if anyone were able to help me, it would be her.
“Have you heard from…” I pause, not wanting to say Reaver’s name.
“Anyone. Have you heard from anyone?” I amend.
“Anyone?” Salem questions and lets out a small laugh. Not the kind that says she thinks I’m funny, but the kind that says, “I know you better than anyone. Just say what you mean.”
I know she can’t see me, but I roll my eyes and let out a loud sigh. “Are you going to make me say his name?”
“No and no. But I do feel an energy shift. Something is going on. I’ve been getting this feeling of, I don’t know…
dread, maybe. I can’t seem to shake it. I’ve even called up Aunt Olisha to see if she’s feeling it too.
She said she wasn’t feeling any large shift, so it must be something directly affecting us. ”
Great. As if I need something special just for me. I nod my head even though I know she can’t see me. Dread is precisely what I’ve been feeling.
“I saw him, you know,” I burst out.
“What? When and why didn’t you start with that?” she snaps.
Standing at my bedroom window, I look down onto Comm Avenue and then over to the shadowed nook across the street. It’s the same place where I’ve stood night after night, hoping to see him again.
Fat load of good that PhD does me in rationalizing my own behavior.
I let out an audible sigh and drop my head, pressing my forehead against the cool glass. “It was a few months ago, the same night as the date with Kevin,” I inform her and wait for her reaction.
Kevin was a physician that had worked briefly with Michael in New York and now had a thriving practice here in Boston.
Both Salem and Michael thought it would be a great idea to set the two of us up after I relocated.
Usually, I wouldn’t have agreed, but it didn’t look as if Reaver would come back.
So, I went on one fricken date, and that was the night he chose to show up after over a year without a word.
I didn’t want to appear rude and bolt across the street, hoping that Reaver would wrap me in his arms. So, I did nothing and I did everything.
I laughed and smiled at everything Kevin said when in truth, I couldn’t tell you one word of our conversation from that night.
My attention was on the mammoth shadow of a man lurking across the street.
Then the good doctor went in for a kiss, and Reaver disappeared.
“Hello, Kennie. Are you still there?” Salem’s voice lifts me out of my momentary daze. But the moment I’m back in the present, I can feel my heart clench.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I manage to squeak out as I feel my throat start to tighten and my eyes begin to burn.
The tears that I have been holding back for so long are threatening to spill forth, and I’m helpless to hold them back.
I give a last-ditch effort to sniff them back, even tilting my head to the ceiling, hoping they will roll back into my eyes. They don’t.
Instead, a pathetic sob escapes my lips.
“Oh, sweetie,” I hear Salem say as she attempts to calm me down. “Don’t cry.”
I can’t help it. I’m in full-blown sob mode.
“I’ll be right there,” I hear her say.
If it were anyone else… again, I would question her timeline since we are thousands of miles apart.
But over the past few years, I have learned so much about the world in which I live.
When I made the decision to move from the Colorado research facility back to Boston, I made sure that there was a Dimmu gate close by.
Humans can’t travel through them without someone else, but Salem can.
Tossing my phone on the bed, I head into the kitchen and grab two glasses and a full bottle of wine from the fridge. She may need blood to survive, but she can still eat and drink like the rest of us. I’ve barely poured the wine when there’s a frantic knock at the door.
Before I can even greet my oldest and closest friend, she swings her arms around me and embraces me. The moment she does, the tears start all over again.
“Shhhhh,” she coos while stroking my hair. “Why are you so upset? Tell me what’s going on. I thought you had…” Her voice trickles off as I continue to sob almost uncontrollably.
As a Behavioral Therapist, I know I’m being irrational and letting my imagination make decisions for me. All I need to do is be fucking rational, and everything will be fine. Yet right now, that simple task seems to be impossible.
“What’s wrong with me?” I manage to squeak out.
“Why am I so stupid?” I add as I push away and head into the kitchen to grab my wine.
“I mean, he hasn’t spoken to me in a year.
A fucking year, and somehow, I’m upset that—” I stop mid-sentence and flop down onto the couch because I don’t even know why I’m so upset.
“Have you called Ash?” Salem asks, and I shoot her a condescending look.
“Are you kidding me? What would I even say? ‘Oh, hey, Ash. You don’t know me, but I really like your brother. Have you heard from him? Because he ghosted me a year ago, and I’m still hung up on him.’ Yeah, that doesn’t sound insane and desperate at all.”
“I’m afraid you’ve lost me,” she admits as she pours herself a full glass of white.
With a deep inhale and a hearty swig from my glass, I try to regain my composure. Or at least what little of it I have left so that I can explain my sudden burst of crazy.
“After Kevin left, I went searching for Reaver. I couldn’t help it.
I thought I was finally over him, and then once I saw him, it all came rushing back.
So, like an idiot, I spent the night wandering around, looking in every nook and cranny of Boston.
” I pause to take a deep breath because the emotion is still so raw.
“Anyway, he was gone. But you want to know what the strangest thing about it was? The entire time I was wandering the city, I felt safe. Like maybe he was watching. I don’t know.
And now my gut is telling me he’s going to do something stupid.
Does any of this even make sense?” I question as I down the remaining wine from my glass.
Salem gives me a wide smile. “It makes perfect sense, actually. You and Reaver have a connection. You both just haven’t figured out where it fits in yet.”
I’ve known Salem for a long time, which means I know damn well when she’s holding something back. It’s probably not going to be something I want to hear but fuck it. If I can’t take it from my best friend, then who will I take it from?
“And?” I ask, knowing there will be more.
“And you have to take into consideration Reaver’s past. He isn’t like other guys. He’s broken inside. And I don’t mean he’s had a bad relationship broken. I mean the core-deep, fucked-up shit broken.”
She isn’t telling me anything I don’t already know.
Reaver and I spent many nights just talking.
I know he was holding back, trying not to scare me off.
But knowing some of the terrible things he went through only made him that much more loveable.
It amazed me that he still had the capacity to show love and compassion after centuries of torture and neglect.
“But I know that if anyone could help heal him, it’s you,” she adds as she fills my wine glass.
As if on cue, Salem’s phone chimes. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s her husband, Michael, just by the smile on her face.
A smile I never thought I would be jealous of, but sitting here tonight as I drink away my woes, I am.
Not that they didn’t have their issues before falling head over heels in love—he did have to turn her into a vampire to save her life.
At least there is no danger of that with Reaver.
I’m doing my best not to eavesdrop on her conversation, but it’s a bit difficult since she’s sitting only a few feet from me. Still, I busy myself with my phone, scrolling through my social media while keeping an open ear to her conversation.
“Really? When?”
If I had supernatural hearing like Salem, it would really come in handy right about now. Unfortunately, all I get is her side of the conversation, which is giving me precisely zero information.
“Did he mention where he was going?”
The quick glance my way has my heart speeding up. Are they talking about Reaver? I don’t even bother with my pretense of not listening in. I toss my phone down next to me, lean in, and stare at her.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me. Why?”
Oh, God. None of this is going to be good. The wine in my empty stomach starts to churn as every possible scenario plays in my head all at once.
“Did he at least say when?”
“Well, did you ask?” she snaps. “Why not? That should have been the first thing you asked.” Her irritation at Michael is evident by her tone, the annoyed eye roll, and the constant shaking of her head.
I’m nearly falling off the couch, trying to hear both sides of her conversation, when she abruptly tosses her phone onto the table.
“We have a problem.”
“We do?” I ask, waiting for her to answer me with a better explanation than “We have a problem.” Because if we didn’t have a problem, neither of us would be drinking wine at nearly 2 in the morning.
“Michael spoke to Reaver.”
“Ya don’t say,” I mock because I came to that conclusion all on my own. She doesn’t elaborate. Instead, my best friend, whom I want to strangle right about now, sits back and lets out a long sigh. “What did he say, exactly?” I yell, unable to contain my frustration any longer.
It takes her a full minute to answer me. At least it feels like it’s a full minute. “We need to get to Vegas, like now,” she blurts out as she stands and heads for the door. “Come on,” she adds when I don’t immediately jump from my seat.
“I can’t go to Las Vegas. I have patients tomorrow morning.” I glance down at my watch. “This morning,” I correct myself.
Salem has my door open and is tapping her foot. “Reaver is planning to return to Timber Cove for good.”
I’m up off my couch and heading for the door before she can say another word. I don’t know much about where he disappeared to other than it’s basically another world that no one can get to except him and maybe Kat, Cain’s wife. So, if he crosses over, all hope for us goes with him.