Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
H aven couldn’t remember ever being this angry in her entire life.
For years, she’d swallowed her rage. Kept the peace. Remained quiet so she wouldn’t be seen as an unreasonable bitch.
Those days were over, and they were over right fucking now .
“Look,” she began, doing her best to rein in her rogue powers so she didn’t bust out any windows. “I’m so fucking tired of being treated like I’m some helpless princess stuck in an ivory tower.”
Her mother frowned at her. “We don’t?—”
“Stop it!” she interrupted, holding a hand up. “Let me speak.”
A collective gasp rolled through the room. Had anyone ever shushed Harper Hall? Given the shocked look on the faces around her, she imagined the answer to that question was no .
And Haven was damn proud to be the first.
Harper’s mouth slammed shut, and she gave her daughter a terse nod.
“I’m not trying to be unappreciative,” she said. “I know I’m loved, and that means more to me than I can say. But I’m every bit as capable of defending myself as any of you.” She frowned at Hunter. “OK, I’m probably not quite as capable as you . But for a dhampyre , I’m good at what I do. And if this demon was coming after anyone but me, we’d be having an entirely different conversation. You’d never try to bubble wrap anyone else in this room. Just me.”
“I don’t know that that’s true, baby,” her father said. “Your mom and aunt have been in danger tons of times, and I always wanted to bubble wrap them.”
“That’s true. He’s always been annoying about it,” Seven agreed.
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
Seven merely shrugged.
“I understand that, but the difference is that while you wanted to bubble wrap them, you didn’t. You’ve always let mom and Seven and even Addy defend themselves when necessary. You never took them out of a job they loved, a job they insisted they could do, and benched them in the name of keeping them safe. You never forced your will on them.”
“They never died,” Harper said quietly.
Haven sucked in a sharp breath. “I know, mom. And I can’t imagine how that felt for you and dad and Roan.”
Seven laid a hand on her arm. “For all of us.”
She nodded. “I’m not trying to diminish that. But I need you all to understand that I’m not fragile. And what happened to me could’ve happened to any of you. It’s all part of the job. I need you to let me do the job. It’s who I am.”
Her dad reached over and grabbed her mom’s hand. “What do you say, boss?”
Harper let out a disgruntled sigh. “I say maybe I was a little… wrong to bench her.”
Haven felt her eyes widen of their own volition, and her gaze shot over to Roan, whose almost imperceptible smile was telling her she had indeed just heard Harper Hall— the Harper Hall—admit to being wrong about something. She swallowed hard. “So, in that case…can I lead the mission to trap the Kurgan and decide what to do with him?”
Oh, her mother really wanted to say no to that request. She’d love nothing more than to assign the mission to Gabriel or Seven or anyone other than Haven. The struggle was written all over her face. But eventually, she grimaced, nodded, and said, “Fine. You’re in charge. You can handle this one your way. But Roan is still your bodyguard, got it? You keep him with you at all times.”
Which seemed like as good a segue into the other thing everyone needed to know as any.
“Speaking of that,” she said. “Two years ago, it was Roan that brought me back. Not by doing CPR, but by sharing his energy with me. In fact, he gave me half his life force. Which means technically, we’re married, which is good, because I love him.”
All eyes shifted to Roan, who looked shellshocked. “Sorry,” she mouthed to him.
It was Gabriel who finally broke the silence. He slapped Roan on the back and said, “See? I told you she’d understand.”
Riddick narrowed his eyes on the brothers. “ You brought her back? And you knew and didn’t tell us?”
Gabriel and Roan looked at each other, obviously doing the mental math on which potential answers would earn them a beatdown. Eventually, Roan said, “Yes,” at the same time Gabriel mumbled, “Roan asked me not to.”
What happened next was an unprecedented event at Section 8. It was historic. Epic. Totally unexpected and would most likely never be repeated in the history of, well, ever .
Noah Riddick stepped up and…yanked Roan into a back-slapping bear hug.
Roan stood there stunned for a second or two before returning the hug.
“Thank you,” Riddick murmured before stepping back and punching Gabriel in the shoulder.
Gabriel frowned, rubbing what would probably develop into one hell of a bruise. “What the fuck was that for?”
“For not telling me I had another son-in-law.”
“Maybe it’s your violent tendencies that make people reluctant to tell you things,” Gabriel grumbled.
Seven nodded. “That makes sense. No one tells me anything.”
While Gabriel and Benny tried to assure Seven she wasn’t completely unapproachable (which was patently untrue because she was easily the least approachable person in their group), Riddick laid a hand on Roan’s shoulder and squeezed until the joint audibly popped. “You know,” he began conversationally, “that if you hurt her again, I’ll kill you. Painfully. Slowly. With so much torture.”
Roan held her gaze as he said, “If I hurt her again, I’ll let you.”