Epilogue
“You’re looking damn good for someone who just came back from the grave,” Anika Draper said, sitting on the bed beside me.
I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. “It’s been over a week. I’m just being lazy. Who let you in?”
“Lucy, of course,” she said, tugging the sheets away from my face. “She’s a good kid.”
I sat up, shoving my hair out of my face, peering blearily at the glass of water sitting on my bedside table. “I’m hungry,” I realized. “That’ll make Lucy happy.”
“And your mama. You’re going to have to get up and get back to your life, kitten. Everyone who loves you is stuck in limbo waiting to see if you’re going to be okay.”
“I’m going to be okay,” I said, then told her something—for some reason—that I had yet to tell anyone. “I shapeshifted into Voss.”
She nodded. “That’ll fuck with you.”
“Yeah. Not only did I become a nightmare for a little while, seeing what he was, what he’d done, those who’d suffered because of him, I…” But I couldn’t finish.
She knew. “You’re grieving for the Iron Fang alpha.”
Immediately, tears overflowed. “Fuck me,” I whispered. “I am.”
She patted my sheet-covered leg. “Sweetheart, it was like you grew up with him. For a minute, you understood him. You knew everything about him. You saw what he lived through. You knew him. You could have been him, his sister, his mother. And a little tiny piece of you was going to love him. Of course you’re grieving him.
It’ll pass when you get your head straight again. Give it a minute.”
How odd that I was confiding in the woman who’d kicked my ass and taken my magic.
But she’d also saved Rick’s life.
She’d gone to the clinic and despite the fact that she believed abusing her power was wrong, she’d siphoned Gavin’s bad magic out of Rick, the same way she’d sucked mine out of me.
She’d saved him.
Because Gavin would absolutely have killed him.
Voss had honestly believed he’d killed Rick, though I didn’t think he’d meant to.
He hadn’t known why Rick had died, but he felt his connection break, felt the magic leave the detective.
He couldn’t have known that Anika Draper had pulled it out of him and saved his life.
And Voss had wanted to see me suffer by telling me that Rick was dead.
He’d known the wolves would be alerted, and they wouldn’t let him leave. If he made it past me, they were going to kill him anyway. So he’d literally been fighting to the death. Not because he thought he would survive the night, but because he hadn’t wanted me to, either.
In the end, he’d died, and his pack would have a new alpha. His beta, Callen Chesley, would take over, though someone in his pack might challenge him for that role. I didn’t care. I never wanted to see or hear about the Iron Fang pack again.
“Thank you, Anika,” I told her. “If you ever need me, all you have to do is call.”
We were more than even. I owed her. And if she ever needed me, I’d be there.
She stood. “I came to say goodbye, Kait. It’s time for me to head home. I have my own city to smack around and my own crew to torment.”
I wasn’t in a hurry to see her go. “Your crew,” I said. “The ones you brought when you first came to Silverwood to attack me.”
She nodded. “They’re back home keeping the peace. Waiting for me. I didn’t need them to stay here.”
“You have a home base,” I asked, “and just travel around the country siphoning out people’s magic?”
She shrugged, then grinned. “I’m a siphoner, after all. I start feeling the itch, and I have to go scratch it.” She hesitated, then her stare dropped to my chest. “Can I see the scars my blade left?”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Think of me as a doctor checking a healing wound, if that helps,” she said. “I just want to see.”
“Okay,” I said. “They’ve healed into barely visible lines.” I lowered the sheet, then pulled down the neck of the huge T-shirt I’d slept in—Jared’s shirt—to let her see the scars. “I’m still reasonably sure I’m going to end up with your blade.”
“You’ll retrieve your own blade,” she said absently, her stare on the faint lines, “and leave mine the hell alone.” Then without asking, she leaned forward, and as she peered at the scars, she traced them with her fingertips.
Just a light, brief touch, but deep inside me, something began to hum in response. Then she straightened, smiling, and the humming abruptly stopped.
I climbed out of bed, abruptly sick of lying in my room feeling like I just needed one more day to heal. “Come back and visit,” I said, then held out my hand. “Please.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled, and she took my hand. “I’ll see you again. I have no doubt.”
“I’ll welcome you, as long as you don’t try to take whatever magic I might eventually manage to build up.”
She lost her smile and studied me soberly. “I’ll never again take anything from you not freely given, Kait Silver. I swear it.”
I believed her. She wouldn’t go back on her word once she’d given it. I just had a feeling. “When I first met you,” I told her, “I thought you were terrifying.”
She squeezed my hand before letting it go. “And now you don’t think I’m scary?”
“Oh, I still think you’re terrifying. Just not to me.” I released her hand and stepped back. “I’ll see you, Siphoner.”
“See you, Silver Claw.”
Then she strode out of my bedroom, and I watched her go with a frown, wondering why I felt like it was the end of something. Wondering why I cared that she was leaving.
And finally, I threw open the windows to allow some fresh spring air in, then went to take a shower to wash off the last of my pain.
Gavin Voss was dead, and it was time to move on. Monsters were plentiful. I had no doubt I’d be meeting another one soon.
I wanted to eat, see Jared and Rick, play with Ash, go to the office. I wanted to talk to ghosts, clean houses, and help find missing people. I needed to help Rick with the city’s latest serial killer, a supernatural who was killing humans.
And halfway through my shower I paused, frowning, my fingers against the fading scars left by Anika’s blade.
I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Gavin’s magic had been lurking inside me, making me weary, sad, and deflated, and Anika had quietly pulled it from me the way she had pulled it from Rick. Because I felt…good. Abruptly good. She’d touched me, and she’d sucked away the sorrow.
Anika was an enigma, and she was powerful.
As I was dressing, my detective called. “We got him, Kait,” he said. “We got the serial killer.”
I sucked in a breath, for one instant thinking he meant Sam. “You got him?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t even hard.” He hesitated. “I’ll stop looking at Sam.”
“Thanks, Rick,” I whispered.
It was over. The killer was in custody, and Sam was in the clear.
Saul called five minutes later, like he was secretly watching me and knew the second I was out of bed and ready to live.
“It’s time for that meeting you missed,” he said. “The council is ready for you.”
I frowned. “Now? It’s the middle of the day.”
“Aaron is waiting for you.” He paused. “It’s good to have you back, Kait.”
Then he ended the call.
Surprisingly enough, I was ready to face the council. I wasn’t physically ready to fight the demon to get back my blade. Not yet. But it wasn’t the end of me and my demon blade.
Humming, I strapped on a belt, filled it full of lovely weapons, and went eagerly into the rest of my life.