Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Fender
“That voice. It said Matilda,” I said when she didn’t answer right away.
She stared up at me wide-eyed. I was far from an expert, but I was pretty sure what I was looking at was alarm.
Not good, but better than the way she’d looked while she was in her trance.
It’d been her…but also not. There’d been so many subtle differences to her features that I’d barely recognized her.
It had been her eyes that had truly freaked me out. White, distant—and not fucking hers.
“Matilda?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
Her mouth twisted to the side. “Hmm. It could have been some ancient language. It was pretty drawn out. Are you sure that’s what you heard?
There’s really no way of knowing what she was saying.
” Her hands kind of flittered around her.
“No, now that I think about it, I’m positive it was something else. ”
She was getting all panicked again, just like she had when we were camping. “You good?”
“Yes.” She started walking faster. “We should probably hurry. There’s no way of knowing how long Brigid will let us stay in her domain.”
I kept pace with her. “Watch your step, the ground’s uneven.” I wanted to take her hand again but forced myself not to. I didn’t know what had made her so jittery again, but I was worried she might bolt. More glyphs and weird sigils lit up as we walked, leading us deeper into the cave.
“Why do you think she’s letting us in?” I asked.
Her eyes were still wide. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll find out when we get to wherever she’s leading us.”
“Could this be dangerous?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “If she didn’t want us here, she would’ve ejected us as soon as we walked in.”
She stumbled, and I grabbed her before she went down. Some of her panic seemed to have eased, so I held on, curling my hand around hers. She didn’t try to pull away, thank fuck. My beast rumbled possessively in my chest, and I quickly cleared my throat to cover it.
“Also, Brigid wasn’t a bad person,” she continued on. “Yes, she’d wanted revenge while she’d been alive, but only against those who hurt her and her sisters. Her ghost is angry and filled with grief, but not evil.”
The cavern narrowed to a small entryway. I had to duck to fit through it. As we entered, torches lit up around the room.
“Did you do that?”
Tempest shook her head.
Fucking hell.
I took in the cavern. She’d lived here, the witch, there was no doubt that she’d lived here, deep in the blue cliffs.
There was a small hearth, and a rough-hewn table and chair.
Various chests and shelves were placed around the small space, stacked with bottles of different sizes, books and piles of papers.
There was also a small pallet on the floor, the old blankets faded and falling apart—and on top of it lay what was left of Brigid.
Her skeleton lay jumbled in a heap as if she’d been tossed there carelessly.
Tempest rushed over.
“These remains, their condition. What happened here?” She’d died a long time ago, at least several hundred years, easily.
“I don’t know.” A tear streaking down her face as she lowered to her knees beside the pallet. “I’m so sorry,” Tempest whispered. “You didn’t deserve this.”
I didn’t like seeing Tempest cry. I wanted to pull her into my arms and hold her.
Her hand now hovered over what remained of Brigid. “Something dark and powerful came here…” Her face jerked up, and her eyes rolled back. Again, the whites of her eyes glowed.
Tempest whispered rapidly, so fast I couldn’t understand what she was saying.
I was pretty sure it wasn’t in a language I recognized.
“Tempest? Temp, what the fuck?” This felt different than what had happened when she was in her trance.
She hadn’t asked for this, not this time.
“Tempest?” I growled, about to haul her off the ground and get her the fuck out of here.
Her eyes flicked back, and she gasped in a long desperate breath before falling forward on her hands.
“What the fuck just happened?”
Her head was still down while she caught her breath.
I crouched. “Temp, talk to me.”
She lifted her face, and bloody tears streamed down her cheeks.
“She showed me.” She sobbed. “She showed me what happened to her sisters, what happened to her. She was so alone, Fender. Oh gods, she was in so much pain.” She shook her head as more bloody tears coursed down her face.
“She felt so…so incredibly hopeless, that she…she took her own life. But the pain didn’t stop, it only got worse…
and her anger and thirst for revenge only grew bigger.
” Her gaze became distant again. “The darkness that came here, it was recent. She was long dead when it came, and it scared her ghost so much she hid.” She swiped at her tears, then looked down in shock.
“Your eyes are bleeding,” I growled.
“I’m okay. This…it…it happens sometimes, just not usually until…”
“Not usually until what?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure what I’m saying. I’m a bit disorientated.” She used her sleeve to wipe her eyes and searched the floor around her—searching for any blood she might have spilled.
“There’s blood on your shirt but nowhere else.
” She looked relieved. I wasn’t. This shit was fucked up, and I’d seen some seriously fucked-up shit in my life.
There was so much she was keeping from me.
This female had secrets, and somehow I had to gain her trust and hope she’d share them with me.
I helped her to her feet. “What do you want to do?”
She stared down at the body. “Brigid wants us to take her to her coven for burial. She wants to be with her sisters. I need to pack up her remains and take her home.” She turned in a slow circle.
“There could be something valuable to your weapon search here, though, something that could help us work out who did this—and if they took the weapons. We’ll pack up her books and papers as well.
We can send them to her coven when we’re finished with them. ”
The pain on Tempest’s face filled me with the urge to pull her into my arms again. Hounds really liked hugs. We craved affection. I’d been thinking about hugging Tempest a lot since I’d held her down in the dens. Would she let me hug her again? Would she pull away?
Another tear streaked down her cheek. This time it was clear and not bloody, thank fuck.
“Oh, sweet goddess,” she whispered. “The nightmare…the hell Brigid went through. I can’t bear it.” She was trembling, and when she looked up at me, I realized it wasn’t all sadness, it was rage as well.
I took her hand, and when she didn’t try to pull it from mine, I tugged her closer. “Gonna hold you for a little bit, if that’s okay, peaches?”
Her wide green eyes sliced to me, and there was confusion there.
I was getting better at reading emotions, hers anyway.
I guess spending two days and a night with her had sped things along.
Although I didn’t know why she’d be confused.
“I want to wrap you in my arms, Tempest. I want to give you comfort.”
She nodded stiffly. “Okay.”
I dragged in a rough breath, trying to keep it cool and not yank her to me in my desperation to soothe the pain lining her face—or my driving need to have her close to me.
Gently, so as not to hurt my little female, I lifted her onto the stool beside us so that I didn’t have to awkwardly bend down and wrapped my arms around her.
Her soft and curvy body finally pressed against mine.
Sighing, I held her tightly to me, or as tightly as I’d allow myself.
The beast rumbled in my chest again from the pleasure of it, from the sensation of her soft flesh and warmth, from her scent filling my lungs and the rightness all of that gave me.
Did she feel it too? When I held her this way, did it feel as if her whole world had shifted, that now, for the first time, it was suddenly right? That after a thousand years, this…she was what I’d been waiting for?
Her head rested against my shoulder, and with her on the stool I could rub my hand up and down her back, doing my best to soothe.
Her hands were still at her sides. She wasn’t holding me back, but that was okay.
This wasn’t about me. Her heart thudded against mine, then evened out.
The panic disappeared, and she slowly relaxed.
I’d done that, being held by her male had done that.
Her arms moved, and I forced myself not to freeze when slowly, so fucking slowly, her fingers pressed against my sides. I held my breath, and when she finally slid her arms around me in return, I growled softly from the complete and utter pleasure of it.
“I’ve got you,” I said, my voice all-hound now. I clamped my lips together, worried that would scare her, but her heart rate stayed the same and her trembling eased. “Okay, Temp?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I am now. Thank you, Fender. You’re a…a good friend.”
“Friend…yeah.” I wanted to be a fuck of a lot more than that—and I would be—I just had to be patient.
She stilled in my arms and lifted her head. “I didn’t mean to presume. I mean, at the clubhouse you said we were…and I just thought that after everything…that we truly were friends now…but I…I…”
The panic was back. “We are friends, Temp,” I said quickly and continued to slide my hand up and down her back. “We are most definitely friends.”
Then she went and stole my breath again. The smile that curved her lips was wide and breathtakingly beautiful, giving me a flash of dimples. Happiness shone from her like a light had switched on from within, making her stunning green eyes so fucking bright.
“I’m glad,” she said.
“Me too,” I said rough as hell.
As she stared up at me, my willpower began to weaken. I flexed my arms, about to pull her closer, but she stepped back. I let my arms drop when it was the last thing I wanted to do.