Chapter 123
Heather
When we got to Brent’s, Mr. Langdon laid him carefully on the bed.
"I’m trusting you, Dono," I said as I sat on the bed next to Brent.
"Aye. And you’ll not have misplaced that trust. I’ll see what I can do." Donovan moved toward the door. "Let’s go."
"Wait, Dr. Gonzales," I said.
"Yes, Heather?"
"Can I have one of those shots? Just in case he’s...you know."
She gave me a tight smile and reached back into her bag. "Here. Just do it quickly. If the needle breaks off in him, give me a call."
I nodded and stared at the syringe in my hand like it was a poisonous snake. "Sure thing." I placed it carefully on the bedside table.
"I’ll be back as soon as we come to an agreement with the coven," Donovan said.
"Am I doing the right thing?" I asked without taking my eyes from Brent.
Muraco nodded. "Yes, child. I think you’re being very reasonable and responsible. Very adult."
Great. Because that was what I’d always wanted. To be more adult-like.
I hoped Brent could forgive me for this.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but Brent was still asleep when Donovan returned.
The verdict was that I had to be on the coven’s land by nine tomorrow morning, and had to stay until the day before the next full moon. While I was there, I had to fully suppress my wolf. The witches wanted me to live as a coven member, not as a Were. It was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. Like it or not, I was a Were. Nothing was going to change that.
I’d been warned that the Internet was nearly nonexistent at the compound. Apparently, the witches thought technology was a crutch. An unnecessary distraction. I hadn’t been without my cell in years. Years.
So, probably no FaceTime. No Skype. No video chatting. I wouldn’t even get email.
Donovan had left me to break the news to Brent. Smart guy. I’d seen Brent pissed before—he’d nearly decimated a tree once when he punched it—but this was different. I knew he’d be angry, but he’d lost his shit. One hundred percent blown lid.
It was hours before Brent’s eyes blinked open.
"Hey," I said. "How’re you feeling?"
He closed his eyes, and I wondered if he’d fallen asleep again, but he finally spoke. "Terrible." When his eyes opened again, they were golden. "What happened?"
"Dr. Gonzales knocked you out."
He laughed softly, and I wondered if the drugs were still making him a little loopy. "I got that much."
I swallowed. He wasn’t going to like this. Better to rip off the Band-Aid than to drag it out. "I have to stay with the coven." He sat up and started to speak, but I put my finger over his lips. "I’m back the day before the next full moon. We’re not missing the next ceremony. I told Donovan I’d burn the coven compound to the ground before I missed it, and I wasn’t joking at all."
Brent pressed his lips together, and his emotions swelled. But it wasn’t anger that dominated him anymore. It was fear, which worried me. What was he so afraid of?
"It’s only a few weeks, and then we’ll get to be together. And—"
"I won’t be able to feel you through the bond. It’ll be like you died. I won’t know if you’re hurt or in danger or lonely. I won’t know when you wake up or if you’re eating enough." He traded our positions, lifting me into his lap, and nuzzled his nose against my neck. "I’ll go crazy without you."
I rested my head against his chest so that I could hear his steady heartbeat. "Don’t go crazy. We can do this." I sat up straighter so I could look into his eyes. "Humans do long distance all the time. It might seem like the end of the world, but it isn’t. We have a stronger bond than humans do, and they manage." I cupped his face in my hands. "So, we can do it, too. It’s not going to be super fun and awesome, but we’ll be okay."
He closed his eyes and his shoulders hunched. "I don’t know that I’ll be okay." The words were little more than a whisper, like he was confessing something that weighed heavily on his heart. It was so sweet and so sad that it made my heart ache.
I rubbed my thumb along his bottom lip. "I love you so much."
"I love you, too."
I gave him a soft smile. "Say it in French, please."
That made him actually smile. No dimples yet, but it was better than the pout. "Je t’aime, cherie."
I pressed my lips to his and stood up. "Help me pack?"
"I don’t want you to go."
"I don’t want to go, but I have to. We both know that la Aquelarre was never going to stop until they got at least a piece of me. So we give them this little bit. Plus, Luciana is up to something. What better way to find out than by being there? And if I learn some more stuff about my powers and being a bruja, well then, all the better."
"I wish you didn’t have to go do all that." He huffed. He actually huffed, and it made me want to squeeze him tight and never let go.
"Me, too. But I do need to pack. It’s getting late and I have to be there by nine." I got up and started back toward campus, knowing Brent wouldn’t be far behind me.
It took him a minute, but then he got up. His long stride caught up to me in a few steps. "I’ll take you there in the morning."
"I want to have my car with me." If shit hit the fan, I wanted to be able to get away from the coven, and fast.
"Fine. I’ll go with you and then I’ll shift and run back."
That was over an hour drive. "It’s kind of far."
He put his arm over my shoulder and pulled me into his side. His need to be close to me beat along the bond. "I’ve done it before."
That was true. "Okay."
"Did you tell your mom what happened?"
Maybe I should’ve called her, but I was too busy watching Brent sleep off Dr. Gonzales’ cocktail. "I haven’t really had time."
"Wasn’t I out for hours?"
My cheeks heated. He wasn’t going to let me get away with this one. "Yeah, but I was brooding and watching you sleep."
He squeezed me tighter. "Now who’s creepy?"
"It’s not creepy." I elbowed him. "I’m your mate."
He was quiet for a long moment. Almost so long that I thought he was done talking, but then he said, "That’s definitely true. I’m your mate. And you’re mine."
It didn’t take us long to pack what I needed. I wasn’t taking everything, only the essentials. It was like a long, mandatory vacation. Only it was definitely not my idea of a good time.
Serena stopped by as we were about to get into bed. She fidgeted with the bottom of her T-shirt. Serena wasn’t one to fidget. "Are you guys okay?"
"Of course."
Serena relaxed a little. "Good. I was worried after his reaction and it’s kind of my fault—"
"None of this is your fault. At all."
"But you went to the coven to help me and—"
"No. They were always going to be upset about this. I’m surprised they didn’t show up before now. So just push that guilt away because it shouldn’t exist."
She hugged me. "You’ll be back before you know it."
I gave her a small smile. That was something people said when they didn’t know what to say. This plain sucked, no matter how I cut it.
"I’ll see you soon. Okay?" I didn’t meant to be short with her, but if this was the last night I was going to sleep in the same bed with my mate, then I wanted to enjoy it.
She gave me a tight nod. "Sure. Goodnight."
"Night," Brent said. He was already under the covers, but he lifted them up for me as I walked to the bed. The bed was all hot and warm thanks to his body heat. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped an arm around his stomach.
"You still want to wait until after the ceremony to...you know?"
That got me the first laugh of the evening. "Your mom’s right about one thing. If you can’t say it, you shouldn’t be doing it."
"Have sex." My cheeks burned.
"Make love."
"Same thing."
"No. It’s not."
We’d talked before about his ’active’ life before me, although I’d made him shut up halfway through the conversation. I didn’t want to hear about him with other girls. It made me feel inexperienced and childish.
It also made me jealous. Extremely jealous. Just remembering a bit of the conversation had me grinding my teeth.
He kissed my forehead. "No reason to feel jealous. No one could ever compare to you."
"You don’t know that," I said. Because it was true. He didn’t know that.
"You’re my mate. That makes all the difference." He opened the bond and all his emotions for me flooded my senses. It was like being wrapped in a blanket of love.
I put my leg over his, and scooted as close to him as I could. "I’m going to miss this."
"You better."
I bit his chest softly. "I’m sorry I have to go."
"It’s my fault. If I’d done something differently, well...maybe we could’ve avoided this."
I thought about it for a minute, but all roads led to Luciana being a total asshole. It didn’t matter how I became a Were. "I wonder if she ever would’ve let me go without a fight. I mean, I didn’t even know anything about the coven when I moved here.
When I met you, I didn’t know that I was supposed to be leading them. So, how would I know to ask permission? Or even know that I needed permission? And even if I did know about the coven and my place in it and asked permission, she never would’ve said yes. Not in a million years." The more I thought about it, the more inevitable it seemed. "It is what it is, but I know we can really get through it. It’s not forever, and we are."
He ran his fingers lazily up and down my arm. "I don’t know that I can be okay with you gone."
I kissed him. "You have to be."
He was quiet for a second, and I felt a little strand of hope along our bond.
"What?"
"I was thinking about our land."
Our land. "What about it?"
"Just that. The future. I hope that we get to have it."
My bottom lip trembled, and I bit it. No use getting upset now. "Me, too."
"Sleep."
I sighed. I didn’t want to go to bed. I didn’t want tomorrow to happen. And yet, despite how much I didn’t want to sleep, as Brent trailed his fingertips lightly over my skin, my eyelids grew heavy.
I hoped I wasn’t wrong. That we’d get through it. And that I wasn’t putting my mate through hell for no reason.
If I didn’t come back from my stint with some answers, heads were going to roll.