Her smile faded at the edges. “I will do my best to stay with you, as long as I can. But each time I come to you, I am pulled a little further through the veil. I have a duty on my side of the veil. One that I cannot ignore.”
“Then you thought I needed something, that it was worth it to let me see you?”
She nodded. “I am forbidden from telling you all I’ve learned since I crossed over. But I can tell you that what your eyes see, and your ears hear, they can be deceived. Those that you love, they can always be saved.” Giselle grimaced and clucked her tongue. “I cannot say more than that.”
“Do you know who saved us? Or who set us up?”
Leaning forward, she locked her eyes onto mine. “They are the same person.”
Well I’ll be screwed sideways into next week.
Her eyes softened with sorrow. “I must go now, Rylee. Do not fight your destiny so hard. You are meant to stand between our world and the darkness that would swallow it. This moment, these dark days are what I trained you for, though the madness carried much of my understanding of the prophecies away. Believe in yourself, you are strong enough to carry this burden. And when the time comes, I will be there.” Her voice faded along with her body, but I continued to stare at the spot where she’d sat.
Dead, she was more lucid than she’d ever been in life. Yet, her words still swirled like a deadly, mind-numbing fog in my head. She’d trained me to stand between the world and the darkness? Had she known the prophecies all along? Had I been just a tool to her? No, I couldn’t believe that. But why hadn’t she told me? Chills swept through my body, and I rolled so that I could bury my face against Liam’s chest. At least with Liam I knew he loved me for nothing more than who I was; he didn’t want to use me, or make me face demons, he didn’t want to put me in the line of fire.
No, Liam was the one place I would always be safe. And with that thought, I finally drifted off to sleep.
We woke hours later. Darkness had fallen, and the clock on the side table blinked a lazy one in the morning. Liam was already awake, his breathing faster and less regular than when he slept. I sat up, grimaced at the twinge across my ribs, then traced my fingers along the stitches that went from the bottom of my sternum almost to my belly button. Good thing Crystal had small hands or I had no doubt that line would be even bigger.
Liam swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “You hungry?”
I smiled in the darkness, wondered if he could see my lips curve upward. He hadn’t asked if I was okay, or how I was feeling. Damn, each time I thought he might not know me as well as I thought, he showed me how wrong I was. Good man.
“Yeah, let’s get something to eat.”
At some point while we’d slept, Dox must have brought in clothes. My jeans had been washed and dried, and there was a fresh button down shirt for me. Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt for Liam. Even as a werewolf, the early December weather was cold for him.
“You never even twitched when he came in,” Liam said as he stepped into his jeans.
I frowned. That wasn’t like me. Then again, I was safe with Liam; maybe that was it. I buttoned up the shirt and slid the jeans on, then looked around for my weapons.
“Dox has them.”
“Am I that easy to read?” I pulled on my leather coat. As much as I’d missed this clean cold snow while in London, now that I was home, I was back to hating it. And while it wasn’t raining or snowing at the moment, the New Mexico winter was in full swing.
He opened the door and gave me a cocky grin. “For me, yes. Anyone else, probably not.”
With a snort, I headed out, pleased to note that while my ribs ached, they were indeed already healing well. More than halfway healed from what I could feel with each step I took.
We headed to the bar that thumped with loud music and had strobe lights on the roof, as if to call down some alien space ships as per its name.#p#分页标题#e#
“What can we expect?” Liam moved to my side, but didn’t take my hand. No, we weren’t really the hand holding type of couple. More the kick your ass if you look at us wrong type of couple. The thought made me smile.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to The Landing Pad when it was open and full of patrons.”
“You can’t get jostled.”
We stopped outside the door. I put my hands on my hips. “Your point is what?”
He mimicked me. “Let me go in and get Dox, or at least make sure that I can clear a path.”
Irritation flared along every synapse I had. A small part of me knew that he was just doing his job as ‘the guy’ and as ‘the alpha’, but it bothered me. I was no shrinking violet to be handled with fucking kid gloves.