I was relieved that the very idea of this still nauseated the fuck out of me.
I unraveled the bonds. I didn’t need a book to understand how this magic worked. Now that I could touch it, control it, my sorceress abilities took over and bent it to my will. I snapped the bonds, unwinding the knot around his heart.
He came alive with a yelp and sprang up. Then he shifted, turning instantly from coyote back to a man.
“Jade,” he said and then looked past me and ran for his twin’s inert form.
I didn’t take it personally. He could thank me later. All I wanted to do now was pass out and sleep for maybe a couple million years. The rush of new power was fading, leaving me hollow. The pain in my chest came back with an insistent throb and spots danced in my vision again. Not enough spots, though, to keep me from turning and seeing Bernie’s dead body lying in a black heap on the bloody grass. I felt nothing but a faint sadness for the man he could have been if he’d chosen another path.
I decided I could process later. It was definitely past time to be unconscious. On cue, Alek lifted me into his impossibly strong arms.
“Max,” I said. “He’s out there, at the highway. Someone should call him.”
“Shh,” he murmured. “I’ll handle it from here.”
He was warm, so warm. My skin felt rimed with ice in comparison. I nuzzled my head into his shoulder, pressing my bruised nose to his chest.
“You smell good,” I said.
And then, because the universe can sometimes be a merciful bitch, I passed the fuck out.
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
Chapter 11
It took me three days before I could do more than stumble to the bathroom and sip orange juice. I managed to pull up enough power at some point after I woke up the first day to free Rose from Bernie’s spell. Doing so knocked me out again right afterwards.
I don’t know what Alek said to the evil minion who’d shot me. I decided I wouldn’t ask. He’d shot me, after all. I also had no idea what happened to Bernie’s body, but I was willing to bet it would never be found. The boy in the coma woke up after I killed Bernie and fled town. Without the book and without Bernie to teach them, I figured he was probably harmless now.
Unfortunately, the spell that had bound Rose and Ezee didn’t put them to sleep. They’d both been awake and aware the entire time. Rose told us how she’d been approached by two young men who had said they were lost while hiking and how they’d lured her into one of Bernie’s magical traps. The boy in the coma had stolen her from Bernie and sold her to Ciaran after he and Bernie argued about how they weren’t learning useful magic yet.
While I was sleeping off my magical hangover and healing from a shot in the chest, Ezee had told Levi, Max, Rose, and Harper a pretty sensational accounting of my daring rescue. Harper and Levi were convinced I had a dire wolf familiar who could turn invisible at will now. I didn’t correct them.
He left out the part where I nom’d down on a man’s heart. I was grateful for that. I still didn’t know how I felt about it.
When I mercy-killed the wolf in Bernie’s lair, I had felt so much pain and regret and revulsion for what I had to do. My heart had felt like it was going to crawl out of my chest, and I wanted to scrub my hands clean of blood like Lady Macbeth every time I thought about him. It had been merciful. The right thing to do. I still felt awful and sick about it. Bernie’s memories hadn’t even provided names for his victims. He hadn’t cared enough to learn them.
But when I thought about Bernie, about thrusting my power into his chest and the hot, chewy taste of his heart between my teeth, I felt nothing. Empty. And I knew I would make the same choice again if I had to. I could run the scene through my mind a hundred times and I knew I would always choose his death and my friend’s lives. Always.
After three days, I made Max drive me home in my car. Levi followed us and took him back to the B B. I wanted to be alone. To process. The twins and Harper told me they understood, but I could see a million questions in their eyes. Questions I’d have to find answers for eventually if I was going to stick around.
My duffle bag was still sitting on the floor of my shop. Waiting for me to run. I picked it up and took it into my apartment. I dropped it on the coffee table and slumped onto my couch.
Stay? Or go?
Things weren’t different. Samir was still going to come for me. I wasn’t ready. I was more powerful than I had been a week ago, thanks to Bernie’s donation, but I was magically flabby. I couldn’t even put a fight half as good as the one I’d given him twenty years before. Not yet.