With the shifter now being treated by Alfonso and his team, she returned to the rescue entrance. She’d had her unusual, belowground apartment constructed on the opposite side of the tiled foyer. She had a powerful spell protecting the entrance.
She didn’t know the why of it, but after she’d killed the witches, she’d needed to live holed up in the earth. It gave her comfort, she could be private and her spell kept her secure.
She excelled in security spells like the one around her entire property. As much as any creature in Five Bridges could be secure, Maeve was.
Once she crossed the spelled boundary of her apartment, she headed down the spiral stone staircase that led to the first belowground level. The bottom step opened up to a large, high-ceilinged living room. Straight ahead was her bedroom and bathroom.
Sheba, her black cat and witch muse, met her at the bottom step and meowed at her.
“Hello to you, too.” Maeve was surprised. Sheba didn’t usually greet her like this. But Sheba was her own cat and expressed herself freely around Maeve.
With her clothes filthy from handling the shifter, Maeve wanted a shower. Sheba followed her into the bedroom, meowing the entire time.
Maeve slid her shoes off then unzipped her jeans. “What’s gotten into you?” Sheba sat right in front of her, but continued to yowl. Maybe she was out of food.
Just as Maeve pulled her shirt over her head, her cell rang. She plucked it from her jeans pocket. Alfonso. Oh, no.
Sheba let a long and almost hoarse meow flow from her furry throat.
She stared at her cat as she spoke to Alfonso. “What’s wrong?” He never called during a procedure. “Did he die?”
“No, our guest is very much alive. But he’s in bad shape and there’s something you need to know.”
She forced herself to take a deep breath. Every instinct she had now vibrated with warning. “Spill it, my friend.”
“It’s Officer Braden. The shifter we brought in was Braden and I’ll need your special witch blood to transfuse.”
Braden.
Time stopped. That’s the only way she could describe what happened.
Had she heard right?
She should have known, but how could she? His face had been bloody and badly swollen. There was no way she could have recognized him.
Her throat grew tight. Dammit, why was she having this kind of reaction, as though she was losing her husband all over again.
She and Braden weren’t that close. Except, she’d gotten to know him well over the many appointments he’d made with her. For over a year, he’d been on a mission to locate his wife’s killers. For eight hours a day, he worked as a Border Patrol Officer, one of the hardest, most dangerous jobs in Five Bridges. But after each shift, he was on the hunt in her territory. He’d even rented a cheap apartment in Elegance Territory so he could work the case off-hours.
Until this moment, however, she hadn’t realized how important he’d become to her.
Somehow, in the months she’d gotten to know him, he’d become a true friend. In that sense, he was one of the first friendships she’d formed in Five Bridges. His wife had been killed not long after Maeve had arrived in Elegance.
“On my way.”
She jumped into a clean pair of jeans and threw on a fresh t-shirt, then ran the entire distance back to the emergency room.
~ ~ ~
Braden hovered between worlds. Gray fog rolled through the space. For some reason, he now lay on his back. Was he in the Graveyard? He couldn’t tell.
From far away, he heard voices calling to each other. One male shifter appeared to be giving orders. But he couldn’t make out the words.
He felt a soft hand on his face.
He turned. A gasp shuddered in his throat. His wife had returned. He tried to speak, but his voice wasn’t working. He switched to telepathy.Laura, my Love.
I’m here, my darling.
