Gale rang us up and I handed over my card. We said our goodbyes and were back out in the dusky evening having spent no more than a couple minutes in the shop.
“Told you it would be okay.”
Jean sighed. “That’s not what I’m upset about.”
“Hogan?”
“You. Focusing on me. You need to let my decision go, Delaney. Let me and Hogan figure our stuff out.”
“Weren’t you the one telling me your worries about Hogan this morning?”
“I was sharing to share, not to have you take on another battle.”
“What are sisters for, but sharing in each other’s battles?”
“Don’t you think you have enough on your plate?”
“We all have enough on our plates,” I said. “That doesn’t mean other things, life things, love things, aren’t just as important.”
She stopped, turned to me. “Thank you. I mean that. But Delaney, you’re tied to a vampire who wants dark magic. A vampire who has proven he is willing to kill for what he wants. Ben has been gone for a day now…”
“…We’re going to find Ben.”
“…and we both know what the odds are of him being alive.”
I blinked hard as a sort of sickening cold rolled over me. Jean was never the first to give up hope. Jean was always the one who was fearless, who knew that as long as we kept fighting we would come out the other side. If not victors, if not whole, then alive. We would survive. To hear her assume we were going to lose Ben was more shocking to me than being attacked by a vampire.
“He’s going to be alive.” My tone was even, low as if I were approaching a strange animal.
“You don’t know that.” Her eyes were a little bright, watery.
“Yes, I do. We’re going to find Ben. Alive. And we’re going to put him back in Jame’s arms where he belongs so they can be bonded, as they deserve to be. Because they love each other, and they are in our town, and we’re not going to let them down. Do you understand that? We’re going to win this one, Jean. We are not going to let that bastard take us down. Any of us.”
She sniffed and wiped under her eyes with her thumbs. “It’s…I know. I know that.” She sniffed again, and blinked back tears, her shoulders going strong again. “I just want to do that. End this. Kill Lavius so we can go back to the little stuff, like my love life.”
I stepped forward and shifted the donut box so I could wrap my arm around her shoulders. “We will. And love is never the little stuff. It’s always the biggest stuff. The stuff that makes us who we are. The stuff that saves us and builds the lives we want to live. The stuff that we risk everything else for.”
“I know. But you being hurt like this is killing me, you know?”
“I know.”
“So the quicker we can find Ben. Alive,” she added with the kind of conviction I expected from her, “the quicker we can bring that bastard down. I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about me and Hogan, okay? We can worry about all that after we take care of Ben. And you.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me.”
“Pinky swear.”
“Good.” She patted my back and we strode back to the Jeep and got in.
Jame didn’t open his eyes, move, or make a sound. I hoped he was sleeping, but from the ragged rhythm of his breathing, I knew he was conserving energy, resting and hopefully, healing.
He had also probably heard every word we’d said. Werewolves had incredible hearing.
I didn’t like that he had insisted on following me around, nor that Granny had pushed it. I didn’t want to second-guess myself if I got in a dangerous situation that might hurt him.
I didn’t want to be the one who did him more damage.
