“Maybe I just wanted to keep you around a little longer. Not sure how I’ll survive without your sparkling personality.” Her eyes were shining, but she said it with such a dry, sarcastic tone that I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.
Cassandra rounded on her. “You areimpossible!My brother has been missing for a week, and when he comes back, you sit on the information forhours!?I could have been at his house by now! What if that twat waffle hurt him?”
“That twat waffle definitely hurt him,” I deadpanned, sliding my hands into my pockets with a sigh. “I saw him earlier. He’s injured for sure.”
Cass looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to punch me in the face or scream at me. Maybe both.
Theo shrugged. “Listen, Cass. I know you think blowing the fucking door down with your fire hose of an attitude helps things, but sometimes it’s better to let things lie. The dude just got out of what I would assume is a traumatic situation. The last thing he needs is you freaking the fuck out and losing your shit all over him. I just figured he might want a couple minutes to lick his wounds before you go storming in there like you’re the goddamn cavalry.”
I glanced at Theo, cocking an eyebrow in surprise. Sometimes I forgot how perceptive she was. It was easy to get swept up in her gruff exterior and assume she wasn’t paying attention or didn’t give a shit about the people around her.
But in moments like this, I was always reminded that Theowaspaying attention. And shedidgive a shit. I really should try to give her more credit.
“He’ll be here soon,” Iris said abruptly, and my skin turned to gooseflesh at the look on her face. My mother, who never seemed to be bothered by anything, looked as grave as she did the day my father died.
“We will need to work together to save him.”
“What are you going on about?” Cass asked, though her face was quickly going pale. I think she had caught on that Iris was a little different than the rest of us.
Over the last week, I had learned that Cass was incredibly smart. Though she hadn’t straight up asked if my mother was a witch, I was pretty sure she had figured it out.
At first, she’d seemed skeptical. However, like most people, after spending a few days with Iris, I could see she was getting more and more suspicious about how unnervingly accurate my mother’s seemingly random observations generally turned out to be.
She was just too on the nose for it to be chalked up to coincidence.
“Save who, mom?” I whispered. My entire body was freezing cold. It felt like my blood had turned to ice because I knew… Before she even said the words, Iknewwho needed saving.
“Your dark angel, dear.”
As if the universe timed it, the back door nearly blew off its hinges, causing all of us to jump. Time seemed to slow down as I turned to find that Vox had literally kicked the door in while trying to support a barely conscious Callum Walker.
There. Was. Blood.
Everywhere.
Cal was slumped over Vox’s left shoulder, his dark hair falling into his gorgeous eyes, hiding them from me. He was holding something wet and crusty to his abdomen, where most of the blood seemed to be coming from.
“What the fuck happened!?” Cassandra was screeching. Vox looked up at me and made eye contact. He was pale, and theabsolutely terrified look on his face told me that this was just as serious as it seemed.
He seemed to be begging me to do something with his eyes, and I realized that there was no way we could take Cal to a hospital… not if he had been injured doing something illegal.
The world fell away, and suddenly, I snapped into action. Falling into the version of myself that took control and powered through whatever bullshit life threw at me, I straightened.
“Theo, get Cass out of here. Vox, take Cal downstairs, get him on the table in the embalming room.”
“What! I’m not fucking going anywhere! That’smybrother!”
I rounded on Cassandra and pinned her with what I knew was one of my coldest looks.
Her eyes widened in surprise. Usually, I kept quiet when she was having one of her moments, but I didn’t have the patience for her today.
“Yes, he isyourbrother, and in case you haven’t noticed, he’s fucking bleeding out. Now unless you know a private doctor that you can get over here in time to save his fucking life, I need you to give me space to work.”
Cass opened and closed her mouth several times, apparently completely shocked by my sudden show of force. I watched her struggle with her need to always be in control before resigning herself to the fact that I was right. If she wasn’t going to be helpful, she needed to stay out of the way.
Finally, she straightened herself and gave me a firm nod, which made me like her a lot more than I previously had. You had to respect someone who was self-aware enough to realize that they were being a jackass.
“Done. Keep him stable. I’ll see if I can find someone.”
