Although maybe Josh was right and his car keysshouldbe taken away. Jude wouldn’t lock the sheriff up, but I was pretty sure one day he’d lead the sheriff to locking him up. It seemed to be his mission in life.
Corbin kissed the top of my head. “You really did do everything right. I hope you know that. You have no reason at all to feel guilt about what happened.”
I snuggled into Corbin, nodding my head. If that’s what the doctors said, I guess that was right. My dream about having the guy who died cross over made a lot more sense now, too. I had probably felt some guilt, so I’d dreamed him up and reunited him with his ma. (Who I could hear yelling at him before we even got to shore, which was pretty funny. He had looked upset but also maybe slightly pleased. Like he deserved to get yelled at, and maybe her forgiveness would make things okay. And I couldtell just from her tone that she was mad, but that she loved him and would forgive him.)
Corbin smoothed my hair back, giving me a kiss on the head.
It was super nice to cuddle in his arms, but it was way too early to fall asleep. And I kind of had a lot of energy. I heard a caw from outside, and it was as if Corbin could read my mind. Or maybe he could just read my hyperactivity, because I might have been bouncing my feet.
“You wanna go take a small hike on the property?” Corbin asked. “I can introduce you to the different plants and stones.”
I looked at him, and he blushed, almost like he knew that was kind of weird wording. I just smiled brightly.
“Yes! That sounds awesome! And I wanna know more about you being a witch, if that’s okay. I’m not Toby-level nosy… Well, sometimes I am,” I laughed.
He hugged me. “I’d love to share with you.”
I hopped up, ready to head out, unable to contain my excitement.
This was probably the best date that I knew was a date that I’d ever had.
Chapter 17
Corbin
I satat the kitchen table, tapping my foot distractedly. Sebbie had gone to work today, and he’d been there for six hours and forty-seven minutes.
Not that I was counting. Much.
We’d spent the last few days together for most of our waking time. We’d walked through the forest, and Sebbie had asked me about my heritage and my beliefs. He’d been fascinated as I described how everything had a natural essence, even rocks and soil. I’d shown him my wild garden of herbs and medicinal plants, and we’d watched the sunset through the leaves of the trees in the forest.
I hadn’t quite figured out a way to stay over with him, but we’d met up each morning for breakfast, and we just hadn’t separated afterwards. Sebbie had even taken an extra day off, using vacation time so that we could spend another day together. We’d watched some of his beloved 80s movies, and I could see where the appeal was (especially with Sebbie quoting lines along with the movie). We’d gone out to run errands, restocking his fridge. We’d cooked dinner at his place, and we’d moved fluidly around one another in the kitchen, working together like we’d done it for years.
There had been kissing as well, of course. And we’d ended each evening with a stroking session. I was looking forward to getting my mouth on Sebbie, but he enjoyed our cocks together so much that I couldn’t resist doing that. Seeing our size difference and watching his face as he was overtaken with pleasure was addictive. Besides, we had time to explore everything that we might like.
We’d alternated between his house and my house, and we’d spent most of our time just talking. I loved hearing about his work at the hospital, and he loved hearing about making jewelry, carving stones, and my medicinal plant work. We’d spoken about our childhoods, and I’d even told him that my mother had died due to medical negligence. I made sure not to mention anything that would date it, and he hadn’t asked many questions—he’d mainly been outraged on my behalf, ranting about doctors who didn’t do their job responsibly. I could tell that Sebbie really cared, and it had eased something in my soul.
But today he’d gone back to work. I’d headed over for a very early breakfast before he started his long shift, and I’d offered to drop him at the hospital, which he’d taken me up on. Now I just had to wait until his shift was over to go get him.
Crow cawed from outside. She was as antsy as I was, and she hadn’t wanted to hang around in the house. Jude’s car was pulling up, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
At least not until he walked in the house and dumped a body on the floor next to me.
“Surprise! I got you a gift!” he said gleefully.
I stared down at the man. He was alive but unconscious, his arms and legs zip-tied, and he wasn’t a rotten soul.
“Jude, if this is some bid to get the sheriff’s attention, then I’m telling Josh and Wilder.”
“It’s not! This is for you! I swear!” Jude protested, giving the man a little nudge with his foot.
The guy groaned but he didn’t wake up. He was a wealthy-looking, middle-aged white guy. He wasn’t rotten, but his soul wasn’t shining, either. My guess was that he was probably an absolute piece of shit. Still, we didn’t harm morally gray souls.
Well, we didn’t kill them, at least. We used them for information when we had to, but as far as I knew, we didn’t have any open cases we were looking into. Well, aside from the Nephilim cult thing, because there were probably more of them around. But this guy wasnotNephilim.
“Is this for one of your marks? You need info?” I asked.
I sometimes forgot that Jude was also an assassin for hire. He did it for fun as a side job, and it brought in some nice spare change. It amused him, too, to go out and scope out things, to see who the actual victimshouldbe. Like if a guy was looking to murder his wife, he’d do the research. If the guy was rotten—oops! He died instead. If the wife was rotten, then she got killed and Jude got paid. He tended to take bigger marks than that, though. And he really only did the assassin thing when he was bored.
