“I told you, my heart beats with yours. I can find you anywhere on this earth, because the closer I get, the stronger it beats.”
“I was saved by a romantic version of hot and cold?”
He grinned. “Exactly. Now rest, heal, and come back to me,” he murmured. “I will keep your heart strong.”
Blackness washed over me once again, but this time, there was no pain. Only love and acceptance.
Chapter Thirty
Just when I think I’ve got everything figured out, someone flips my world upside down and inside out.
Healing from physical injuries was simpler than recovery from the psychological. Time would beat the bumps, bruises, and breaks, but the crack in my psyche might be permanent. That’s the wound that weeps with heartache and disbelief. Heartache that another person was capable of inflicting such horror onto another, and disbelief that my own blood had ordered it.
To recover, I needed to cling to the fact that I had people who showed up for me regardless of the danger they were facing. That had kept me breathing each and every day since, and three weeks in, I was starting to venture farther from my rooms, albeit in small doses. Much of the time I was secluded in my sitting room, which had gained a TV, due to Hudson’s insistence that I needed something mindless to distract me.
They hadn’t left me alone for one minute since my rescue, other than to use the bathroom, and even then someone waited outside the door, talking drivel to me. It was as if they were afraid I’d shatter into pieces and they wanted to be there to put me back together. I was eternally grateful, but as I had started gaining confidence to leave my safe place, they needed to begin leaving me alone to build up my resilience.
Indigo had been suspiciously quiet, no demands for retribution or soul sucking. Like me, I believed she was licking her wounds in her own way.
I twisted on the sofa, flopping from lying on my side to my back. Bella grumbled from her position on the back of the sofa. She’d also made it her business to watch over me. Hudson squeezed my feet and I groaned, because damn, I’d discovered I’d do anything for a foot rub.
He tore his eyes away from another show about the Bermuda Triangle. Apparently, it’s a portal to another dimension.
“You need anything?” he asked.
“I could murder for some of Aunt Liz’s fried chicken.”
“I’ll call down.”
“Could you go and get it for me? Perhaps get Maggie to rustle up a batch of triple chocolate cookies?”
His thumbs pause in a particularly sweet spot in the arch of my foot. His gaze bore into mine, and he seemed to get the unspoken need. With a sigh he lifted my legs and stood.
“Don’t move,” he said.
“I’ll not leave the house,” I promised, but I needed the toilet, so moving was important.
He bent and kissed my forehead. This was something else that needed fixing. He was treating me like I would break into a thousand pieces. He’d surrounded me with warmth and love, but any attempt on my part to make things physical was shot down.
He exited the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. I swung my feet to the floor and sighed. See? Nothing bad was happening. I could do this. I made my way to the bathroom, relieved my protesting bladder, then sauntered back into the kitchen, grabbing a soda from the refrigerator.
On the counter top was a pile of mail that needed to be dealt with. I collected it and opened my door as I held my breath. Nothing happened. I was safe, I reminded myself. I made it to the ground floor and Maggie waved at me with her eyes comically wide. Rebecca and Sebastian strode from the parlor with careful smiles. I rolled my eyes.
“I’m fine.” I waved the post in their faces. “I need to go and pay our bills before the electricity company cuts us off.”
Hudson strode from the kitchen looking like he was about to carry me off. I held up a hand. “I’m going to my office. Alone.”
He shook his head. “I’ll come with you. In fact, I will pay those for you.”
“Please?” I whispered. I needed to do something to start to restore my confidence.
He crossed his arms and sighed. “Fine, I’ll be right here. If you shout, I will come.”
I nodded gratefully and made my way to my office, leaving the door open so he could hear me moving around. I knew I wasn’t the only one scarred by recent events. He had nearly lost his mate; that would have a profound and long-lasting effect.
Sitting in my chair, a long sigh left me. I opened my drawer and removed my laptop. I started making my way through the huge pile of mail, placing the bridal magazines to one side for later. Perhaps it was time to start facing the fact I would need them. Ugh, shopping, even for this, wasn’t fun. I would delegate it to Rebecca and Dayna.
I grabbed Lucifer’s business card from my top drawer which was next to the stack of weird little black cards I’d been receiving. I dropped him an email, keeping to the facts. Eloise was behind the demon summoning and was responsible for syphoning their magic. We’d interrupted her operation which was to build herself an army of elementals, but she’d escaped, and by all accounts was holed up in The Order’s headquarters behaving like she’d not ordered the torture of her own granddaughter. I left that last part out. Lucifer wasn’t interested in my welfare.
