My heart pinched.‘Never. Not in a million years, Sawyer. If you didn’t get me out of there, I never would have been free and I never would have found love. Aren’t those like two basic principles of happiness?’
I could almost feel him grinning.‘So you’re saying I did you a favor? Maybe you owe me.’
I snorted.‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
He was quiet while I dressed, and I wondered what else was bothering him.‘What’s going on with you? Everything okay near the Witch Lands?’
He sighed, and there was a pause where I could feel him sifting through what to tell me.‘Sawyer, what’s going on?’
‘I’ve been escorted back to Sterling Hill, where I’m on house arrest. I can’t leave the school grounds until my trial for Vicon Drake’s murder.’
Holy fuck.‘Sawyer, it’s all good, I blew up the evidence room when I was with the vampires.’
I briefly gave him a rundown of the room with the briefcase and fur in it and how I’d made it all go poof.
‘You did that for me?’he asked finally.‘Even after what happened with Meredith?’
‘Of course!’I admonished.‘True mates, remember?’
‘That was… very sweet, Demi, but they’d already gotten the results and sent them to the Magic City Crime Division. Then when I showed up and tried to bring you home, they pulled some fur off my wolf to confirm…’
No.
No, no, no.
‘What are you saying?’I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t put two and two together.
His sorrow pushed through our bond.‘I’m saying that I’m on trial for assassinating the prince of Vampire City. If found guilty, I’ll spend the next twenty years in Magic City Jail.’
I shook my head back and forth vigorously.‘No. Vicon raped me. We filed a complaint. Have your useless lawyer pull that file. He should be in jail. Not you. And like you said, the sentence in Vampire City for brutal rape is death.’
‘The rape would have to be proven in court,’he told me.
I nodded.‘I’ll testify, so can Raven and my mother and father. The local human hospital in Spokane did a rape kit. I will not let you take the fall for killing that awful animal.’
I could feel the barely contained anger brewing inside of him and I knew it wasn’t anger at me. It was anger at Vicon and Queen Drake, and the system. ‘Look, I don’t want you to worry about this. Just get to the Witch Lands. Your mother and Raven are waiting to greet you. They will bring you to me. Just focus on surviving, Demi. They will do everything in their power to take you from me.’
Survive. Wasn’t that my middle name now? I could do this. I could make it back to him. I would make sure he wasn’t going anywhere.
I whimpered.‘Why… why do they want me so badly?’
He sighed.‘About a hundred reasons. You’re a split shifter and they want your power. They’ll use you like a battery, draining you every day to fill themselves up. They also know that if I don’t get married, my entire family line dies and our wolves will have no alpha, which will make our race easier to control.’
Well, if that wasn’t just awful, I didn’t know what was.
‘I got this. I’ll see you soon. Promise,’I told him, and then stepped out into the living room to find Sage in Walsh’s lap,kissinghim.
Holy mother.
I cleared my throat and she jumped off of him like she’d been stung, wiping at her red lips. “What’s up?” she said, her voice cracking. “Shower have hot water? Did you get all the blood off? I’m next. I think I’ll head in.” She blasted past my grinning face with her crimson cheeks and shut herself in the bathroom.
I looked at Walsh, who looked surprisingly calm as he watched the flames of the fire flickering to the top of the stone. I decided to let this go and get the details later from Sage.
“I talked to Sawyer,” I told Walsh. “He’s on house arrest now in Werewolf City. Can’t leave until his hearing.”
Walsh’s eyes went stormy. “That’s bullshit. That vampire had it coming.”
I’d forgotten until this moment that Walsh had been on that “hunting trip” with Sawyer.
