Mathias walked out to greet the arriving warriors and his friend from JUSTIS.
His talk with Nova would have to wait.
Right now, he had a killer to hunt down and destroy.
~ ~ ~
Nova had done her best to clean up Eddie and herself in the shop’s small restroom.
There wasn’t enough water in London to wash out all of the blood that stained the shell-shocked kid’s shirt and trembling hands. She’d tried to scrub it off her too, from her fingers and bare feet, the knees of her dark sweats gore-soaked from when she’d knelt down beside Ozzy to relive his last moments of life.
The sink had run red down the drain for fifteen minutes straight before she’d finally given up. Nothing to do for their clothes but burn them.
She dropped Eddie’s ruined T-shirt in the restroom trash bin and gave him a tender look. “You okay?”
He nodded weakly, then shook his head. His eyes were still puffy and moist from his tears. His mouth quivered as he spoke. “What are we gonna do, Nova?”
She offered him a smile, but it felt wobbly and uncertain on her lips. “We’ll figure it out.”
The same words Mathias had spoken to her earlier that night, when she’d finally admitted to him that she didn’t have her shit together at all, that she was scared.
She was still scared, even more so now. Not only because Ozzy was gone, and she didn’t know what her life was going to be like without the old man being part of it, but because she had somehow let another man into her life.
Into her heart.
Mathias.
How had she been so careless as to let her guard down with him, after a lifetime of keeping herself safely closed off, her wants and desires sealed up behind steep, unbreachable tower walls?
How had he managed to crash the gate, when she’d barely had time to prepare for the battle?
As much as Nova wanted to blame herself--blame him--for Ozzy’s suffering tonight while they’d been so blissfully, selfishly unaware, there was another part of her that wanted nothing more than to open the door and run to Mathias. For his comfort, for his strength.
And yes, for his love.
She needed all of those things from him, and she wasn’t afraid to admit, if only to herself.
Looking at Eddie, standing there half-dressed, his scrawny chest and shoulders shuddering under the weight of his shock and fear, Nova knew that she also needed Mathias’s protection. For the kid.
For herself as well.
Amid all of the horror and anguish tonight over the loss of Ozzy, she couldn’t afford to forget that there was a killer searching for her.
A savage Breed male who’d shown very clearly that he wasn’t going to let anyone get in his way of finding her.
Not even an innocent boy.
So much the worse, if Ozzy’s killer knew that Eddie had been nearby the whole time, close enough to hear him, and to know what he’d done to Oz.
What if the killer decided to come back to the shop?
What if he was somewhere outside, watching, waiting for a chance to make another move?
What if it was someone sent by her father--someone worse than Doyle or his other human thugs?
Each possibility seemed more awful than the next. The one thing she was certain of, was that the shop was no place for Eddie to be right now. Mathias had offered to take them somewhere safe tonight. Maybe she should let him.
She wrapped her arm around Eddie. “Let’s go talk to Mathias, okay?”