“Like the automatic blinds.” Lucas sits on the edge of the bed, taking my hand in his.
“Exactly like that. I know I’m not there, but little things like that…it sends me back, and everything gets tight, and I can’t breathe.” I bring my hand to my chest. “It’s stupid, I know.”
“It’s not stupid,” Lucas and Abby say at the same time.
“I can’t force you to go through with any sort of testing or treatment, you know that, right?” Abby says.
“Yeah, I do.” I pick dried blood off Lucas’s hand. “And I really do feel fine.”
“But you shouldn’t,” Lucas says slowly. “Not that I’m ungrateful, but when I found you…I wasn’t sure if you would make it.” He grips my hand tighter and leans in, resting his forehead against mine as he gently runs his fingers through my hair. It’s an intimate gesture, but Lucas has never seemed to have a concept of PDA.
Or if he does, he simply doesn’t care.
“I…I don’t know what happened,” I start, thinking about how I was able to conjure energy while under a ward against witchcraft.
I shouldn’t have been able to do that.
Just like I shouldn’t have been able to command hellfire.
Or heal myself.
“But I do know you still have business matters to attend to.”
“That pales in comparison to this.” Lucas cups my face with his hands, and my heart skips a beat.
“I’m fine, I promise,” I whisper, wanting nothing more than to lie down next to him and drift to sleep. Well, after a shower, of course. I turn my head, looking at my sister. “Right? I’m fine.”
“Um,” Abby starts. “Let me do an exam and check your vitals at least.”
“I can handle that.” Lucas breaks away but keeps his hand on mine. “Distract me?” I ask him as Abby pulls a penlight from her pocket.
“Should I take off my clothes?” Lucas asks seriously. He’s joking and I know it, but Abby freezes, looking at him with wide eyes.
“Only if you do a Magic Mike dance for me,” I say back without missing a beat. “Oh, can you go get me a bunch of dollar bills first? I want to make it rain as you’re shaking it in my face.”
Lucas laughs and runs his fingers along the inside of my wrist, tracing my veins. Feeling my heart beating comforts him.
“I was thinking that since the graveyard has been conveniently cleared of bodies, we have room for a pool.”
“I thought the same thing!” I stare straight ahead as Abby looks into my eyes. “But we have those tombstones to deal with, and I feel bad just tossing them.”
“About a century ago, I was in a small town in Europe and saw an interesting cobblestone path. They used graves as part of the pathway. It struck me then, and I think it would add the exact type of character you love to the house.”
I smile and have to remind myself not to turn and look at Lucas. How he gets me on such a deep level, I’ll never know.
“We can do that from the driveway leading to the front door. Will you want a garage?”
“Of course. Some of my cars do not stay outside.”
“Men and their cars.” I can’t help but roll my eyes then. “Can I steal a spot in the garage? It’ll be so nice not to have to clear snow off my Jeep again.”
“You’ll have the spot closet to the house.”
“We left that zombie in the attic.”
“You’re right. I forgot about that. At least there wasn’t much left of her.”
“I need to figure out who she is. It’ll help to know her name in case she starts haunting us the day we move in.”
Abby takes her stethoscope from her neck. “Did you get a house together?”
“We just bought one,” I say. “Well, Lucas bought it. We quite literally signed the paperwork hours ago.”
“Wow. That’s…that’s…really nice.”
“It is.” I smile again. Abby’s trying hard to have a relationship with me, and I know this is all weird to her. She’s scared of vampires and is only okay around Lucas because she knows he loves me—and knows I have the power to stop him. “You’ll have to come over once everything is restored. The house is old and has been empty for a while. It’ll take a few months at least to get things move-in ready.”
“Is it in Thorne Hill?” Abby puts the stethoscope to my chest.
“Yes, it’s actually close to my current house. I’ve wanted to buy it for years but couldn’t afford it.”
“Breathe in,” she tells me. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. She moves the stethoscope down my chest. “Take another deep breath.” She moves to my back, listening to my lungs.
“Are you talking about that big white house?” she asks, hanging her stethoscope around her neck again. “The one you can just hardly see through the trees as you leave your place?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“It’s a neat old house. Kinda creepy.” She smiles. “It suits you.”
She checks my blood pressure and temperature next. “Your vitals are normal, and you don’t have signs of a concussion.”
“So I can leave?”
“Yes and no. I have no reason to keep you. If you didn’t tell me the extent of your head injury, I wouldn’t suspect it. But knowing how hard you were hit still concerns me. If you do go home, um…” She looks at Lucas. “You can hear her heart beat?”
“Yes,” he says. “And yours.”
Abby closes her eyes, shaking her head and looking away. “That’s…interesting. Can you, um, keep an eye on her for the rest of the night?”
“I will.”
“Call my cell if anything changes. If you just feel the slightest twinge of pain, let me know, okay?”
“I will, but I promise, I’m fine,” I press again. “I just want a shower, a pizza, and a nap.”
Abby lets out a sigh. “I’m here all night and will call you on my next break.”
“I don’t have my phone,” I tell her.
“You can use mine,” Lucas says. “There’s a landline at the house too. I never use it, but you’re more than welcome to it.”
“I’ll call you in the morning,” I tell Abby. “And thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You’re my sister. I’m glad you’re okay. And Lucas? Thanks for looking out for her. I’m glad she has you.”
Chapter 22
“That feels better.” I sink onto the bed, eyelids heavy. Lucas is next to me, and his hands go to my shoulders. We just got out of the shower, and I want so badly to fall back against the mattress and go to sleep.
I’m exhausted, feeling a similar type of depletion as when I commanded the hellfire. My mind is whirling, and I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not really a witch…or not just a witch.
“And that feels amazing.” My eyes close and my head falls forward as Lucas massages my muscles.
“Lay down,” he tells me. “Get some rest, my love.”
Nodding, I let him pull me down to the bed. He covers us both up and keeps rubbing my back. Right when I’m about to drift to sleep, I feel the same panic I did when that vampire rushed at me and sank her fangs into my neck.
My eyes fly open, and I’m hit with anxiety, crippling every muscle, every single nerve in my body.
“Callie?” Lucas inches closer. “What’s wrong?”
“What isn’t wrong?” I roll over, needing to feel his cool skin against mine. “Other vampires know about us. How? It’s not like I go around telling people I’m a witch.”
“I don’t know,” he says, sounding pained to admit the truth to me. “But I will find out. If I have to rip that bitch apart until there is nothing left, I will.”
“I know.”
“That’s not all that’s bothering you, though, is it?”
I shake my head. “I can’t stop thinking about being called a half-breed, Scott saying I’m not really his sister, and now being able to do magic while warded.”
“Vampires aren’t known for their ability to
carry out magical acts. I’m sure they got the symbols wrong.”
He’s trying to comfort me, I know, and I wish I could believe him. But I can’t. Something is nagging at me, and every time I blink, I get a flash of the blue-eyed man. He feels so familiar and has an oddly comforting sense to him. But why?
“The man I saw in the fire,” I start.
“The one with the blue eyes who you’ve been dreaming about?”
“I need to talk to him.”
“You’re not sure if he’s real.”
I bite my lip. “He is. I can just feel it.”
“How will you go about talking to him?”
“I don’t know.”
“My love,” Lucas whispers, pressing his lips to mine. “You need to rest.”
“I’m too anxious to sleep. I’ll go to the bar with you. Make sure everything is okay and all.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Lucas.” I prop myself up on my elbow. “The whole reason we came to Chicago was to deal with this. Did you get the address for the guy who—can you open a window?”
“Why?”
“Binx.”