Mary looked away, her lips turning down. “I suppose I should thank him at some point, but I hate owing anything to Fergus or any of his kind.”
Juliet then recalled how Fergus had picked Mary up and released a potent howl. She told Mary about it.
“I don’t understand. Why would he do that? He must have risked all our lives making such a primal sound.”
“I honestly don’t know what came over him. He was otherwise in supreme control. I hate to say this, but I think it might have been because of you.”
“Me?” Her light blue eyes widened. “Why?”
Juliet was reluctant to speak the words, but she said them anyway. “He’s reaching the peak of his mate-hunting cycle. I think he liked you.”
Mary made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat. “Shifters. Ugh.” She even shuddered. “Okay, let’s not talk about Fergus anymore. Has Brannick called you back yet?”
A few days ago, Juliet had confessed everything to Mary. Her friend had been stunned, even appalled until Juliet confessed being very much in love with a vampire from Crescent.
“No, he hasn’t reached out to me. Just the once to make sure I was still alive and kicking. He hung up pretty fast.”
She forced herself to keep breathing, but the mere mention of him made her chest feel like it was being pulled in a dozen different directions all at the same time. She hurt though she tried hard not to let too much of it show. “I don’t expect him to be calling anytime soon. He doesn’t really have a reason to. I mean, getting you away from Roche was his biggest concern and now you’re here and very safe.”
“You really love him, don’t you?”
Mary was a very direct sort of person, so the question didn’t surprise Juliet.
Tears bloomed in her eyes. “I ... Oh, God … Yes, I do. More than I can possibly say.”
~ ~ ~
Brannick yelled at the punk vampire, high on dark flame. “Use your levitation, asshole, or you’re going to fall off that ledge and break your fucking neck.”
He stood outside a supermarket in a fairly safe area of Crescent. An emaciated drug addict was walking the edge of the metal ramada that covered most of the parking lot. Dark flame tended to put its addicts into a dreamy state, much like the dreamglide he’d shared all that time with Juliet.
He got tired of watching the man weave back and forth. Besides, the audience was growing and in a situation like this, if the man fell, he could end up hurting one of the bystanders.
Brannick levitated up behind the addict and put him in a chokehold. He swung him quickly in the direction of his patrol SUV, then flew him straight to the vehicle. Once there, Brannick cuffed him and tossed him in the back. By then, the vampire had passed out.
He grumbled to himself as he put the SUV in motion, heading back to the station. “Exciting life of a peace officer. Taking care of drunks.”
Great, now he was talking to himself.
Brannick’s nights had been less than stellar since he left Agnes’s compound. His boss, Easton, had been punishing his two night absence with shit jobs like pulling drugged-out vampires off ramadas. Other duties had been equally as meaningless. Three of the drug-runners he’d captured in west Crescent had been released on Easton’s orders, despite having been caught with vests stuffed with a variety of flame drugs.
He had no patience these nights. He was irritable as hell and blamed Juliet for that. He had a lot of fae intuition mucking up his thoughts as well as his nightly patrols. Granted, he’d saved more than one life, because he sensed something else was going on in a given situation. His odd faeness had ferreted out the truth when otherwise he couldn’t have done it.
Mostly, he was discontent in a way he hadn’t been in a long time, not since he arrived in Five Bridges thirteen years ago. Every other thought belonged to Juliet, even though he’d never be able to forgive her for what she’d done. She’d violated his dreams and seduced him.
Did he have thoughts that maybe he shouldn’t care so much? Sure he did. He was a man first and what he’d had with Juliet was nothing short of amazing. He’d be a fool not to want her in his life. But how could he trust a woman who’d lied to him, besides crossing that forbidden boundary?
He worked at building up his wall against her. He knew in time, the searing memories of being with her would fade. Although, it would help a lot if he had serious work to do, like taking out some bad guys in Rotten Row.
When a call came in regarding three prostitutes in a cat fight outside a dive bar near Sentinel Bridge, he rolled his eyes and turned his vehicle around.
But as he drove, his discontentment turned into something bigger, as in what the hell was he doing with his life?
~ ~ ~
A full week after Mary’s rescue, Juliet woke up with a headache. And she never had headaches.
She tried to recall her dreams, but couldn’t. Also unusual. She believed in keeping dream journals and had written in one up until about five months ago when her erotic relationship with Brannick had taken off.