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“Were they going to kill Ivan?” Misha asked.
“The acupuncturist, who has never been wrong yet and who has no idea what happened, said Sephie took everything this time to save Ivan, just like last time he took everything to save her,” I said.
“It makes sense. They needed Sephie. They didn’t need Ivan,” Stephen said.
“That’s exactly what she said,” Sephie said. “I still say all I did was run my mouth,” she said, grinning at Ivan. He slid his arm around her shoulders, once more kissing the top of her head. When he did, her eyes went wide for a second and she looked up at him. “Do that again,” she said.
“Do what again?” he asked.
“What were you just thinking about just now?”
“How I needed to do a better job of protecting you next time,” he said quietly.
She looked to me, asking, “Did you feel it this time?” I shook my head no, but I knew she was talking about Ivan’s bubble. She looked back at Ivan and told him to think the same thoughts again, but to turn up the volume. As he did, I could feel it. Where there had been background noise and I could feel the other four guys in the kitchen with us, now I couldn’t hear anything but Sephie. It was like the other four were gone. It felt exactly like how Sephie had described earlier. Like Ivan had put us in a bubble and he was standing guard over us. I looked at her and she knew instantly that I was feeling the same thing she was. She looked back at Ivan, a wide smile on her face. “That’s the same thing that happened when you stood over me in the hospital because the doctor was being a weirdo,” she said. As she talked, Ivan’s bubble disappeared and everything returned to normal.
“What new level did you just unlock for him?” Andrei asked.
“When Ivan gets protective of me, it’s like he puts me in a bubble. That’s what happened in the hospital. I could feel Adrik beside me, I could feel Ivan watching over me, but I couldn’t hear or feel any of you or the doctor until I assume the doctor left,” she said.
“I do?” Ivan asked. Clearly, he wasn’t aware he was doing this.
“You do. I felt it this time,” I said. “It was like everything but Sephie and you were shut out for me just now.”
“I’m still on board with turning him into a vampire. Especially now that I know he’s got special powers. Next up on the list, Misha. We’re building an army to make Vlad proud,” Stephen said, without cracking as much as a hint of a smile. “Those Turks aren’t going to know what hit them.”
Sephie was still tired after dinner, which I was happy about. I wanted her to be able to sleep while I was talking to Armando, rather than worrying about anything. I left Andrei and Misha with her, hoping Andrei could keep her warm enough that she would sleep until I got back. I tried to leave Ivan as well, but he said there was no way he wasn’t going. There’s a time and place for arguing with Ivan. This was neither the time nor the place.
Before we left, I helped Sephie add a pair of my sweatpants to her attire to help her stay warm while I was downstairs, which gave us a moment alone. “It feels like your pain is slightly better after the acupuncture?” I said, somewhat unsure if I was correct or not.
“Mmm hmm. My shoulder and ribs still hurt, but the rest of me hurts much less,” she said.
“Good. Ivan scheduled her to come every day for a while. Hopefully, that will give you some relief,” I said, tying my sweatpants tight enough that they would stay up. She had her good hand resting on my shoulder, watching me as I was bent down in front of her. When I stood up, she was smiling at me.
“I know what you’re about to do and yet here you are, making sure to dress me so I stay warm while you’re gone,” she said, laughing.
“I would much rather stay with you, but since I can’t, I still have to make sure you’re taken care of. The rest of it, literally everything else, doesn’t matter without you, Sephie,” I said. I stepped closer to her, my palm against her cheek. “That feeling of not knowing where you were, or even if you were still alive…I never want to have that feeling again and I will destroy anyone or anything that threatens you.” I leaned down and pressed my lips gently to hers. “Armando is both lucky he’s still alive and unlucky he’s still alive. I would’ve killed him right then if you hadn’t stopped me. If I wouldn’t have, Stephen would’ve finished him. It takes a lot to push that guy to his breaking point, but he was almost as angry as I was. He’s unstoppable when he’s like that.”
She smiled her sweet smile up at me, holding on to my forearm to keep my hand against her cheek. “Ivan told me that Stephen’s bloodlust is almost as bad as yours. I’ll admit I had a hard time believing it at first. He said that it didn’t matter how many men were guarding the building, all it would take was the two of you and there would be no survivors.”
“He was right. Viktor, Andrei, and Misha covered the outside of the building in case more people showed up. There wasn’t a single guard left alive by the time we got to you and Ivan,” I said. As she looked at me, I felt her warmth spreading through my body.
“I knew you would come for me,” she said quietly. I leaned down and kissed her again, thinking about how I really wanted to kiss her, about how much she meant to me, and about how I would destroy the entire world to get her back. I could feel her falter, which meant her knees were threatening to give out, so I stopped the kiss. When I stepped back and looked at her, her eyes were as dark as I’d ever seen them. I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how long it would last, and completely turned on by them.
“How did Armando and Sal not shit themselves when they saw you like this?” I asked, grinning at her.
“Like you said, I don’t think they believed what they were seeing. It’s a little weird. I admit that,” she said.
“I love all your weird,” I said as I leaned down to pick her up to take her back out to Andrei and Misha.
On the way downstairs in the elevator, Ivan said, “I got a call from the jeweler when Sephie was in the hospital. I just couldn’t tell you about it because she was always with you. He said her ring is finally ready.”
“Good. Now she just needs to heal before I can give it to her,” I said. “You keep it until then. I don’t want to risk her finding it. She already saw the sketches of it on my desk, but didn’t pay much attention to them, thankfully.”
“I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” Ivan said.
Instead of bringing Armando to my office, we left him in the room. I didn’t want him to ever know comfort again in the short time he had remaining on this planet. He looked worse than Sephie and Ivan, which made me happy. Armando tried to stay in shape, but he was no fighter. He caused damage to Sephie simply because he was stronger than she was and she was tied up, so she couldn’t defend herself. He could still only open one eye.
As soon as he saw us walk in, he started lying. “Boss, I don’t understand why I’m in here. I was trying to save Sephie,” he said.
