“See you on the other side?” I whisper with a smirk.
“I’m right behind you,” she assures.
I close my eyes and reach with my mind for the outside world, and between one breath and the next, I’m back and Callie is awake.
Chapter 17
Connor
The silence fills the room with a crushing ring, all of us transfixed on the girl in my arms and the friend that disappeared. Callie shows no signs of change, her outside the picture of calm while the monsters rage within.
“Did it work?” Nolan croaks, first to puncture the quiet.
“We won’t know until Felix comes back,” Kaleb answers with a troubled sigh. “Now we wait.”
Donovan crosses his arms, the leather of his jacket creaking, and his jaw is clenched. “How long do we wait?”
Kaleb cuts him a startled expression, Donovan’s real question underlying his words.How long do we wait before we think Felix is lost?
“Could you hold off on worst case scenarios for like five minutes?” Nolan snaps.
His skin is paler than normal and though I can smell the perfume of the girl he was with at the party, I don’t smell blood.One problem at a time.
“Yes,” Mildred declares, straightening her spine. “You told me to have faith in your friend, so have faith. Settle in and make yourselves comfortable. I’ll go heat the kettle. She’ll want something hot to drink when she wakes up.”
Nolan sits back down, pulling Callie’s feet into his lap. He rubs his fingers along her ankles, soles, and toes.
Kaleb settles on the other side of me, his head tipped back and his eyes closed. His hands curl into straining fists, before he slowly relaxes and drops them limp in his lap.
Donovan paces the handful of feet that mark the living room. With every pass, his eyes flash to Callie, his scowl shifting to open fear as the minutes tick by.
After about five minutes, he drops to his knees in front of her. He pulls her hand from under the blanket, his thumb gently running along her knuckles. He looks down onto her sleeping face that still rests against my chest, and with the gravel heavy in his voice, he utters, “You’re stronger than this. You tell whatever, or whoever, the fuck that is messing inside your head to fuck off.” He sniffs. “Then you and I are going to have a conversation. You’re one of us, which means your bullshit is our bullshit, and this disappearing on us is not okay. You’re not fighting this shit alone. Not anymore.”
“You should be a poet,” Nolan chuckles, leaning sideways against the couch.
He rolls his eyes then moves to get himself more comfortable on the floor, clearly needing to be closer to her like the rest of us.
After another eight minutes, according to the clock on the wall, Mildred returns from the kitchen with a steaming mug of earl grey tea, the bitter scent offset with milk and sugar. She places it on a small table near a black armchair that matches the couch.
“Would any of you like some tea while you wait?” She offers, her posture straight and hands loosely clasped. When we all shake our heads no, she sits down in the chair. Carefully sipping her tea, she looks at all of us. “It appears Callie has kept some things from me. Can I assume that since you’ve told her what she is, she also knows what all of you are?”
“Yes,” Kaleb replies, his eyes cracking open. “The basics anyway.”
“How do you know?” Nolan presses, suspicious. “Can you just tell by looking at us?”
She raises a single blonde brow. “You are looking a bit peaky, dear, but no. Research. When Callie told me who you were, I looked into your families. As you know, this town is fairly small.”
I tense, worried what she’s learned about the Alpha. It’s no secret that he’s a bastard, but as long as he sticks to the pack, no one interferes.
“I’m not like him,” I declare flat out, needing her to understand that I would never hurt Callie.
Her eyes soften, and her voice is barely above a whisper but easily heard in the waiting quiet, “I can see that.”
Releasing a deep breath, I relax some, relieved that it doesn’t look like she’ll try to keep me from Callie. I look back down at the girl in my arms.She’s so small, I can’t help thinking. Awake there’s an energy about her, a fierce sharpness that demands to be acknowledged, whether she realizes it or not. There’s a knowing in her gaze born from experience that feels impossible for someone so little.What have you survived?
More minutes tick by, then Kaleb sits up. He gently squeezes Callie’s shoulder before turning his attention to Mildred. His deep voice even and tired, he asks, “Why was Callie kept in the dark all these years? Why didn’t she know she was a witch?”
Callie’s aunt takes another careful sip of her tea. “I’d rather wait until Callie’s awake to answer that, as I’m sure she’s wondering the same thing, but I will tell you, it wasn’t my choice. She was… kept from me and raised by her father. She’s only recently been released into my custody.”
