When Callie turns to look back at them, her head dips and her shoulders hunch up toward her ears. She steals a look at Kaleb, before directing her answer at the floor. “Well, I was thinking... I’m volunteering with Kaleb at the hospital. It’s hospice care, and... I doubt everyone in that ward will be elderly.”
Kaleb couldn’t look more stunned if Callie literally got up and punched him in the face, then his expression falls into pained disappointment.
“That’s not…” He starts, his words trailing off. He clears his throat, his gaze dropping to his folded hands in his lap. “That’s the exact opposite reason I’m supposed to be there.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice thick.
It’s my thing to be the person who knows how to fix these tense moments between my friends, but right now, I don’t know what to say to make this better. That’s not true. I know what I could say. I could give up my chance at another life. Tell everyone that it isn’t worth it if it’ll tear us apart. But I won’t. I can’t. As shitty as it makes me feel, it is worth it. For a chance to really be with Callie, there’s not much I wouldn’t sacrifice.
Please forgive me.
After a silence so profound it practically sounds like screaming, Kaleb rises to his feet and announces, “I need to think, and I…I can’t do it here. I’m sorry, Nolan, I have to go.” He opens his mouth to say something more but closes it again when nothing comes out.
“This is bullshit,” Donovan growls, his expression hard as his gaze shifts to each of us, judgment and accusation burning in his eyes. With swift, harsh motions, he gets up and grabs both his and Kaleb’s backpacks that sit near the couch. “I don’t care how you fucking sugarcoat it. It’s possession, and it’s fucking wrong.”
None of us know what to say after that, so we sit like lumps and quietly watch the two of them walk out of the room, Donovan’s hand sitting heavily on Kaleb’s shoulder. After way too many minutes pass, I finally remember how words work and utter, “Well, that just happened.”
“They’ll come around,” Nolan replies, though his confidence only seems skin deep if the hard press of his mouth is any indication.
“Doesn’t matter,” Connor asserts, then his phone vibrates in his pocket. He seems to already know what it says, because he sighs and rises to his feet. Checking his phone, he kind of growl groans, then nods in a way that implies the message confirmed what he assumed. He slips it back into his front pocket.
Disappointment clouds Nolan’s features as he asks, “You’re leaving too?”
“Alpha bullshit,” he growls by way of an apology, his expression clearly saying that he’d rather stay.
As he grabs his backpack, zipping it closed, I mumble, “It does matter…doesn’t it?”
Callie squares her shoulders and shakes her head. “No, he’s right. Like I said, I’ll do it alone if I have to.”
“You won’t…have to, that is,” Nolan assures her, stronger this time than the last, though still looking a little green at the thought.
Not that I had any doubts, but Nolan willing to dive head first in the oceanic-grade deep end of magic for the chance to bring me back to life pretty much neon lights how much he cares about me. It makes me wish I handled the whole me poofing in and witnessing him feeding from Callie thing better.
Though, now that I think about it, the way he vehemently denied being anything more than friends with Callie means he knows how I feel about her. Since I didn’t say anything, that means it’s obvious… but Callie hasn’t said anything.Maybe she doesn’t know. Then I remember how I acted and internally groan.If she didn’t know before, she probably knows now. I shake my head. Nope. Not thinking about this. Body first, and then worry about the other stuff.Probably the wrong order, but I’m sticking with the I don’t care mentality. I do. But if I keep telling myself I don’t, maybe the nagging voices in my head will quiet down.
While I’m having my mini-crisis on the floor, Connor helps Callie to her feet, and he whispers something in her ear. She frowns up at him, confusion puckering her brows, but nods, agreeing to who knows what. His shoulders relax—apparently he was worried she’d say no. Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he kisses the top of her head, nods goodbye to the two of us, then leaves to do whatever Alpha bullshit he has to do.
“And then there were three,” I proclaim, trying not to notice the blush on Callie’s cheeks as she tucks her hair behind her ears.
Crap. I’m going to have to step up my game… Okay, first, I need to find some game, then step it up. Is it too much to ask that my new body be Callie’s type?I determine it’s a good thing I don’t plan to move on into the afterlife, because with these thoughts, I’d go straight to Hell.
Nolan sighs, running a hand through his platinum blond hair. “Maybe we should do a rain check onUntil Dawnand just watch a movie upstairs.”
Callie clears her throat, her gaze bouncing toward the staircase and back. “Yeah. That’s fine with me.”
His eyes follow her gaze, and he quickly apologizes, “Sorry. We can watch down here instead.”
She makes a frustrated growling sound, then grumbles, “Damn it! I’m attempting to bring Felix back from the dead, which is some universal supernatural no-no with possible crazy consequences or whatever. That’s way scarier than some fucking stairs, so no, I’m going to make it up those stupid stairs.”
Something about the stubbornness on her face, mixed with the escalating tension of the night, has Nolan and I trading looks, then we both burst out laughing while she glowers at us.
“It’s not funny,” I wheeze at the same time Nolan promises, “We’re not laughing at you.”
Callie crosses her arms over her chest, her bare foot slapping against the hardwood floor. “Go ahead. Yuk it up. So glad my pain amuses you.”
That sobers us both.
Nolan gets to his feet, his expression serious as he cups her face in his hands. “Callie love, we would never think…what happened to you isn’t funny.”
