There’s a sadness haunting him. His eyes are windows to his soul, and while he might seem happy, my savior has a storm cloud hanging over him.
And if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s chasing storms until I make them my own.
“You sure about this, Oakley?” Westin asks, leaning against a tree as we watch Nariko and her team settle around the fire pit outside the cabin they are staying in.
It’s nothing special. It’s a basic cabin built with wood I cut and chopped myself. The roof is tin, and the walls are thin, but it will keep people sheltered and safe. If a storm blows through and people need to take cover, there are storm shelters near every cabin on my property.
Nariko’s scream has me leaping to my feet, ready to take action when a laugh follows. She’s running around the fire; my rooster, Kevin, is chasing after her.
“Go.” Jazz shoves me forward.
“What? No, she’s had a horrible day. She nearly died. She needs her space.”
“You sure are talking about what she needs when the only one who can tell you what she needs is trying to outrun Kevin.”
“I can make Kevin into a rotisserie chicken.”
Jazz and Westin spit their beers out, startled when Lorcan pops out of thin air.
Me, on the other hand, I try not to pay him any mind. “You aren’t killing my rooster. He was a rescue. He’s been through enough.”
The orange glow of his eyes disappears before igniting again, and I think he might have tried to roll them at me.
“Fine. The rooster is safe. For now.”
I turn to Lorcan with my arms crossed. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you.”
“I’m fine, Lorcan. I’m better than I was earlier. No need to check on me.”
“No, you aren’t understanding me.” He steps closer, the abyss of his soul a welcome relief to the emotions that bombard me. “I’mherefor you.”
Westin stands, shoving Lorcan, and the Void doesn’t move an inch. He’s a wall, holding power I’ll never be able to understand.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Are you kidding me? You can’t take him. He isn’t dead, Lorcan.”
“He’s dying, though. And so is she. Do you think I want to do this? I consider you a friend because of Kentucky. I was sent to reap his soul too. I can smell death on you, Oklahoma. Your insides are slowly rotting because you haven’t had enough of her blood. Stop postponing. Stop being afraid. Or the last person you will see is me taking your soul to Purgatory, and Nariko is definitely prettier than me.”
Jazz throws an empty can at Lorcan’s head, and he catches it without looking. “Don’t tempt me, vampire. I’ll strip your skinfrom your bones and wear it as a fucking suit.” He snaps his fingers, and he is gone, leaving me with an uneasy sickness in my gut.
“You guys! Come on! Come join us!” Nariko shouts across the field, waving us over.
I don’t plan on dying when the rest of my life is right before my eyes.
The events that happened today have me rethinking a few ideas that I’ve convinced myself of. I thought I needed to be sad and alone for the rest of my life, that the world would be better off without me. My chance to have happiness again is right there, laughing and running around a fire because she’s afraid of a rooster.
I almost lost Nariko today. Even after the doctors gave her a clean bill of health with a minor concussion, my damned soul was scared into acceptance. I was forced to see what would happen if I dragged my feet any longer. If Nariko had my blood in her veins, she would have been able to save herself before I got there.
I’m killing her more every day by not accepting the gift that’s right in front of me. I don’t deserve her. That much I know, but I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world who deserves her either. She’s too smart, too beautiful, too fierce for a regular man to understand.
“I’m nervous,” I hate to admit to my friends. “She makes me nervous.”
“Clearly.” Westin claps my shoulders. “Don’t be. You deserve good things to happen to you—even though you have convinced yourself otherwise for all these years. You have been stuck in survival’s guilt, Oakley. I get it, though. I understand why you have made yourself believe you don’t deserve anything beautiful, and you’re wrong. We’ve always told you; you were wrong, but now the universe is saying it too. Fate says otherwise.” Westinshoves me forward so hard, my shoulder clips the tree, and the force rips a large section of bark from the trunk.
“If I were human, that could have killed me,” I remind him, then point to the humans we have on our property. “Don’t use that strength on them.”
“No fucking shit. I’m not a complete idiot.”
