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“Are you okay?” I asked.
He breathed in heavily before releasing a large sigh. “Yeah, I mean, I will be.” When he noticed my frown, he smiled, his sharpened teeth visible. “Don’t get all emotional on me. I’ll recover.”
“Thank you.”
This whisper came from Evie. She had rolled her head across my shoulder and was staring at Cade, her arms still wrapped around me, squeezing me next to her. I could feel her tears on my shoulder.
I nodded, then stopped when it made my head throb. “Thank you, Cade. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
Pushing himself to his feet, he chuckled. “You already did, remember? Now we’re even.”
Evie slung my arm over her shoulder as we made our way back to my apartment, which took considerably longer than it had for us to get to the bar in the first place. We managed to avoid the police who dotted around the streets following the hold-up, thanks to Evie’s knowledge of the area. Unable to walk straight out of the alleyway because of theaccidentinvolving the perpetrator and a car, we had to find an alternate route.
As we reached the apartment, she lowered me onto the bed and sat on the edge staring at me for a long while with a deep frown etched into her forehead.
The corner of my lip lifted as I watched her, my eyelids drooping. I needed to sleep to heal. “I’m going to be okay, Evie.”
“Are you sure?” Her voice was so small, it broke me all over again. I can’t imagine how it would feel to think I was going to lose her like that after everything we had been through. That heartache and fear would run deep in her for a while. She’d be watching over me, cautious, scared, careful, worrying every minute the deterioration process would start again, and I’d disappear into the wind. “I just need sleep.” I continued, “I’ll be okay.”
“Okay.”
Her tone didn’t hold any of the reassurance I had tried to get across. But I was so weak, I couldn’t explain any more, not right now. Cade had given me enough life force to heal myself, but it would take time.
As she tucked me in, I whispered, “Am I a prisoner?” I almost smiled with my remaining strength.
The corner of her lip lifted. “No, but you’re not healed.”
“I can take care of myself.”
She laughed then, a soft huff of breath. My words were an echo of hers from what seemed like a lifetime ago.
From when she didn’t trust me.
From when I didn’t know her.
From before I loved her.
Or maybe I loved her from the moment I first saw her.
“No, you can’t,” she whispered.
“No.” I closed my eyes, ready to succumb to the sleep I needed. “I can’t.”
EVIE
Possibly the longest week of my life was waiting for Zaqiel to wake.
I tried to do as he had done for me and bring him water, but he wasn’t human, and the sleep he was in was unlike anything I had seen. He stayed in bed, legs stretched out, and hands folded neatly over his chest, unmoving but for the steady rise and fall of his chest for almost three full days. He didn’t stir when I tried to gently wake him to drink, or move when I gently placed a finger dipped in water and ran it across his lips. So there was nothing I could do but wait and trust that he was going through some healing process beyond my understanding.
He hadn’t changed, though. I’d have expected after that long, his lips would be dry and his skin would lose the healthy glow of the living. But he was a preserved being in a state of deep slumber as his body healed.
I was finding it hard to sleep, unable to talk to him and be reassured he was okay. I know I was being selfish, but every time I closed my eyes and allowed myself to rest, the sounds of his supernatural screams as he burned filled my ears and mind, and I would wake in a cold sweat. I’d roll over and place a hand on his chest, taking comfort in the rise and fall, and try to sleep again. Initially, I had slept on the couch, but he didn’t seem to know I was here, so I decided I’d rather be near him, even if he couldn’t hear or see me.
Heidi came to check on me on the fourth day, just to say hi, unaware of the ordeal Zaqiel had been through. She took one look at me and came back half an hour later with some groceries and insisted on washing my hair over the sink and giving it a long-overdue cut since it was apparently clear I wasn’t looking after myself. She took several inches off the length, and while it made me feel naked and exposed, it needed it.
I hoped Zaqiel liked it when he woke.
I told her he had been injured while taking down the man who had held up the bar and was resting. It wasn’t a lie, and even so, I was completely comfortable giving her that version of the truth. The full truth of who and what he was wasn’t mine to share.
