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“She’ll be here within an hour,” Adam explained innocently. “And once the ritual is done, you’ll be right back to normal.”
Henry hung his head in defeat. “No, I won’t.”
“Don’t say that,” Adam snapped. In a softer tone, he added, “You just wait and see. You’ll be just like you were before.”
“No,” Henry insisted in a haunting voice. “The vampire said—”
“That vampire doesn’t knowshit.”
Alarm struck Henry, causing his little body to shiver. He clutched the sheets to his chest while coiling into the bed. Regret propelled Adam to step back from the mattress.
“I’m sorry, kiddo,” he said, hands shaking while he stroked his right pocket. I noticed him do it before, but I couldn’t understand why. Was the comb in there? “Dad is just really upset right now, okay?”
I stepped toward the bed and lifted the pudding cup sitting on the nearby tray. “Hey, why don’t you get your strength up?”
More gratitude washed through the room. It would have been suffocating if it had been anything else. And it poured right out of Adam like smoke from a fire-consumed building.
I sat on the edge of the bed and fed Henry spoonfuls of chocolate pudding, smiling whenever he hungrily licked his lips.
“Charlotte,” he said in a low voice. “Can I have candy?”
“You can have all the candy you want later.”
He coughed while reaching for the cup. I handed it to him, relieved to see some of his strength had returned. “It won’t ruin dinner?”
“Nope, it’ll just make dinner even better. I’ll make all your favorites.”
“Cheeseburgers?”
I nodded.
“Chicken pot pie?”
“You got it.”
He beamed. “And strawberry cobbler?”
“Whatever you want. Everything,” I assured tearfully. “Keep eating that and I’ll find something else for you. Sugar isn’t the only thing you need right now.”
When he didn’t argue, I stood up and drifted into the hallway. Fear followed me to the kitchenette, to the snack cabinet, to the fridge where I grabbed a couple of juice boxes. It tapped my shoulder. It made me turn around.
No, that was Adam.
“Hey, I wanted you to have something…”
I frowned while shutting the fridge door. “If I left something at your cabin, I’ll pick it up later.”
“Charlotte, I—”
“It’s nearly dusk,” I intervened while walking past him. “We need to make sure Adam has all the strength he can get, okay?”
And then I left Adam the same way he left me—in a puddle on the ground.
***
A sepia hue settled over the field as I approached the ritual circle where Lorena stood. Lucky for us, she agreed to do the ritual after some haggling with the alpha. And though Donovan wasn’t present, I could sense the alpha lingering somewhere in the distance, watching everything that was happening on his land.
I didn’t blame him.
