The laugh that spilled from him was bitter and sad at once. “Because, despite what you think of me, I have a code of ethics I follow, and letting him kill other people because of me was wrong. I clean up my own messes.”
“Appreciate ... it.”
“Don’t thank me for killing my own brother. Just ... don’t.” His gaze dropped to Isaak’s body, sprawled in a lifeless heap on the floor. He shook his head, turned, and disappeared as abruptly as he’d come.
“Selina! Where the fuck are you?
Selina!
” Jack roared her name from a great distance, but she didn’t have the strength left to yell back, to call for help.
She could just lie there and die, like Merek had predicted.
It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Cold stole through her, and she shivered. Shock, she knew. She’d been a nurse in a war. She was a cop. She recognized the signs. She’d lost too much blood, and her body was going into shock. Forcing what little magic she had toward the wounds, she continued to try to staunch them. Her body simply wouldn’t move, no matter how she strained. The iron bullets.
“Selina!” Jack’s beloved face appeared in front of her. “Ah, God. Jesus, baby. Hold on. Just hold on. Help is coming. You’re going to be fine.” The desperation in his voice was enough to break her heart.
“Grim?”
“Peyton’s got him. He’ll take him to the vet.” He moved his shoulder so she could see her familiar. The wolf had stripped off his shirt to wrap it around Grim. He picked up the dog, cradling him like a baby, and rushed down the hall to get to a car.
“I don’t want to die,” she whispered. She had to say it, had to put it into words. If she could give Jack nothing else, she wanted him to have the truth. The whole truth for once. No hiding, no secrets, no protecting herself.
“What?” He leaned closer so he could hear her.
“You were right. I don’t want to die.” She coughed and tasted her own blood. The iron in it burned her tongue. A laugh tripped over a sob. “You know the real difference between Heather and me?”
“What?” He was so near, she could see the gray striations in his blue eyes. She tried to memorize the contours of his face, to lock in the memory of him. Just in case.
“I would never
willingly
leave you. I want to stay with you, do the whole marriage and kids thing. I wish I could. So much. I love you.” And then she couldn’t fight the darkness anymore, and the cold closed over her head in a great wave. She struggled against it, tried to hold on to Jack, to stay with him.
“I love you, too, Selina. You’re not going to die. Not now. I won’t let you.” His hands moved over her body, frantic, and it hurt when he tied off the wound on her leg, when he pressed down all his weight on the hole in her shoulder.
She welcomed the pain. It meant she was still alive.
17
T
wo weeks had gone by and they hadn’t gotten anything settled yet. It was getting on Jack’s last damn nerve. It didn’t help that he’d been pulled on to the Karsen case, which just got to be a bigger and bigger media circus by the day. Someone was leaking information to the press, and it was skating dangerously close to requiring a telepath go and adjust some Normals’ memories.
He pulled into a parking space in front of Sugar Rush, where Selina had insisted that she get the chance to show Peyton what real congolais tasted like. His cousins Holly and Erin had been thrilled to host Selina’s first post-shooting outing, Erin promising the best congolais she’d ever made.
Peyton and Tess climbed out of the car behind him. As Jack suspected, most of his family had shown up for the event. Thanks to the miracle of Magickal healing, she’d been officially cleared to go back to work the following week, so using the excuse of watching over her recuperation wasn’t going to keep her in his house much longer.
They needed to get things hammered out. Tonight. He was tired of this going back and forth to fetch stuff from her place bullshit. He wanted her to move in permanently. She hadn’t wanted to be in her house since Isaak left his evil stench behind, but if she changed her mind and wanted to live there, or if she wanted to find something new together, that was fine. Whatever. As long as they settled on some permanency. She’d said she wanted to get married, and he wasn’t waiting around for a year like Merek had. A trip to the local courthouse would suit him just fine.
“Quite a crowd,” Peyton observed.
“Yep.” It wasn’t just his family gathered on the patio. No, that was Delta sitting between Selina and his parents. Luca stood nearby, a glass of wine in his hand, blatantly flirting with Jack’s human cousin, Erin. Then there were Millie Standish and Alex Nemov, as well as Merek and Chloe, newly returned from their honeymoon. And a whole boatload of animals. Selina’s dog, Chloe’s cat, and a bunch of others he’d never seen before. What the hell was this?
Tess made a sheepish face. “I, uh, may have mentioned to Chloe that we’d be here tonight. I didn’t know she’d invite herself.”
“And the whole neighborhood, too.” Jack motioned the others ahead of him.
Peyton moved with the caution of a man unsure of whether he’d be fried alive. He kept a wary eye on Chloe but let his hand settle at Tess’s back, which was as close to a public display of affection as Jack had seen from the two. Luca took in the gesture, and his expression went carefully blank. Erin glanced between Luca and Tess. Her eyebrows arched, and comprehension dawned on her face. Well, good. At least Jack wasn’t going to have to have a chat with her about getting involved with Luca. He’d rather not have his cousin turn a love triangle into a square.
Jack dismissed the exchange from his mind and stepped up behind Selina, set his hands on her shoulders, and bent to kiss her cheek. “Hey, you.”
Reaching over her shoulder, she patted his cheek. “Hi.”
He had that rush of gratitude that he’d felt every time he saw her, alive and whole. It could have gone so much worse. He’d come so close to losing her, to losing everything. A few seconds later and he wouldn’t have been able to stop the bleeding in time. If Gregor hadn’t shown up, Isaak would have finished her off. If any one of a dozen things had gone the other way, she wouldn’t be here now. Thank God. Thank
God.
Grim walked up, healthy and still the biggest attitude on four legs. One kitten rode on his back, another dangled from his collar by one paw while swatting at the German shepherd’s identification tags. A third kitten attacked his tail.
Jack arched his eyebrows. “Okay. What’s with the petting zoo?”
“Ophelia wanted to come. Which meant her kittens wanted to come. Which meant her new manpanion came along, too.” Chloe gestured to two adult cats peering down from a windowsill. One was a dainty chocolate-point Siamese. The brute beside her was the biggest orange-striped tomcat Jack had ever seen. He had a few scarred-over bald patches and a flattened ear.
The kittens were a strange mixture of the two. One was a big, fluffy marmalade with two white paws. Another looked just like Chloe’s familiar. Slim, elegant, chocolate-point Siamese. The third was probably the most gorgeous cat he’d ever seen. It was Siamese in coloring, but its points were orange-tabby striped.
Millie reached down to pat that one on the head. “Pretty, isn’t she? It’s called flame-point. It only happens when you mix a Siamese with non-Siamese. A purebred can’t be that color.”
“Whose familiar is he?” Jack tipped his head at the big, scarred tomcat.
“He’s a stray.” Millie sniffed disdainfully. “A plain, old alley cat.
Not
a familiar. She went slumming.”
Jack nodded to the cat. “Good for you, Ophelia. Some of us non-Magickal types are just fine.”
Tipping her head back to look at him, Selina winked. “I think so.”
The flame-point kitten hopped up on the table, scooted to the edge, wiggled her butt for a moment, and then gave a death-defying leap toward Peyton. Only his lightning-fast wolf reflexes kept the kitten from hitting the floor. He lifted her up until they were eye level.
“I think she wants you, Peyton. Ever had a familiar before?” Tess stroked the kitten’s head.
Casting her a disbelieving glance, he tried to hand the cat to Chloe. “I’m a wolf. I can’t have a cat familiar.”
“A pretty, dainty, Siamese
she-cat
familiar, even.” Darren chortled. The big wolf lounged in his chair. His recovery had been slow, but he was starting to bounce back. A dark mark still scored the flesh above his collarbone—even his werewolf healing hadn’t been able to get rid of it. “The pack is going to love this.”
Selina coughed. “It’s my understanding the familiar picks the person, not the other way around.”
“That’s how it happened for me.” A wicked grin on her face, Chloe held up her hands, refusing to accept the cat. “Ophelia came to me and that was that. End of story.”
Peyton stared at the kitten that fit in the palm of his hand. She mewed at him, turned her head, and licked his thumb. He sighed, the sound long-suffering. But he stroked one fingertip down her tiny skull and she purred, her eyes closing in ecstasy.
“Aww, Peyton. That’s so
cute,
” Delta crooned from her seat, laughter shaking her shoulders. “What are you going to name her?”
He grunted and said nothing, but he perched the kitten gently on his shoulder.
The big marmalade kitten wandered over and plopped himself on Luca’s expensive Italian loafer. The vampire picked him up by the scruff of his neck and said, “No. I’m not what one would call a cat person. You don’t want me.”
The kitten paddled the air, batting at Luca’s jacket sleeve until he sighed.
“This is inconvenient.”
“Suck it up, Cavalli. Apparently, we’re handing out familiars tonight.” Chloe made a wry face. “There’s one more. Anybody else want a kitten?”
“Me!” Delta jumped out of her seat, reaching for the little Siamese. “Come to Mama, baby. Oh, I’m going to spoil you so rotten.”
The gathered crowd laughed, and Jack’s cousins brought out trays of pastries for everyone. The mood was festive. Everyone had made it through alive and in one piece. Jack could definitely live with that kind of outcome.
Millie leveled a beady stare on Selina, her crisp voice ringing over the babble of chatting voices. “You do realize you’re pregnant, don’t you?”
Jack and Selina both froze, and shock punched through him. He felt a little light-headed, and Delta laughed, shoving him into a chair. “Sit down before you fall down, Laramie.”
He groped for Selina’s hand, which had gone ice-cold. She stared at Millie. “You’re shitting me.”
“No, I can sense it,” Tess interjected quietly. “I thought you knew.”
“Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” A broad grin creased Merek’s face. “Congrats, Grayson.”
Jack was going to be a father. Soon. Jesus Christ. He’d been thinking maybe someday he’d ease Selina into it, but this was a lot sooner than he’d anticipated. A child. A child that was half him and half Selina.
“I’m going to be a grandmother,” Angela sang, all but dancing in her seat. “It’s about damn time. I wonder if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“Girl,” Selina and Merek said at the same time.
Merek nodded. “Yeah, this one’s a girl. The next one, too. Both elves. Hellions, too. Have fun.”
She flicked her fingers at him. “May you have four boys before you manage a hellion daughter of your own. You deserve to have her wrap you around her little finger. Kind of like Chloe has.”
Chloe laughed up at her husband, while Alex shook his head at them. “I’m going to have brothers and sisters someday? Why didn’t I even consider that option?”
Ignoring all of them, Selina turned to Jack. Her dark eyes were wide, and she looked as dazed as he felt. “What do you think?”
“Three things.” A wild mixture of disbelief and wonder burst inside him, and a wide smile broke across his face. “First, we’re getting married tonight. These are all the people we’d want there, right? Between Millie and Luca, they should be able to pull enough strings to make it happen for us.”
“My uncle is a judge. It shouldn’t be an issue.” Luca had his kitten cuddled to his chest. For a non-cat-person, he seemed to be doing just fine.
Jack ignored everyone else and continued. “Second, we’re moving your stuff in this weekend. None of this dual residence shit. Third, I think ... Elizabeth Angela. Or maybe Angela Elizabeth. What do you think?”
“Elizabeth Angela. I like it.” After her cousin and his mother. Two women who had helped shape the people they’d become. It seemed fitting.
“And the rest?” He arched his eyebrows at her.
She nodded and rolled her eyes, which had brightened with tears. “I’m in if you are.”
“I’m all in, honey.” He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them. A singular moment of peace stretched between them, and he sighed. After Heather had died, he’d never thought he’d find anything like this. Someone he was willing to take a risk on again.
By some twist of fate, by some miracle, he had a chance at a life far fuller than he’d ever imagined. Gratefulness flooded him. He’d fight to his last breath to keep this, to keep Selina happy and safe, to protect this child and any other they were blessed with. He’d never wanted anything so much in his entire life. Thanks to her, he’d gotten everything he’d never known he wanted. It had been a bumpy ride and they’d been through hell, but damn if he hadn’t landed somewhere that felt pretty perfect.
Tragedy could still strike. He had a dangerous job and so did she. But she’d never willingly leave him, and he was with her until the wheels fell off.
It was a start.
She was married. And pregnant.
Selina felt dazed when she walked into Jack’s house later that night.
Their
house. She lived here now. With her husband.
That nagging feeling that everything was going to change had eased in the past couple of weeks. Life as she knew it had come to an end. She just hadn’t had to die to make that happen.
Jack ruffled Grim’s fur as the familiar came inside. The dog grunted and went to sprawl in front of the couch. Erin had loaded him down with homemade dog treats, and he’d been groaning in the backseat on the way home. Jack closed the door behind them, locking it and engaging the security system. Selina automatically threw up shielding spells around the place. An extra layer of protection.
He leaned back against the door and folded his arms. “This place is going to get crowded if Merek’s prediction for two kids comes true.”
“It will. Magickals are allowed to have two children per century.” She shrugged. “Prevents overpopulation. Though since I’ve never had any before, we can probably get a dispensation for more, if you want.”
“Two is good with me, unless you want more.” He rolled his shoulders, his gaze locking on her face. “Your place is bigger. Are you sure you don’t want to live there?”
An involuntary shudder went through her. She’d been back a couple of times to pick up clothes, but it still had that taint to it. She couldn’t stay there. She’d never feel safe, even though Isaak was dead. “No, I can’t.
He
was there, in my space. We can move my stuff out this weekend, like you said. If you want to shop around for something bigger, we can. I like your neighborhood, with your cousins’ café down the street, and Grim likes the park nearby. We can see what’s in the area.”
“Whatever you want, sweetheart.” Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, he sighed. “Millie pulled me aside after the ceremony and told me to let you know that the Elven Assembly got an anonymous delivery yesterday. A cursed talisman. She served as a witness for the All-Magickal Council while the Assembly leaders destroyed it.”
A breath eased out of her lungs. The evil object had been destroyed. Thank gods. No one else would feel that touch of darkness. The black mark of it still marred her forearm. The doctors told her that Darren’s wolf healing might whittle away at his mark, but as an elf, hers would never fade. A constant reminder of what she’d been through. But she’d survived, and the rest she could live with. She was learning, slowly, to forgive herself for Bess’s death. Instead of just suppressing the guilt, she had to accept that the past couldn’t have turned out any differently. She sighed. “Did they ever find out where Isaak got it?”