Rori mindlessly stirred her coffee, half listening to Cassy’s scolding while avoiding Brandon’s watchful gaze. The last few days were catching up with her, focus hard to obtain and strength fleeting. She hid her relief on walking out of the hospital to find Brandon, Cael, and Cassy all waiting for her. The anxiety and fear that had built up over the last hour of her clinical vanished at the sight of her friends standing around her car. She’d even found it in herself to smile.
Now, as they sat inside a small café, the setting sun casting a brilliant fiery glare through the tinted windows, that anxiety she’d tamped down began to build back up with Cassy’s stern suggestion.
Rori touched a gaze to Cael before meeting Cassy’s eyes. “The only evidence I have to prove there was an encounter are the bruises on my arm. He can easily argue that.”
“Security footage from the hospital, Rori. You know that,” Cassy said. Her cheeks flushed with frustration. Cael rested a hand over Cassy’s fist. Rori watched in awe as Cassy instantly relaxed beneath Cael’s touch. To have someone who could provide such comfort through a simple connection would be a dream. As much as Brandon helped her finally find a few hours of sleep before they had to get up and head in for clinicals, the void in her chest pined for something more. “You can’t let this go.”
“I know.”
“Rori, we all know you’re tired, but this is about your safety. If he’s brazen enough to attack you in a hospitalparking lot while it’s still day, there’s no telling what he’ll do next. The only way to ensure your safety is for him to be behind bars.”
Despite her better judgment, Cael compelled her to look toward him. His demeanor, the faint hint of a dangerous grin, the brightness of his eyes. His expression spoke beyond Cassy’s logic, a darker intent. It was the first time she’d sensed a similarity between Cael and Thaddeus that surpassed looks.
“Why don’t we finish up here and head down to the station together? Then we can all go back to your apartment and settle in for the night. Steve and I will make sure you ladies are safe in your own place. By tomorrow, Rich should have a warrant out for his arrest and the threat he presents will be gone.” Brandon shrugged. “Until then, neither one of you should be displaced from your home. He doesn’t deserve to have that much power over you.”
“He has no power,” Rori corrected.
Brandon’s smile dropped and he arched a brow, his eyes leveling with hers. “You honestly believe that? ’Cause you were in a hotel last night.”
Rori stared at him. It didn’t escape her that he deliberately left out the fact that he was in said hotel with her. He kept that small detail between them, and she was glad he did when she finally straightened in her seat and noticed the curiosity that sharpened Cael’s expression.
“Fine, okay. We’ll go to the station and file a report.” Despite understanding they would all be safe with Cael along for the ride, an unwanted heaviness tugged at that haunting void. Sure, Cael would protect them, her, for the sake of this newfound soul mate connection to his brother, but what was the point if Thaddeus wanted to cut her life short anyhow? “I just hope they arrest him before he tries to do anything else.”
“He’d be wise to keep his distance from you after yesterday,” Cael murmured, his words laced with a cutting threat. Cassy turned her hand in his grip and squeezed as she nodded. His eyes never left Rori. “Trust me. His days will be numbered otherwise.”
An hour later—Rori suspected some magic had been involved as well—and exhaustion making her body heavy, they left the police station, report filed and a warrant pending with the judge. Rori had been assured that there was a good chance the warrant would be signed that night and Rich would be served and arrested by morning. It came with a modicum of relief, but until she knew for a fact Rich was locked up, she wouldn’t rest.
She’d still have another monster to face. One that human law enforcement had no power against.
“I’ll order pizza! Rori, you choose a movie. Boys, can you crack open a couple bottles of wine?”
Cassy tossed her purse on the counter as they filed into the apartment. Rori watched Cael, who preceded her. His fingers moved methodically at his side, the impression of smoky tendrils forming beneath his pads. He surveyed the apartment, keenness masked behind the familiar languid nonchalance. Tiny nuances Rori had begun to pick up with him since learning the truth of his origins.
Brandon placed a hand low on her back, gently guiding her to the living room. Cael’s sharp gaze glanced off the gesture, lifted to her, and offered a small smile that didn’t touch his eyes. A chill teased her spine, her skin tingling beneath unseen energy.
“Go change,” Brandon said. “I’ll have wine waiting for you when you come out.”
Rori gave a short nod, ignoring Cael’s attentive gaze asshe found reprieve behind the closed and locked door of her room.
“God,” she breathed, her legs buckling beneath her weight. She slid down the door, muscles weak, soul depleted, mind drained of the last bit of strength keeping her fragile psyche together to face her friends, the day, and keep moving through the motions. Pretending everything was okay. Pretending she was stronger than she felt.Pretending.
Her jaw ached as she staved off the tears forcing their way through her brittle barriers. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she dropped her head forward and tried to breathe through the swelling of her throat as pressure built behind a sob pushing itself free. The ruthless sting of fresh tears finally made their way to the corners of her eyes, squeezing past the last attempt to keep them hidden.
The sob fled on the heels of tears, and with it, the tension holding her together throughout the day. Warmth suffused the ice she’d been battling since her encounter with Rich, wrapping her in the first essence of solace. Warmth and a strangely familiar scent of spice.
Rori choked on a sob. Slowly, she peeled open her eyes, keeping her head on her arms, face hidden. At first, she saw nothing but her sneakers, her scrub pants, and her own shadow darkening the carpet around her feet. She shifted her gaze past her sneakers. Her heart all but seized. Her breaths lodged in her throat, stuck behind the sob she’d swallowed back. The warmth intensified until she swore she had become feverish.
She’d never paid attention before, but the moment the tip of a polished brown boot with a single brown leather strap and engraved gold buckle entered her line of sight, she knew why that particularly soothing scent surrounded her. Thetailored hem of light cream pants covered further tooling of the top-end boot.
Her mouth dried. Her heart skipped into a frenzy. The weakness of her muscles from stress and tension melted into a weakness of a completely different sort. She stared at the boot, the pant leg, not wanting to acknowledge the presence of its owner, but curiosity brought her to lift her head from her arms.
Instantly, she wished she’d kept her head down. Perhaps he would have left if she refused to acknowledge him. Perhaps she could have fooled him into believing she had no idea he hovered so close, a foot or so away, had she continued to weep and sniffle. Perhaps he would have tired of her crying, deemed her too pitiful for his time and have left her alone to seek better means of entertainment.
Too late now.
As her gaze drifted upward along the figure with his arms draped over his bent knee while he sat back on his heel, the storm of sensations she refused to indulge deepened. Not a simple flutter and warmth in her belly, but something that spread and grew and anchored itself mercilessly throughout her entire body.
The dark, bottomless void that had opened inside her soul suddenly swelled with sustenance. As if his presence alone provided her with everything her soul desperately craved. The very sight of him, dressed so magnificently in cream and gold-threaded embroidery enhanced his Fae-ness. The way the fading sunlight created a breathtaking silhouette against his strong frame, dousing him in a deceptively angelic glow almost caused her jaw to drop. He had two thick braids plaited in his hair, one on either side of his face, that tucked behind his tapered ears and disappeared behind his back. Shorter strands teased his angular jaw and sharp cheekbones,adding another dash of severity to the angle of his brows and the piercing shade of blue in his eyes. Eyes that observed her behind a mask of unreadable thought and expression.
