Page 68 of These Wicked Desires

I’d thought they were both dead at first. Until Ellis lifted her head, I thought I had lost my entire heart. Then, I’d seen the blood on Cade’s chest and the pain in my beloved’s eyes, and I knew the worst had happened. It had been too hard to breathe past the band constricting my chest. All I could think about was how I’d care for Ellis, how I’d help her through her mourning, when I couldn’t even handle it myself?

When I’d seen the healed smooth skin of his chest, I knew she’d done something to heal him. The relief had been swift, and it had almost knocked me off my feet. I hadn’t lost them. They were both still here with me. But the fear was still there, just under the surface waiting for me to close my eyes and let my guard down. I won’t forget this moment. Ever.

“We came so close,” Sterling whispers, his gaze glued to our family on the bed. “Too close.”

I can’t respond because my throat has closed up, so I just nod in agreement. There is nothing else to say, really, and we lapse into silence, sinking into our own terror-filled thoughts.

After what felt like hours—hours of fighting the need to close my eyes and sleep—Cole knocks on the bedroom door and pops his head inside. “Agatha is ready. Can I let her in?”

Sterling nods and pushes from the chair with a groan. He looks just as worn down as I am. When Agatha steps into the room, Sterling bows his head to her. “Thank you for coming.”

Agatha nods back. “Alpha,” she says respectfully. Her gaze drops to the bed, eyes narrowing on Ellis and Cade’s unmoving forms. “Tell me what happened.” She sits in the chair Sterling had been using, her bones crackling as she does so.

“We don’t really know,” Sterling answers, taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to Cade. His tone is weary, matching his expression and slumped shoulders. “We were … taking care of a problem,” he says carefully, not wanting to divulge what exactly we were doing.

“I found them in a burning room,” I continue. Agatha is smart enough she’ll be able to connect the dots once the news of the warehouse hits the media. But I’m not too worried about her knowing. She already knows Ellis is a harpy. “The fire was Ellis’s doing, and she was laying atop Cade, cocooned in her flames. Cade had a hole in his shirt, covered with blood, right over his heart. But his skin is smooth and unharmed.”

“They have both been unconscious since Kai found them,” Sterling finishes for me as I trail off, unable to continue as my throat dries with just the thought of Cade and Ellis dying.

Agatha pushes to her feet, more popping coming from her bones and she leans over Cade. One gnarled finger rubs over the slightly raised scar on his chest. Her brows lower as she thinks, and I can practically see her sifting through all the knowledge she has in that ancient brain of hers. When she finally sits back down, she levels a stare at Sterling.

“It looks like a bullet wound,” Agatha says with brutal clarity.

Sterling nods. “Yeah, that’s what we think, too.”

“There are books and texts that have been long lost to society. The words in these books have been passed down to the wolves from generation to generation. Most of them are considered pure myth and legend, like harpy’s themselves. But there are still some facts among the tales.” Agatha rests her gnarled hands in her lap, pale gaze alternating between me and Sterling. “There is a story about a harpy that walked the earth long, long ago. On a battlefield, one of her Shields was slain. The harpy’s fury was all encompassing. Her flames destroyed their enemy in one blazing hot wall of fire. The story goes that she knelt next to her Shield, her tears freely streaming down her face as her flame surrounded her and her dead lover.”

I swallow thickly, imagining how all of this would have played out tonight in that torture room. Cade getting shot. Ellis losing her mind in grief and fury. Sam wouldn’t have stood a chance against her.

“What happened next was nothing short of a miracle,” Agatha continues, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “With the harpy’s tears on her Shield’s death wound, and her flames burning hotter and hotter, she somehow brought her lover back to life. She healed him of his mortal injury.”

Sterling and I both suck in a breath. We had suspected something like this had happened. It was the only way Cade could have a bullet-shaped scar right over his heart and still be breathing. But just hearing the words said aloud, by someone who has knowledge about supernatural creatures, I’m flooded with fear.

Too close. We were too fucking close to losing them both.

“They should both be fine after some rest,” Agatha says. “I imagine they’ll sleep for a while, so do not be alarmed. The amount of energy and magic Ellis had to use, and the simple fact that Cade is healing from death, will keep them both down for a while.”

Simple fact. I shudder.

Cade died. My … whatever he is … died. If it hadn’t been for Ellis …

I can’t finish that thought. I can’t even try to imagine what life would look like without him. Without both of them. I squeeze my eyes shut and listen to Sterling walk Agatha downstairs for Cole to drive her home. Kneeling on the floor next to the bed where Ellis lays, I bury my face in her neck, inhaling her scent. The rich aroma of her blood pumping through her veins by her heart that beats steadily. It makes my eyes burn.

I hastily wipe them to avoid getting blood everywhere, and reach a hand over her body to grasp Cade’s hand. It’s warm and I barely bite back a sob. They are okay. Both pieces of my heart are still here. I repeat those words over and over, letting Ellis’s scent and Cade’s skin against mine cement them inside of me.

Sterling returns and the bed dips as he sits next to Ellis. Her hair tickles my face as he tucks a curl behind her ear. “It’s going to be okay.” His other hand rests on my back, and his words sound like they are more for him than me. Like he’s reminding himself they’re okay. The same way I am. “We’re going to be okay.”

Cade

I’m slowly pulled from the depths of unconsciousness, and the first thing I’m aware of is the softness of whatever I’m laying on and the warmth covering me. Am I dead? Is this what heaven feels like? I almost snort because the idea that I’d go to heaven after everything I’ve done in my life is absurd. I try to open my eyes, but they’re still too heavy. So I float for a little bit in the comfort and just enjoy the feeling of peace that has settled over me.

Eventually, quiet sounds filter through to me. Soft breathing. A gentle snore. That snore … it’s familiar. That’s Sterling’s snore. I snap my eyes open, blinking rapidly at the brightness as my eyes adjust. When I look around, I stifle a gasp.

I’m in the bedroom at the cabin. Ellis is laying next to me in the bed, and Sterling and Kai are asleep on chairs they’ve pulled up next to us, both of them bent in angles that will no doubt hurt when they wake up.

Slowly, I run my hand over my chest, a slight bump the only sign of what happened to me. I got shot. I remember it so clearly. The burst of fear when I realized the bullet had been stopped and was now heading for me. The look of terror on Ellis’s face. The pain that coursed through me only after I’d already hit the ground.

I should be dead. Why am I not dead?

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