Page 12 of The Blood Widow

“Spit it out,” I snapped. Now, I knew it was bad. Bell was horrible at giving bad news.

She sighed. “The potion I gave you to hide your magic wasn’t meant for someone as powerful as you.” My heart fell to my feet. “My seer said she saw the Lifeblood family finding out your identity.”

The phone slipped from my fingers and crashed to the ground. The world seemed to move around me. No. Not them. I’d take the demon or shifter families over the vamps. If they knew a halfling was the Blood Widow, I’d be tortured for years. They’d take my deceit as personally as if I deliberately rubbed their faces in shit.

“Novem!” Bell’s shouts had my stiff body bending to pick up the phone. The screen was cracked. She was rambling. I focused on her words. Surely if there wasn’t hope for me, she would have hung up.

“I’ll find a way to stop it from happening. I swear. Just give me time. My seer said it doesn’t happen for a couple weeks.” Her tone was pleading and desperate.

She knew I would have to run and all the good I did would be over. The Blood Widow kept most criminals from going too far. They knew by now that the Blood Widow wouldn’t stand for it, but if no one took my place when I was gone, it wouldn’t be long before there were no more humans or hybrids alive.

Everything was hitting me at once. My breaths came out too fast. I was hyperventilating.

“Breath, Novem! Novem?”

I couldn’t. My mind fell into an abyss of despair that I couldn’t pull myself out of. My vision got spotty.

Not even the crash of the door slamming open roused me. I could still hear everything, but I was trapped. All my running and hiding was over. My time in the city was over.

“Novem! I’m here. Breathe. You’re turning blue,” Cole said.

But I couldn’t pull myself out.

More than one set of hands touched me, but it didn’t ease the burning in my chest. They used magic. The electrical sensation helped, but I still couldn’t fill my lungs. Warm lips covered mine. My surprise and the puff of air the person forced inside of me broke the wall keeping me locked in. The first gasps of air stung, but the relief hit me instantly.

Everything went dark.

I didn’t knowhow much time had passed since I blacked out, but I was still exhausted when a nightmare startled me awake. Images of being locked away again or turning into a monster made me thrash around. My moans were pitiful even to my ears. Tears soaked my face as I pleaded for fear’s cold embrace to let me go, but it wasn’t in its nature. It wanted me to suffer.

“It’s okay, Novem. I’m here. I got you.” The warmth on my back, and the strong arms wrapping around me were familiar. They soothed me the way only one person could.

“Cole,” I whispered, shaking in his arms.

“I’m here, baby girl, I got you. Go back to sleep. You’re safe with me. Always.”

I sighed and scooted closer to him. Everything in the world felt right in his arms. Our souls were like a magical force field that kept the rest of the world out. At that moment, I knew whattrue peace was. In the morning, the wall could crumble, but I'd enjoy myself while it was still intact.

Chapter

Six

My eyes fluttered open. I hadn’t realized quite how much I missed the feeling of a good night’s rest. Cole’s arms tightened around me as if daring me to move. Thankfully, he was still asleep because the rod poking me in the ass would make things awkward.

My body was sore, but my mind felt better. But I couldn’t get comfortable. Not with this man. He had already snaked his way into my heart, and I didn’t have the strength to deny him again.

Bell’s words chimed into my head. The memory was one that replayed in my mind often.

“Do you want the good news or bad news first?” Her tone told me most of what she had to say would be bad.

“Just give it to me, Bell? What happens to Cole?” I had asked her to talk to her seer and see if she could help me decide to either let him go or follow my heart.

“If you let him go, he’ll live a full and happy life. That guy has a great future ahead of him. He’s just like you, Novem, helping people.” Her words shredded my soul, but I needed to know.

“And if I follow my heart?” My words were a whisper, but she heard me.

She paused long enough that my stomach knotted. “He dies. No one man can survive being mated to the Blood Widow. I’m so sorry.”

That memory always made something crack inside of me. I would never know what it was like to be happy. To wake up in someone’s arms like this every day.

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