Page 42 of Lahaina Noon

It only took twenty minutes for help to arrive but to Vaughn, it was years. He quickly gave Siobhan a rundown of what happened. She nodded once and walked into the bedroom without another word. He didn’t tell her how he thought Bridget was able to tap into his magic, that was more than he could handle.

Liam sat down next to Gabe, not saying anything, just giving him a hug.

Vaughn hadn’t talked at all while they had waited. He walked over and sat on the other side, looking at the boy and seeing questions in his eyes. “Gabe,” he sighed. Bridget was going to kill him for this, “We need to talk.”

Chapter 24

Bridget came to slowly,her head pounding, her vision fuzzy. She groaned and stirred, feeling like she’d been hit by a truck. She heard someone shift on the chair next to the bed and turned to look. “Ugh,” she groaned again. Why did that hurt so much?

“Welcome back,” came a female voice.

She tried to focus and found that if she squinted, she could make out Siobhan leaning over her. “What hit me?” Bridget croaked.

Siobhan snorted, “From what I hear, a couple of thousand kilowatts of electricity.”

Bridget was pretty sure that wasn’t a thing, and it hurt to think about it, so she ignored it. “My head,” she managed.

“Yeah, that happens when you overload on magic like that. You should take it slowly when you first start out. Sending a shockwave like that is totally badass, don’t get me wrong, but not good for a first-timer.” She used a cool rag that was heaven on Bridget’s forehead, wiping away the sweat collecting there.

Bridget vaguely recalled some of what Siobhan was talking about. “Gabe? Vaughn?” she whispered. Whispering was good. It didn’t hurt as much.

Siobhan smiled, “They’re fine, thanks to you. To hear Gabe tell it, you looked like Storm from the X-Men. His mom is a bona-fide superhero.”

Bridget smiled weakly at that. “So hot,” she whispered. Her surprise at finding Siobhan there had worn off; now, she was more aware of her misery.

Siobhan nodded, “Well, that’s to be expected. I can help, though.” She closed her eyes, holding her hands out, palms down, and suddenly Bridget’s body was wrapped in ice. It was heaven.

“Ooh,” Bridget sighed. She blinked; her vision had finally cleared. She tried to sit up, but her head throbbed. “Got anything for the nails being driven into my skull?” She didn’t have to try hard to sound pathetic. Siobhan put her fingers on Bridget’s temples, and suddenly her head was whole again. She was human once more.

Bridget sat up slowly and looked at Siobhan with wonder. “Wow,” she said in a normal voice. “You’re pretty handy to have around during a migraine.”

Siobhan rolled her eyes and stood. “Yeah.”

Bridget grabbed her arm. “I don’t mean to belittle you. I just make stupid jokes when I’m on edge,” she admitted. “Thank you. Truly, thank you for helping me. I’m impressed with your abilities. Maybe you can teach me how to not fry my brain in the future? I don’t know what I did or how I did it. I remember I was staring at a bullet hanging outside the car window, and then I was angry at those shadow bastardsfor trying to kill my son. After that, I remember crackling and boom, I woke up here in Vaughn’s bed. Again. I’m making a habit of this,” she muttered the last part.

Siobhan smiled, patting Bridget on the shoulder. “You’re welcome.” She walked out of the room.

A giant dog barreled in and jumped on the bed. No, not a dog, she realized. It was Gabe. He was bouncing around, ecstatic to see she was okay. He was talking so fast she could barely make out what he was saying, but she caught enough to know he was glad she was alright. She was now a badass superhero, he was fine, and Vaughn was going to show him how to grill a steak.

She laughed and put her hands on his face. “Love you, bug.”

He stopped bouncing. “Love you, too, Mom.”

They smiled at each other for a minute, then she said, “Well I guess we need to talk about what happened. But we can’t wait until after dinner. So Vaughn’s going to grill steaks, huh? I didn’t see a grill anywhere. Do you mean he’s doing them on the stove?” She was trying to buy time to figure out how to explain this to him. He oddly didn’t seem fazed by what had happened.

Gabe grinned at her, “Of course not, Mom, he’s going to use his fire breath.”

Vaughn was in the kitchen, putting salt and pepper on the steaks and wrapping some potatoes in foil. He had wanted to run to Bridget’s side when she came to, but knew she’d need some time to reassure herself that Gabe was okay. He needed some time himself to really come to terms with what had happened today. For her to tap into his thoughts and then channel his magic meant one thing. He had avoided thiscomplication for the majority of his life for a reason. If he didn’t admit it, maybe he could ignore it a little while longer? No, that was foolish thinking. He just needed more time to figure it out before the Council became aware. Once they were, he would no doubt be summoned before them to discuss it. That was something he was most decidedly not looking forward to. He sighed. Who was he kidding?

He knew it deep in his heart. Bridget was—

“Vaughn. Cormac. Drake.”

He whirled around and saw Bridget standing in the doorway. Arms crossed, foot tapping, fire in her eyes. He saw Gabriel peeking around her, frantically waving and wide-eyed.

Pissed. Bridget was pissed.

Bridget stormed across the bedroom throwing him furious glances while he sat on the bed, ankles crossed, hands folded demurely. She wasn’t falling for the innocent schoolboy look, and he knew it, but he dared not do anything else until the dam was ready to break.

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