Page 59 of Newly Undead in Dark River

The Council weren’t the only ones who had questions about how Judge was friends with an Enforcer, but I think deep down I already knew the answer. I just wasn’t ready to face it. There’d been enough life-altering events for one day. Instead, I grabbed his hand. I gave him an imploring look.

He gave me a soft smile. “I’ll come back to you, promise. I don’t think I could stay away, even if I wanted to, Sugar.”

He was gone with a light wind, and I drifted back into blissful darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Iwoke wrapped in Walker’s arms, mentally counting his heartbeats. I snuggled back into him, and just breathed him in. I realized I wasn’t trying to stab him with the floor lamp. They must have gotten Alice to revoke the command.

But when I went to say good morning, I realized I was still mute. Panic rode me hard until I felt Walker’s fingers tracing a circle on my back. I wanted to purr, to kiss every inch of him, to give him back everything I’d stolen. His skin was finally a healthy color, and I breathed easier knowing what Judge said was true. Walker really was going to be fine.

The man in question kissed the back of my neck, and I sighed soundlessly. “Still no voice?” he asked groggily, and I shook my head.

“That’s okay, Sweetheart. You are pretty sassy normally. I think I could appreciate the silence.”

I rolled over in his arms and gave him the stink eye. But seeing the life on his face, the laughter in his eyes, it broke me. For the three hundredth time in the last twenty-four hours, I cried.

Walker pulled me into his arms, letting me cry onto his chest. I hated that I’d almost lost him. Hated that I was no longer in control of my emotions, or my body. I hated that I’d had any control at all stripped from me.

I kissed his lips softly, hoping all the words I couldn’t say poured from my mouth and into his, so he knew that it would have broken me if he’d died.

“Don’t look so sad. I can take anything but your sadness, Raine. It gets me here. It has ever since you walked into the diner like a half-dead nightmare. But you are mine. I refuse to let you go, not in this life or the next. You got that?”

I quirked a brow at him, and he laughed. “Okay, you are ours. Trust me, I haven’t forgotten that you seem to attract stray lovers wherever you go. But I have a feeling that it will take more than one of us to keep you out of trouble.”

I wanted to frown, but all I could do was smile wider as he leaned in and kissed me, moving his body over mine, so I was pressed deep into the mattress, appreciating the hard length of his torso, and the feel of his morning wood against my stomach.

“I want to make love to you, to claim you as my own right now,” he groaned, and I nodded fervently. I was totally down for that idea, especially when he was kissing that spot on my neck that made every single one of my nerve endings light on fire. “But when I do, I want to hear you moaning my name.”

He rolled off me and back onto the bed. “Soon, Raine.” He smiled as I pouted. “We should get up. We’ll need to talk to the Council before the hearing.”

I shuddered. I didn’t want to relive yesterday. I wanted what Brody had promised me that today would be better. But I think he may have lied. Today was going to be a whole heaping pile of shit.

In the end,the Council needed very little from me. Their version of a trial was different from what I would consider a trial. It was mostly done behind closed doors, in front of the Council panel itself. There were no lawyers, nor a jury of her peers. It was just the facts, from as many different sources as they could find. The judgment would be handed down in the meeting hall area of Town Hall though. Maybe it was a blessing that Alice had stolen my voice like Ursula, minus the talk of poor, unfortunate souls. I couldn’t tell them much, writing down what happened, and that was that. It may have been because of Nico, who dismissed me after I’d finished my statement, glaring at Grim when he’d tried to question me more.

Walker had been in front of them for an hour, telling his side of the story. Apparently, Alice had called him, telling him she’d found me unresponsive on the floor of the apartment. He, in typical white knight fashion, raced over, only to be jabbed in the neck by an entire vial of some kind of neurotoxin that incapacitated him completely. Then I’d come home, acted like a completely trusting idiot, and the rest was history.

I hadn’t been there for Judge’s testimony, but apparently, he’d gathered enough evidence with the help of the even more mysterious X, that Alice’s guilt was proven beyond a doubt. They’d even found where Alice was keeping her human victims; some dank cabin in the woods. Luckily, it had been empty. My death and subsequent rebirth must have scared her into stopping for a little while, which I can only consider a small mercy. Judge had presented photos, data, and all sorts of other irrefutable evidence. And he’d produced X. Proof that Alice had brought herself, and therefore the town, to the attention of the Vampire Nation.

By the looks on their faces, this was a more grievous sin than murdering me once and attempting to do it again. X had been strolling around town, scaring the locals and generally being menacing, all traces of the softness I’d seen yesterday completely gone. He was an enigma, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to solve him, or hope he went away and never came back.

Finally, they’d let Walker out. He still looked a little pale, but when he came over to pull me out of my chair, he did it with ease. Judge was somewhere babysitting X and Brody, and Tex were over at the apartment, collecting all my things. I couldn’t go back there, and until I found a new place, I was staying with Walker. Although both he and Judge had offered to let me live at each of their respective places, I felt like I needed somewhere of my own. Mostly because I had a gazillion boyfriends, and my place would be neutral territory.

We walked out of the Council’s chambers, and across the road to Town Hall. My chest filled uncomfortably full of something I didn’t want to name when I saw my guys waiting for us in the square. They were all standing together, talking, Judge so close to Tex that when he waved a hand at the building behind them, his fingertips brushed Tex’s arm. Brody smiled and laughed at something Judge said, and I wished I had my phone on me so I could capture the perfection of the scene. I looked around and noticed X was there, popping the heads off the daisies that bordered the path. No longer able to hold back, I flashed to the middle of the circle and wrapped my arms around them. I couldn’t tell them how much I appreciated them in words, but I could in actions. I lifted my face and kissed Tex first, a sweet gentle kiss that hinted at all the promises I intended to keep. Then Brody whirled me out of his arms. “My turn, Pup,” he teased Tex, dipping me into a long, almost pornographic kiss.

I was grinning wide when he finally set me on my feet. I turned and faced Judge, and the heated look in his eyes promised something better than a kiss later. Still, he leaned forward and kissed me hard, nipping my bottom lip with his fangs.

Walker finally caught up and nodded to the guys. “They’re about to give the verdict. I’m glad you guys are here, for Raine.”

Brody clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re here for you too, Man.”

We walked toward the Town Hall as a single, united front. X trailed along until he finally drew up to my side.

“Interesting little group you’ve got going on here. I mean, you got Judge after all. Do you cum rainbows or something?” My mouth unhinged and my brows raised so high, I was worried they’d fall right off my head. “Is there an application process? Because I don’t even mind, you are mute. I like the strong, silent type,” he laughed, and I quirked an eyebrow at him.

Judge reached around and pummelled him hard in the shoulder. “Stop talking to my girlfriend, Jerkoff.”

“That’s exactly what we were discussing in fact! I was wondering if she would jerk me-” The low, ominous noise coming from Brody made him snap his jaw shut, but he was still grinning. The dude was a massive, weapon of a guy. I was pretty sure he could take Brody. But still, I stroked my Alpha’s arm, letting him know I wasn’t offended. Strangely enough, I thought the Enforcer might actually think he was flirting with me.

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