Page 37 of Monsters of Mayhem

“It was very real,” I said. “It was the most real thing in the world,”

“When you left all those times, it made me feel like you didn’t want me,” she explained. “I thought you had something or someone else on your plate. Even though now I’ve discovered it’s monsters, I still wonder why you ever married me?”

“The portal’s going to close,” I pointed toward it.

“I don’t care,” she replied. “Why did you marry me, Ryder?”

I reached my head backward and raised my eyes to the sky before I finally looked down at her. “Because I love you,” I said with such intensity, her eyes opened wide. “I love you more than I love life itself and I wanted nothing more than to have a beautiful life with you, to have a life where we could live together and be married and have children and do things.”

“You wanted children?” Her hand flew to her chest.

“With you?” I asked. “I did! I wanted a million tiny baby monsters running around at your feet. I wanted to put my baby in your belly and impregnate you but I knew I would never be around to raise the child. I knew it would never make sense to do that.”

“I always wanted to have a child with you,” she murmured. “It would make me the happiest woman in the world.”

I tilted my head to the side, staring at her. “Caroline you are my world.” I said. “There’s nothing more I want in life than you, but if we don’t get our asses through the portal, there’s not going to be any chance of doing anything. We’ve got a whole team trying to solve a bigger problem, one that’s bigger than the both of us and we need to be there for the team, for the world.”

“We need to be there for each other,” she said. “I’m tired of running away from you, Ryder. I’m tired of running completely. I’m tired of hoping things will change and never making any effort to change them, so I’m telling you right now. Ryder, I love you and I want to be with you. No matter what, I want to be in your life and part of your world.”

“You’re not part of my world,” I said.

Her face fell, and too late I realized she misunderstood entirely what I was trying to say.

My hands grabbed her upper arms, tightening enough to whiten the skin but not enough to bruise. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I needed her to understand. “Caroline, you are my world.”

I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me. I could just see the edges of the portal starting to fade. We had to get through it. I grabbed her into my arms, holding her body close to mine as I leapt through the portal and we were engulfed in the demon flames that would take us to Mount Diablo.

When we arrived on the other side, the whole crew was standing there.

Laney ran forward, grabbing Caroline around the shoulders. “My God, you terrified me! I thought you’d been captured. I kept trying to go back but apparently these portals only work one way.

“Close the portal,” I commanded Ratchet, shifting back into my human form.

“Got it, boss,” he said.

“Come on,” I said as the portal closed.

“Wait, there’s no cell signal here,” Laney said.

“There’s no one you need to talk to,” I said to her.

“Don’t give me that look,” she said, and I thought for a moment she was about to snarl at me. “I told my boyfriend I would check in with him. You know what that’s like checking in with your partner?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I didn’t think you did.”

“Laney.” Caroline grabbed her hand and squeezed it, hushing her. “Maybe now is not the best time to be including your boyfriend in our plans, right? I mean, you are our token human, not him.”

“I was just trying to let him know I was okay,” Laney said.

“Where the hell are we?” Caroline asked.

“Come on,” I said. “I’ll show you.”

We were in a dark chamber at the bottom of a long set of stairs. The stairs were narrow and twisted in a small circle. I started going up the steps until we got to the very top. They opened up into a large glass room that showed a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the entire inland region.

I had built the house at the top of the mountain but it was warded so nobody could see it but supernaturals who knew it existed. I liked to come out here and sit and look out at the world and it also gave me the opportunity to gain power from the San Andreas rift. I needed the power and the magic that came with this place. Even now I could feel it charging my system and replenishing my blood with power.

The house was circular with bedrooms on the lower level. This level has a large living space, open plan kitchen and plate glass windows surrounding it.

The two youngest witches immediately went into the open plan kitchen and looked in the fridge. Two of the other witches went with them, but Eunice, Ratchet, Caroline and I moved to the table. We needed to see the world rifts and see where the biggest problems were. I waved my hand, and what looked like a large table turned into a world map rather quickly with all the rifts showing in fine lines around the planet.

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