Page 20 of Deadly Reckoning
“You know, if anyone else had told me that, I would have assumed they didn’t know what they were talking about, but I’ve seen and heard what you’re capable of, so I’m inclined to believe you. Thank you for reassuring us by telling us that,” Asher replies.
I nod and smile, “Of course, and speaking of things that you have seen and heard . . .”
“I’m going to go and help Rana burn Derek, I feel like that needs to be done quickly before she fixates,” Neith says, interrupting me with an apologetic look.
I nod, “Sounds good.”
Neith
The guys all stay with River while he talks to Asher and Amari about not saying anything, and I quickly make my way over to Rana.
“Hey,” I smile as I reach her.
She glances at me with a smile, “Please tell me we can burn him to ash now?”
I nod, “Yep. Just give me a second to check his pockets for his phone, we might need it.” I do a quick search and don’t find anything at all, which means that his phone was most likely in the house, and now ash.
It’s not something that we can do anything about right now, so I call on my fire, making sure that it’s a normal color, and blast it at the body. I then ask my magic to take away the smoke and the smell, no one wants to smell that. Trust me.
“Thank you,” she tells me, as she watches the fire, a peaceful smile crossing her features.
She’s finally free.
I nod, but don’t say anything as I have a feeling that she has something that she needs to say.
“I don’t think I can stay here,” she says quietly. “The wolves don’t fully trust me, and the memories here are everywhere. My wolf is stronger than she should be, we are stronger than we should be, and that’s going to cause problems pretty quickly.”
I nod, “Okay. Well, how would you feel about staying at the compound? Van’s parents wouldn’t mind, and you could stay there for as long as you needed to or indefinitely if you wanted to. There are lots of different supernaturals there, although they are mostly water supes.”
Rana’s eyes fill with hope before they dim almost immediately, “I can’t, I have no money, nothing.”
“I’ll cover it all,” I say immediately. I’ve got more than I need.
She shakes her head, “I couldn’t accept that.”
“I promise you that it’s okay and that there are no strings attached. Would it make you feel better if it were a loan?”
She seems to war with herself for a moment, but then nods, “Yes. I promise I will pay you back.”
“You don’t have to, but okay. We’ll get you set up with an account and stuff when we go back to the compound,” I tell her.
This feels better than leaving her here, and I didn’t realize that it felt wrong to leave her here until just now.
“Thank you,” she replies.
I shrug, “It’s what friends are for.”
“Friends?” she asks with a slight smile.
“Yep, you’re stuck with me for life now,” I reply with an evil laugh that makes her burst out laughing.
“Thank fuck, I think you might be the only person whose weird matches mine,” she replies.
“Wait until I introduce you to Navy, Neera, and Joey, they’re just as weird,” I tell her.
She nods, “I’d like that.”
We stay and watch the fire for a moment longer.
