Page 44 of Spooked
CHAPTER TWENTY
HOUND
It’s completely crazy. I’d felt a connection with Maeve the times that I’d seen her in my imagination, my dreams. But now she’s in my arms, solid and real, I know I’ve finally found my one, that fate has brought us together. I can also tell that she’s as confused as I am. Our world, since we met, has hardly been normal. Unreal, unbelievable are inadequate words for what’s happened to us.
She holds onto me as though she’s scared I might disappear, the same way she vanished on me, but I don’t share her worries. I give any credence to the sixth sense I’m feeling. We’ve come to a junction in the road, where the spirits have gone, leaving us to our own devices, and whatever direction we take is up to us.
My mind is easier than it has been for days. I’m relaxed in a way that I’ve never been since first awaking from my accident. Although the odours of the hospital overwhelm almost everything, I can still sense her own unique perfume as I breathe in deeply against her skin, her natural pheromones drawing me in like a moth to the flame, already warning me I’m never going to want to let her go.
In other circumstances, I might find it annoying, but that rhythmic bleeping of the machine reassures me she’s aliveand she’s here. Her breathing has gradually shallowed as she’s drifted into sleep, but at least I have the audible confirmation that her heart’s beating normally.
Despite the lights that still shine, albeit dimmed, and that I shouldn’t find it possible to rest, I feel myself relaxing as I lie, holding her tight. My eyes close, my mind ceases its torment, and finally, for the first time in weeks, I drift off into a dreamless sleep. Until something has me snapping awake. It’s someone entering the room. Expecting a nurse, I start to rehearse the reasons why I shouldn’t be kicked out of her bed, out of the room, or even off the premises. But to my shock, she just shakes her head, does her checks, then, with a finger to her lips, creeps out of the door, closing it to give us some privacy.
After a while, Maeve wakes from sleep, her motion in turn arousing me. Turning my head, I see her staring into my eyes, a perplexed expression adorning her features. “Are you really here?” she asks.
“I’m here,” I confirm, proving it with a gentle kiss to her lips. “Hell, Maeve, if you’re wondering what’s going on, you can’t be more confused than me.” Shaking my head, I grin. “Seems like most of our meetings have been on some spirit plane, or in some shared dream. Fuck, I thought I was going crazy.”
“Same as me.”
A buzzing sound disturbs us. I slide my phone from my pocket. Reading the text, I exhale deeply. Glancing at her face, I wonder how to tell her the news.
She’s not stupid. My reaction has told her the words I’ve received involve her. “What is it?”
“Your aunt was found dead this morning, in her house. A heart attack.”
She sucks in air. “So she’s gone for real?”
Pulling her into my arms, I murmur, “Sure seems so. Mouse’s information is normally right.”
After being silent for a moment, she sighs. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now what Gramma’s intentions were. Siobhan sold anything of any value, and there’s now no house.”
“There’s the land,” I tell her. “And we’ve got the will.”
“Wouldn’t that be odd? A will turning up out of nowhere fifteen years after the testator died? There’s no proof it’s genuine.”
Acknowledging she’s got a point, I grimace, then come up with an idea. “We’ll get our club lawyer to look at it. If it’s out of her experience, I’m sure she’ll know someone who can help. And we’ll have to find out if Siobhan made arrangements before she died. If not, everything of hers should come to you as her only living relative.”
Instead of showing her interest, she looks downcast. “I’ve no money for lawyers…”
“Babe.” I chuckle. “You’ve got a fortune in jewels. Anyway, don’t worry about it. Alex, our lawyer, will do it as a favour to me. She and Dart always love having an excuse to come visit Tucson.” It’s true. And we love it when their son Tyler comes along with them, now a patched Devil in the San Diego chapter himself. Goes by the road name Spark, and definitely has that about him. The kid occasionally visited when I was a prospect, always proud as fuck of the leather cut he’d been given with “Junior Prospect”, or some such shit on the back. Apparently, they had to get him a new one every year, as once his illness was under control, he grew like a damn weed.
“Hound?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“Could you see if my purse is anywhere?” After a shake of her head, she continues, “I haven’t thought of it before, but I need to see if my phone is here with me.”
She doesn’t have to ask twice. There’s only one place where I suspect it would be. Eschewing my crutches for now, I bearmy weight on my right leg, balancing my hands on the bed, and move around to look in the cupboard in her bedside table. Sure enough, there’s a black shoulder purse there. When I pass it to her, she rummages and pulls out her phone.
Then sighs. “It’s dead as a dodo.”
Can’t say I’m surprised. “Give it to me, and I’ll try and find someone with a charger.”
Instead of passing me the phone, she takes my hand, wrapping her fingers around mine tightly. “Don’t go.”
“Afraid I won’t come back?”
Her eyes close, and a little shiver goes through her. “Something like that.”
