Page 88 of Under a Wicked Moon
“Don’t leave me.” Whatever had been between them felt like something big, probably overwhelming, and important.
He squeezed his eyelids tightly shut. “I can’t be near you, not when I can’t have you. I don’t want to fight with you. We will. We were. It’s because we’re frustrated. It hurts both of us. I don’t want to be possessive and angry. But there’s no way I can act normal around you.” He let out a heavy breath. “I can’t fucking do it.”
“I’m sorry about whatever happened…everything. Just, please, don’t make me beg. Please don’t leave.” A wave of emptiness consumed her.Don’t leave me to figure this out alone.
“Can’t you see, Vivi? This isn’t a choice? It’s a necessity. I have to keep you safe from yourself. The only way is for me to stay away from you. That way, those who have power over me can’t force one of us to kill or hurt you. They don’t allow me to have attachments like you, and I’m not good like Roman at hiding it from them.”
He kissed her neck before he pushed off the wall behind her, putting space between them. “I will always keep you safe.”
He walked out the door leaving her crumbling on the inside from something she didn’t even remember existed.
He’s leaving because of me. For me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“You sure your head’s in this?” Roman asked as he parked the rental car up the street from the Roman Catholic church in Namibia. Two white church spires loomed high in the sky with circular stained-glass windows that trekked from the midpoint downward. “If you’re distracted and messed up, stay in the car.”
“I’m good.”
Total lie. It’d been seven days since his epic confrontation with Vivi.
Roman’s dark eyebrows slashed inward. “You’re half here.” He whipped off his wire-frame sunglasses to make eye contact. “I had an episode when I broke it off with Nova out of a misguided sense of needing to keep her safe. It was—”
“Anepisode?” Flynn interrupted. “That’s what we’re calling the four weeks you drank yourself into oblivion all day every single day? You lost your mind, turned green, and almost wasted away. If your angel friend hadn’t showed up, you’d have died. I’d say that goes way beyond anepisode. I’d label it a complete meltdown.”
“Shut up.” Roman scowled at Flynn. “Ky, I’ve been there. You’re handling it a lot better than I did. She’s not the same person you knew anymore.”
She remembers me.
Roman said, “Take comfort in knowing she’s somewhere no one will find her. Somewhere not in danger.”
“I got it,” Ky snarled, instantly regretting it. He wasn’t okay.He couldn’t stop thinking about her. Couldn’t stop wishing he’d chosen differently, perhaps tried to save her from losing her memory, or making her at least like him. Friendship was at least something, a way to keep her in his life. Nah, that wouldn’t work. There had to have been a way to erase the triggers without erasing her entire mind with that experimental human drug. “I’m not going to die today.”
Roman pinched his nose. “This is a mess. You should stay in the car. In fact, please, stay in the car.”
“I’ll bake out here in the heat. I’m going inside for the air-conditioning.” Ky stared out the window from his spot in the back seat of the sedan. He said the mantra they’d come up with long ago, “Fight hard. Fight right. Fight to the end.”
Flynn fist-bumped with him.
Roman nodded.
“What’s the plan?” Ky asked. “We waltz in the front door and get this done? Or do something less obvious? Might be smart not to draw the witch’s attention.”
Flynn scrolled through screens on a tablet. “I can’t find reports of anything weird associated with the church or any unexplained deaths in the area. No local police reports related to the church. Nothing like would be typical for a witch on a murder spree. I’m thinking Gerard’s intel was off or this is the wrong place.”
“We shouldn’t trust him at all. He’s on Slate’s payroll,” Ky muttered.
“We can at least make sure there’s nothing evil inhabiting this place. Everyone armed? Protective charms on?” Roman patted the hexenspiegel and touched the two protective talismans around his neck before he exited the car.
Ky palmed the protective amulet around his neck and the pendant of St. Michael. He also draped a crystal on a chain on top of them, one guaranteed to protect against the worst witch spells, and tucked all three neck talismans into his shirt.
A beige sedan pulled in next to their car. Out of it came Vivi and Nova.
What? How were they here? Ky asked, “Is this what you’d call keeping her somewhere safe? This could be a fucking ambush. They need to go.”
Vivi’s eyes sparkled with mischief when she caught him staring. She flashed a devastating smile. So flipping beautiful with her hair in a braid and the dark tactical outfit that had to be sweltering in this heat, but was sexy.
Roman stormed to them. “Nova…come on; we talked about this on the plane. It’s distracting for me—and Ky—to have you here.”
