Page 64 of The HalloQueen

Cringing, I put my hand out, gesturing her to stop, “Mo, no. The bond is broken. There is nothing left between us. But, if you tell me how long you’ve been sick I can try to get you some help. Maybe I can fix this.” The last thing I wanted to do was to leave Annabel and take Monique to France to the Coalition to be treated, but after fixing her life for so many years it was difficult to turn off the urge when she was standing before me in obvious distress. “Do you want me to fix this, Mo?”

She grabbed my hand and turned to Yusuf, “He broke the bond? It was him? Did you know this? Are you two still bonded? Is it only me?”

“No, darling, he severed the bond with us both.” Yusuf continued using his gentle tone and terms of endearment trying to contain whatever she was within the store, if she’d turned, it would be exceptionally difficult to catch her, especially with me having not eaten in days. “Don’t worry, pet. You and I are still bonded. I am still here. I’m right here.”

“Monique.” I said, more authoritatively, “how long have you been sick? I can not help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Why would you break our bond?” Her eyes were almost entirely black, and though they glistened with tears, her voice became gravelly, like she was growling, “Why would you do this to us?”

“You left first. I am not going to rewrite history to make you feel better.”

“Thomas!” Yusuf scolded me, “Now is not the time!”

“That woman. The mortal,” She ground out. “I knew it, I knew you were having an affair. I smelled you all over that house. Your scent was practically a second skin on her. How long? How long has that woman been interloping?”

I couldn’t hide the laugh, “Annabel isn’t the interloper in my life here, you are! Now tell me what I need to know so I can fucking fix it and the two of you can leave me in peace!”

“Yus,” Her voice cracked, flicking back into an uncontrollable sadness as she ran to him, pressing herself into his chest. When he cradled her adoringly I shook my head. If she bit him while she was transitioning between stages, she could kill him, just like that mortal that he’d found in the road. “Yus, why is he talking like this?”

“Your mind is fractured, Monique, you’re not thinking clearly. We need to get you to Paris. Yus, you need to take her. If she isn’t too far gone, she is dangerously close.” I spoke frankly. Her ricocheting emotions were all the proof I needed that she needed to get to Paris as quickly as possible.

“Do not talk about me as if I am not here!” She shrieked, “You do not get to ruin our lives to screw some filthy mortal, Thomas! I will not let you!” She turned back to Yusuf and began speaking faster and faster until she was slipping between four languages and no longer forming coherent sentences.

“That’s rich coming from you, Monique - if I remember correctly, you were the one who held the most affection for mortals. Yus, you know I’m right.” I said, looking at him, acknowledging the heartbreak in his eyes.

“My love, will you go with me to the Doctor? We can make the burning stop. Is it burning yet?”

“The burning! Oh stars, the burning.” She sobbed, “No! No, we can not go to Paris, not while that mortal wants to ruin our family. We have to stay together.”

“You will not touch Annabel, Monique. I forbid it,” I snapped. Part of me seemed to leave my body and look on as an observer. There, twenty feet from me, were the two people I had loved more than anything in my life, so much that I spent a year desperate to find them. Now, seeing them together without the bond for the first time, I felt nothing but a fondness for what we’d had in the past. There was nothing inside of me that wanted to return to that life.

Her teeth flashed at me at lightning speed, and almost instantly, I found myself on my back being crushed into the linoleum floor with her crouched above my body.

“Annabel,” she growled, “Bels.”

I paled, hearing her call her Bels; I knew I’d only called her Annabel. “How did you-” I struggled to get her off me in my weakened state, “You will not touch Annabel. Do you understand me? You touch her and you are dead.”

“No, Thomas. She is. I will fix this, my love. I will fix us this time,” She snarled, jumping off and using my torso as leverage. The weight of her left my body, and as I clutched my aching stomach, feeling like a boulder had just been launched into me via trebuchet, I heard a crash and a groan. I knew before I’d looked up that she was gone. She was going to go find Bels.

27

ANNABEL

“Fuck, Monique you scared me. How are you?” I clasped my chest, willing my heart to slow, “Sorry to be so jumpy, it’s been a day.”

“I am fine, Bels. You were a hard woman to find today.”

Sighing, I tucked my phone back in my pocket and stood, sweeping the sand off my bottom, “I know, I was working and then I needed some space - did you ever find Thomas?”

A sneer pulled across her face, “Oh yes, I found him.”

She felt cold, colder even than she’d felt on Friday, “Oh good, I’m glad you guys reconnected. Did you get what you needed?”

In the darkness, I could see that she was less put together than she’d been before, as if she hadn’t showered. Though her clothes were spotless, her hair was noticeably greasy and her skin was dirty. “You okay, babe? You seem on edge.”

She moved closer to me, unnervingly slow as if she was deliberately slowing herself down, and lifted her lip, revealing an elongated fang, which she pressed her tongue against until it bled, the minute amount combining with her saliva to stain her mouth red. “I find myself unhappy with you, Bels. Which is a shame, as I thought after our conversation on Friday that you were an honest woman.”

I took a step away, my blood heating and those instincts to hide resurfacing at the sight of her teeth, “Well, I was drunk, if I recall correctly. Also, you were in my house for about five minutes. It isn’t like we painted each other’s nails and swapped love stories. Listen, I’m really sorry but I lost track of time and I have to get going - if you want to meet up tomorrow you can have Thomas text me.” I tried to take a wide berth around her, hearing the voice in my head shouting at me to get out of there.

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