Page 67 of The HalloQueen

I sat next to him, leaning to place my elbows on my knees, “I need you to promise me that you will take her away from here. I need you to promise me that you will get a plane and get her out of my town and away from Annabel. You can’t come back when the Coalition is done with her. You need to leave and not return.”

“200 years, just like that, love? All gone? Don’t even want to get the casual cup of coffee?”

Looking into his dark eyes heavy with emotion, I shook my head slowly, “Yus…the pain you caused me in one year easily caused irreparable damage to us. I can never bond with you again.”

He smirked, arching his brow, “Even if I said I’d bond with you and Annabel?”

I growled instinctively, my insides twisting at the idea of having to share her with the man who admitted he wouldn’t have come back for me alone - that I wasn’t enough without Monique.

Chuckling, he swept his thumb across his lips, “You are so screwed, Thomas. Fated to a mortal - who would have guessed?”

“If that’s true, and that’s a big if, if anything happens to her, you are both dead.”

“Yes, yes, you are very scary, my love,” He smiled rubbing my shoulder playfully, “Yes, Thomas. You help me find her and I will take her to Paris and we will not return.”

We spoke for several more minutes, trying to devise some kind of plan that would work in my weakened state and then he was gone - out to try and scent Monique’s hiding place while the sun was out. If she wasn’t fully changed yet, which I didn’t think she was, the sun wouldn’t kill her, but it would increase the burning inside of her, making it unlikely that she’d try to find Annabel until this evening.

I thought back to the to-do lists that I had seen Bels make a thousand times last week. She had explained that taking an insurmountable task and breaking it down made her feel like it was suddenly achievable. Like she’d said - anyone can do five things, especially one at a time, so as I drank the remaining contents of my cup, I thought about the day ahead. I broke it down.

1. Unload the truck to restock my supply of blood.

2. Contact Bels and find out where she was.

3. Try to not worry and run the store until the sun goes down.

4. Find Annabel and watch from a distance if she isn’t ready to be with me yet.

5. Grovel at her feet while Yusuf takes Monique away.

29

ANNABEL

The lights had been too bright. They flashed behind my closed eyes and I began to hear a chorus of beeping machines and soft-spoken voices. I tried to push down on my hand to shift in whatever bed I was in, only to realize that I couldn’t move my arm. My eyes shot open and took in the stark white room that stunk of lemons and alcohol. Each breath felt like someone was sitting on my chest and made me cough painfully.

“Ow, fucking hell,” I muttered, blinking a few times up at the ceiling trying to calm myself.

“Baby, you’re awake!” My Mom’s concerned green eyes came into my line of sight, “Are you in pain? Do you-”

“Jesus, Deirdra, let her be!” Mama’s teacher voice bit at her, laced with worry and concentration, “I need you to help me finish this poultice.”

“Annabel, darling, do you know where you are?” Mom swept some unruly hair from my head, ignoring her wife.

“I have no fucking idea. Can I have some water? Can I sit up?” I croaked the words, my throat hoarse from screaming and the fight with Monique on the beach came rushing back to me, “Oh my god!”

“Shhhh…are you remembering?” She asked, holding my cheeks.

“I was dead. I was on the beach and-”

“Not dead, my love. Not from that.” Her normally serene voice was tainted with worry, “How did…how…”

“Dee, please!”

I fumbled for the remote attached to the hospital bed, allowing it to lift my wrecked body into a seated position so I could see my mothers who were crouched over a small black bowl with my Mama using a mortar and pestle to grind something up.

“What are you guys doing?”

My Mama’s shoulders slumped and my mom looked at me warily, “Bels, do you know what happened to you?”

---