Page 96 of Heal Me

I’m pacing back and forth, waiting for Gabe to return to me safe and sound. After what feels like forever, he appears and I run over to him, but he keeps me at arm’s length. “Charlotte, you knew I lost Gabby at the Watcher compound. I told you humans don’t belong in the Watchers’ world. You knew I’d be mad as hell for you going there without me, and that’s why you went behind my back!” he thunders.

I flinch, knowing his anger’s justified. The only time I’ve seen him this mad was when my dad brought up Gabby. “You’re right, I knew you wouldn’t like it. But I’m in your world now, and part of your world will always be the Watchers’ world. I just didn’t want to be a liability. A weakness. Powerless. I was so powerless when Brad kidnapped me, and I don’t ever want to feel that way again,” I explain, my voice shaking a little.

He takes a seat and tents his fingers. Holding my breath, I wait for him to speak again. Finally, he breaks the silence. “You really shot Sam in the balls?”

“Multiple times.”

He smiles at that, but then his brows crease. “Why did you take Sam’s feather?”

“Follow me,” I say, holding out my hand. I’m worried he’s going to leave me hanging, but eventually he stands. He doesn’t take my hand. That hurts, but I still lead him to the bedroom where I’ve prepped the ritual.

I instruct Gabe to remove his shirt and sit in the center of the circle, while I grind the remainder of the dried jasmine flowers. Giving them a stir with Sam’s feather, I can feel the energy building—electric, like a summer storm about to roll in. Pricking my finger with a sterile needle, I squeeze a drop of my blood into the mixture, visualizing my intention flowing from the red droplet falling into the pestle.

Stirring seven times clockwise using Sam’s feather, I paint the mixture over Gabe’s back and chant:

Power of Watcher magic and blood of gold,

Gabe’s back and heart free from scars and the pain, we now behold.

Continuing to chant as I brush his back, the mixture begins to shimmer. I keep chanting, focusing on my intention of healing Gabe.

Closing the ritual and my circle, I guide him to the bathroom. Holding my breath as I use a wet washcloth to clean his back, tears stream down my face.

Watching me intently in the mirror, he turns his body around and takes a look at the now perfectly smooth skin. And then he disappears.

I crumble to the bathroom floor, bawling. Have I healed his back, only to have irrevocably harmed our relationship?

* * *

Gabe

Teleporting to Gabby’s grave, I fall to my knees. “I’m sorry,” I tell her, swiping angrily at a few tears falling down my face. “Charlotte worked magic and healed me. I thought I would be happy about it, but now all I feel is guilt. Maybe I deserved the physical reminder of my failing. Because I failed you.”

“No, Cupid. If anyone failed her, it was me,” Sam says, sliding to his knees beside me. He places a daisy on Gabby’s headstone.

“I’m the one who made her stay back with my magic.”

“You think I would have let my pregnant woman go with us to an unsecured location? Stop blaming yourself. She died because I didn’t see Kabel for the threat he was.”

“Sam, you had no way of knowing what he was planning. You stop blaming yourself.” I glance over to my brother to see he’s crying. “If she saw us like this, she’d kick both of our asses,” I laugh, swiping my eyes.

“What are you doing here instead of making up with your girl?” he asks, pretending he didn’t just shed a few tears as he wipes his face with his T-shirt and pulls me to my feet. “Human time is short. Make the most of it.”

Standing, Sam and I hug, and then he thumps me on the back so hard my teeth rattle. We can’t get too emotional after all; Sam has a rep to maintain. “Tell Charlotte she can have the weekend off, but then we’re back at it come Monday.”

“Do I look like your messenger angel?”

“Careful, or I’ll send you home to Charlotte in your favorite diaper.”

“I’ll tell her, you cockblocker,” I mutter.

“What was that?”

I disappear before he makes good on his threat.

Teleporting to Charlotte’s room, I hear the shower running and so I strip, entering the steamy bathroom. Opening the shower door and stepping in, I startle her. “Gabe, I’m—”

I slide to my knees, and without a word, I begin to feast on her pussy. She gasps, her head thunking the shower wall. I’m usually slow and methodical, but too many emotions have me in a feverish state as I absolutely devour her. “Gabe,” she moans, and I take her clit between my teeth and bite down, harder than a love bite.

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