He never moved off me. He remained in the exact same position. He never let go. His blue eye was so crystal clear and the brown was so warm, but then his eyes filled with striking emotion. He pressed his face into my neck and hugged me, making me feel tiny beneath his solid body.
I raised my hands, and even though awkward, pressed them against his arm, feeling him trembling beneath me. Tears escaped my eyes in total understanding. At my sob, he lifted up onto his forearms and stared down at me with tears in his eyes, too.
For all we'd been through, all the impossible circumstances we had faced, Kipp had lived. We had a life together. It’d all been worth it. We’d come out of it still intact, still in love, and still wanting nothing but each other.
I smiled, tears rushing over my cheeks. “We made it.”
Kipp’s eyes shut for a long moment before he opened them again. He leaned in and grinned with an emotion only belonging to a man that had faced death and lived through it. “We did.”
The End
Epilogue
You better get here. Right now.
I groaned at the text on my cell phone, knowing the hell that would soon rain down on me. When I looked up, Zach cocked his head, giving me a curious look. “Caley,” was all I said.
The side of his mouth curved as he placed his coffee cup on the table. “What’s that, the tenth call?”
Plopping down on my big comfy couch in my living room, I sighed. “Twentieth.” I considered the past two hours, and then corrected myself. “Actually, eleventh call, but ninth text.”
“She’s relentless.” Zach chuckled with a shake of his head. He took a seat in next to me, causing the couch to bounce under his drop down.
“Do you have to be somewhere?”
I glanced away from Zach to the woman in her early twenties with the shiny brown hair and big cocoa-colored eyes, who sat—floated—on my recliner in the corner of the room. “Nah, it’s all right, Mary Jane. No rush.”
Well, we were in a rush, but she didn’t need to know that. The last thing I wanted to do was add guilt to her emotional state, while we were trying to settle all her outstanding issues to cross over.
Mary Jane smiled, but like usual, a smile on a ghost appeared more mournful than bright with joy. Her lips parted to respond when suddenly, the solid nature of her shimmered.
I straightened up in my seat in the exact moment Zach’s phone rang. Not a second later, he had the phone at his ear, but I didn’t need the confirmation. The way Mary Jane’s body glittered with light, I knew a truth. “Oh, they’ve found Kenneth.”
The man, who happened to be her brother’s best friend, had killed her because she rejected him. Jealously did dangerous things, I knew that from experience, but match that with a crazy person and it was a recipe for disaster.
Mary Jane glanced at her hands, flickering with white light, before she looked at me with wide eyes. “Yes, they must have.”
The panicked part of me held my breath, waiting for a killer to barge through my front door with gun drawn. Yeah, I still suffered post-traumatic stress. I wondered if that worry would ever fade.
However, Kipp was ensuring it did. It wasn’t much of a shock he’d become protective in the month that had passed since he awakened. But to my happiness, life had done what I had hoped it would—returned to normal.
Well, of course, my totally messed up normal that included ghosts, but now also included a living-breathing man who I couldn’t get enough of. Somehow, the life I had once fought against was more welcomed than I ever could’ve imagined.
Kipp had put a new rule in place the day he returned to work: I wasn’t to be involved in cases. I was only to work with the ghosts, not the mystery behind it all, and I was never alone. The task now meant one of the guys became my babysitter, but no one seemed to care, including me.
Mary Jane’s case started with locating her at her family’s house, and then Kipp ordered that Mary Jane stayed with me until the case was solved. She’d stayed at my house—which Kipp now lived at, too—she came shopping with me, and she even sat around the coffee shop.
Just normal daily stuff, but that now included a ghost with me.
All communication came through the telephone line. The only time I went to the station was at the beginning of the case for a debriefing, and then sometimes for meetings with Max if they needed a deeper look into the case.
Kipp said I didn’t need to be involved any more than that, and if they had a question for a ghost, he could just call. Considering the past cases always put me in danger, I had no objections.
Besides, Kipp had said that we were making cases too personal. Going to homes where a killer lived, or may be near, wasn’t an option anymore. The men worked a case like typical police officers—and well, we all knew I was never a cop and didn’t want to be.
The light in front of me grew brighter as the sun peered through the window of our condo. Mary Jane’s body lost even more of its solidness, so I forced myself to stop thinking and focus on her. “Go in peace, Mary Jane.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, tears welling in her soft brown eyes.
Zach ended his call and looked at me, expectantly.
I nodded, indicating enough that Mary Jane was crossing over.
As I glanced away from him, squinting against the piercing light surrounding the recliner and inhaling the scent of the peanut butter cookies I had made earlier coming from the kitchen, Mary Jane’s eyes fluttered closed.
Only a second later…poof…she winked out of existence.
I stared at the spot where she vanished, and then looked around our house, waiting for the bomb to hit. After a good minute of Zach giving me a hard look and of total silence, nothing happened. “Wow,” I gasped. “That’s it?”
Zach chuckled. “You expected something more dramatic?”
Turning in my seat to face him fully, I gave him a firm nod. “I expected someone to die or at least for there to be danger, or something.”
Zach hesitated, and then he stood. “I prefer less drama.”
I snorted, watching him approach my front door. “You and me both.”
“Come on. We better go.” He opened the door and waved me forward with urgency, looking mildly afraid with a pinched expression. “Caley might kill me if I keep you here any longer.”
“Might?” I laughed, understanding his worry because I knew we both faced a certain wrath—Caley style. “Will is more like it.”
Zach grunted. “I know.”
I followed Zach out to his truck and we wasted no time getting on the road. Zach even used his police sirens to get us to Caley in quick time. Memphis streets were a blur around me as Zach sped through the city.
When we arrived at a local gallery and gardens, Zach turned off the sirens. He drove by the historic red brick plantation that was now used as the gallery. Near the entrance to the gardens, he slammed the truck into park and we exited in a damn hurry.
The moment I shut the door behind me, I froze in my tracks. Kipp strode toward me with a huge smile planted on his handsome face. My heart stuttered and butterflies fluttered in my stomach.
God, the man was beautiful in his black T-shirt and faded blue jeans. He approached with long, fluid strides. Somehow, the knowledge that this man walked to me made me giddy.
I loved being Kipp’s entire focus.
However, even if that was enough to make me a little weak in the knees, the group of people following him erased any heat he might have built. I looked over at Zach, who settled in next to me, for clarification, and he shrugged.
Turning to Kipp, I nibbled my lip as he settled in front of me. He gazed over me from head-to-toe, as if memorizing my details into his memory. Then his eyes lifted to mine and his smile warmed. “Christ, you’re beautiful, Tess.”
“Err…thank you.” Sweet and all, but my attention remained fixated on the other people. Most I didn’t know, but I glanced at who I did recognize—Gretchen, Amelia, and Dane.
Feeling more tha
n uncomfortable, since they all stared at me—including the people I had never met before—I narrowed my eyes on Kipp. “What have you done?”
He chuckled, wrapping an arm around my waist and tucking me up against him. “Go and meet them.” He pressed against my back, urging me forward.
I dug my white high-heels into the grass as goose bumps rose on my arms. “Meet, who?”
When I didn’t budge at all, Gretchen smiled at me, and gestured toward the elderly woman on her right, who had the soft blue eyes. “Tess, this is Greta, my aunt.”
“Oh.” I stopped struggling against Kipp’s hand, which made him chuckle again, and then I offered Greta my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.” I gave Gretchen a look, since the way she had talked to me, it sounded as if she didn’t have any living family.
Gretchen’s eyebrows rose. “Stop looking at me like that. Most members of the Animus don’t like to be outed.”
At that, I scanned the group again, now realizing they weren’t just people, but were people like me. Maybe that explained the goose bumps trailing over my arms, which clearly hadn’t been caused from the light breeze in the air.
The group of fifteen ranged from ages of mid-twenties to elderly. “You’re all members, then?” At unison nods, I turned to Gretchen and pointed out the obvious. “If they don’t like to be outed, why are they here?”
“To meet you,” she replied with laugh. “Besides, today is an important day for you and we, your family, are here to support you.”
I nibbled my lip, holding back from saying, “um, no, I’m not your family”, when a sudden warm body pressed against my back. Kipp wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my shoulder.
“I need you to listen, all right?” He turned me into him, cupping the side of my neck. He pressed his thumbs against my chin, drawing my focus up to his serious expression.
“Maybe,” I muttered.
His lips twitched. “Can we agree that I’ve been doing what I can to ensure you’re safe?”
“Possibly.”
His eyes twinkled. “That’s what this is, so please, hear me out.”
At my silence, but narrowed eyes, he added, “I know you’re used to being alone. You’ve grown used to that since your parents died, and think it’s what you want. But I can’t allow that any longer.”
My breath hitched at the emotion in his voice, along his face, and in his eyes. Even if I wanted to say something to argue with him, considering I saw where he went with this, I couldn’t.
He brushed his thumbs along my chin as he kept my focus on him alone. “You need the Animus, even if you think you don’t. You deserve to have people around you that get you and understand what you go through. No one, not me, Zach, or Caley, can ever truly understand that part of you.”
“That’s not true—you do,” I whispered, hating the sudden tears welling in my eyes.
He shook his head, a strand of his hair breaking free from the gel that slicked it back. “I understand what you see, but I’ve never had your gifts. I don’t know how you must feel having to deal with death like you do.” He gestured toward the group of silent people behind him. “They do.”
As my lips parted to try to argue, he pressed his finger over my mouth and sighed. “I believe I told you to listen.”
He hesitated and, at my huff, he lowered his hand to my chin again. “They only want to support you. You don’t need to fight your way through this life anymore. If you have a question or need help, you can find it in these people.”
“He’s right,” Gretchen interjected.
She placed her hand on my shoulder and her not surprised expression declared they had planned this…intervention. “This life is dangerous for you, because you’re fighting it alone. But it’s why the Animus exists—to keep each other safe.”
Her head tilted as she hesitated, and then her eyes sharpened. “When Dane needed help with the demon not long ago, he didn’t go at it alone, he came to me because I could help. I held the knowledge to keep you safe, he didn’t.”
Greta stepped forward, taking up my hand in hers and her touch was so warm, just like Gretchen’s. “We’re sorry your first introduction to us was met with hardships, but we’d never put you in danger. None of us would. We only want the Animus to be a place for you to belong. To be around others like you. To help keep you protected.”
Moving out of Kipp’s hold, I released a long slow breath and studied the people around me. Dane smiled at me, as did Amelia. Frustration welled up inside me. Hadn’t I already stated I didn’t want to part of the Animus?
I turned to Kipp and there, in his gaze, was a hard truth that maybe I had to accept. No one here judged me, yet I didn’t offer them the same respect. Why was I shutting them out?
Dane, the one person who I thought was evil, had turned out to be one of my saviors. Gretchen had stayed by my side and helped me when she didn’t need to. Quite possibly, from the very beginning—right back to when Alexander learned of me—this group had gone out of their way to protect me.
The Animus meant safety.
The knowledge they possessed provided a barrier between me and danger. If another demon happened to show itself, one call to the Animus would have me surrounded by those who would stop it. Those who weren’t afraid of the evil in the world and those who knew how to banish it.
In Kipp’s intense stare, I read that he wanted me to have others like Gretchen in my life. I suspected he saw how knowing her made me feel more accepted than I had before. But he also wanted me to gain these friendships because if danger came knocking, they could deal with it, not me.
He, as he’d shown since he’d been saved and without my say-so, had become my protector.
“Well then.” I looked at each face of the people I had yet to be introduced to, but the energy in the air told me enough each held some supernatural talent, making us already connected. “Hi.”
Soft laughs spilled through the air as I received either a smile or a wave from each of the members. Then the air seemed to turn ice-cold as a screech erupted to my right. I turned and cursed.
“Oh my god, you are all so freaking dead,” Caley roared, running in her high heels across the deep green grass, which looked upwards of ridiculous.
Once she reached Kipp, she latched on his hand, and then pushed him toward Zach. “You two, go, right now!” She set her blazing eyes on Zach, arms folded with a deep scowl on her face. “Get dressed.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile and he strode away in a jiffy. Smart guy. He might control some of Caley’s hissy fits, but when completely pissed, Caley was a force to be reckoned with.
Kipp reached his hand out to me, his eyes gentle and content with my decision about the Animus, but Caley slapped it away. “Did I not tell you to go?” She pointed at Zach who headed off toward the gallery. “Don’t make me say it again. You’re not supposed to be near her anyway!”
He sighed. “Caley—“
As Caley glared daggers at him, I chuckled and quickly kissed Kipp on the lips. “You better go.” I glanced over my shoulder, eying all the strangers behind me, but somehow having them here felt good. “You’re right.” I looked to Kipp. “I need them.”
He smiled, not in his usual haughty way, but soft in relief. “I’m glad you see it that way.”
“Great. Wonderful. Everyone is happy.” Caley shoved Kipp’s arm, causing him to stumble and he glared at her, which she ignored. “Get lost.” Then her scowl turned to Gretchen and the others. “All of you, down the hill. Right now!”
Kipp rolled his eyes at her, but then winked at me and, without another word, jogged after Zach. I noticed the members of the Animus, including Gretchen, heading through the yard and approaching the hill.
A firm hand on mine had me glancing back to Caley. She all but snarled at me, “You are so damn lucky you didn’t get your dress dirty.”
I peered down, looking over the lace dress with V-neckline and thick silver ribbon around the waist, and was actually glad I didn’t ge
t it dirty either. Caley would’ve had my head or attacked me with a spot removal stick while cursing some colorful words.
Before I had a chance to agree with her, Caley jabbed a finger under my chin and examined my face. She opened her purse and then proceeded to reapply my eye makeup. After which, she used an antique diamond clip to pin up the side of my hair, lifting it off my face. “Good, the curls stayed.”
Another round of curses followed before Caley grumbled, “Honestly, you would think on important days you could tell ghosts they needed to wait.”
“I’ve learned my lesson. That only leads to disaster,” I mumbled as Caley applied a dark red color to my lips. When she finished, I rubbed my lips together. “Besides, we’ve worked the case for a couple weeks now and finally had a way to get the guy.”
Caley scoffed. “Blah. Blah. Boring police business. Blah. Blah. Blah.”
I smiled at her, understanding her point since today had been a horrible day for Mary Jane to suddenly remember where her killer had buried her. The loud talking coming over the hill reminded me of that.
After she resealed the lipstick, she dropped it in her purse, and then gave me a full once-over. “All right, back to what you looked like before you left.”
I fluffed the curls on my shoulder, having no idea what my face or hair looked like. Since my face felt plastered with makeup, I assumed Caley had gotten me into a picture perfect appearance.
She still looked so angry with a vein bulging in the middle of her forehead, so I smiled again. “Thank you, Caley.” Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her into a hug and she softened beneath my embrace. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“No, you couldn’t have,” she said with little heat to her voice, even if we both knew it was true. Caley was great at planning. When she backed away, tears were in her eyes. “You look beautiful.” She winked. “With my assistance, of course.”
I laughed.
A sudden low whistle sounded behind me and when I turned, Max smiled from ear-to-ear, dressed in a black tuxedo. “I’m a lucky man today.”
Eternally Devoted (Frostbite #4) Page 14