“Okay,” he said. “You’re right.” He looked at his shoes. “I need to try to make it without you, then.”
That really hurt.
He took a step backward. “I was just here to pick up the last of my stuff.”
“Connor—”
“You’ve got my cell, so just text me when the hotel’s reopening. I’ll be in for my shift then.” Another step away from me. He turned.
“Connor, wait.”
But he didn’t acknowledge me, just took off toward the hotel, his pace quick and getting quicker. And quicker and quicker. Until he was running from me.
I put my hand over my mouth.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I was still crying about it when Lachlan got there later. I was sitting out back by the pool, and the rogue dragons were there, watching me cry with their blank, black eyes. Lachlan brought Clarke, who was there to execute the rogue dragons, since Lachlan and I couldn’t use whiteflame to do it. She was the expert. We’d let her take care of it.
The bodies wouldn’t be going to the Bryant clan, though. She had other contacts she used when they weren’t in this part of the country. And we weren’t even sure what kind of shape the Bryants were in, after everything that had happened.
Lachlan sat down with me and pulled me into his arms. “What’s wrong?” His voice was full of concern.
I wiped at my face, trying to get myself under control. I felt as if I’d been swallowed by sobs. Part of it was pregnancy hormones, of course. Once I started crying, it was so hard to stop. “It’s Connor.”
“What about Connor? I see you got rid of the gargoyles.”
“He’s moving out of the hotel,” I said and then I hiccuped. “He’s still angry with me. He said he can’t forgive me for leaving him here to deal with his family.”
Lachlan tightened his hug. “Well, he’s being too harsh on you, Penny.”
I cried some more. Then I pulled away from him. I grabbed a tissue and blew my nose. “He’s not. He depended on me. I’m his family now. His only family. Without me, he didn’t have anybody, and I left him high and dry.”
“You had to.”
“No, I didn’t,” I said. “Those dragons aren’t even dangerous.”
“Well, we didn’t know that. They sure as hell seemed dangerous.”
“But they aren’t.” I shook my head.
Lachlan rubbed my back. “He’s hurt, but he’ll get over it. He’s kind of… dramatic, isn’t he?”
“That’s not fair,” I said, glaring at him.
“Okay, okay, you’re right.” He backed off, letting out a sigh.
“It’s what we kept saying. About how everyone could go to hell except us. Well, I let them go to hell. My friends. My hotel. Everything. I told myself it was about saving the baby, but it was really about something else. It was about the power. We pretended to be other people, and it was like it gave me permission to give in to that lust for power, to that darkness.”
Lachlan hung his head. He didn’t say anything.
The sound of a throat being cleared.
I looked up to see that Clarke was there.
“Oh,” I said, brushing away my tears. “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you probably want to get this over with, don’t you?”
“I’m not in a rush,” said Clarke. “But I thought maybe you guys wanted some privacy? I can come back.”
“No,” I said. “If I want to be able to reopen this hotel, I need the dragons gone. I can’t have them around anyone, not even the staff. It’ll raise too many questions. And it’ll make everyone on edge. We need to do this right now.”
“Okay, then,” she said, unslinging her bow and taking an arrow out of her quiver. “Then move out of the way.”
I stepped back.
She let loose an arrow, and it pierced one of the dragons right in its heart. It let out a plume of smoke and then dropped over sideways, motionless.
The other dragons didn’t even move, just turned their eyes on her, gazed blankly into the dark. It was unnervingly like the people Lachlan and I had compelled.
I shivered, hugging myself.
When they were all dead, I put on the talisman. There would be no more rogues.
“Well,” said Clarke. “As long as that thing works, you’ll never have to see me again, which I know would make you pretty happy.”
I gave her a little half smile. “It wouldn’t be awful to see you again, actually, Clarke.”
She snorted.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“He’s sensitive,” said Felicity, who was sitting opposite me at the Flamingo for lunch. “You know how he is.”
“He said he couldn’t forgive me,” I said.
“Connor’s a little dramatic,” said Felicity.
“That’s what Lachlan said,” I muttered. “And I don’t think it’s a very nice thing to say. I mean, sure he’s a little… flamboyant, but that’s not the same thing.”
“He’s sensitive,” she repeated. “And you were an asshole to him.”
“I know.” I moved my fork through my salad, spearing things, but not putting anything in my mouth. “I’m really sorry about it. You know how sorry I am about everything, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Felicity. “I do. You were an asshole to me too.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“But if you apologize one more time, I’m going to beat you,” she said.
I flashed a wan smile. “It’s just that I really want things to go back to the way they were. I want to fix things with Connor. I want him to come back to the hotel.”
“Just give him time,” she said.
“You’re forgiving me,” I said.
“Well, it wasn’t my family here,” she said. “And you and I have been through a lot together. It takes more than you being an asshole for me to need space from you. Besides, we had lots of space while you were gone. Plus, you say it was the blood bond. I believe you. You and Lachlan aren’t going to do that anymore, so I don’t foresee it being a problem. I’m ready to move on. Connor’s not. Let him have the time he needs. Someday, he will be able to forgive you.”
I stirred my salad with my fork. “How long from now is ‘someday’?”
She smiled sadly. “No one knows that.”
I sighed.
We were quiet for several moments.
I looked up at her. “Felicity, I really am sorry.”
“I know that.”
“I never meant to abandon you guys with the hotel or anything. I never meant to get so out of control. Oh, God, the things that we did when we were out there…”
She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. You’re never going to let Lachlan drink your blood again, and it’s never going to happen again.”
“Right,” I muttered. “It’s only…”
“What?”
“He gets magic from my blood, you know?”
“He can use a talisman, just like I do,” said Felicity. “I know it means he’s not as strong, but that’s okay, isn’t it? You’re the one who’s always going on about how you can take care of yourself.”
“Right,” I said, nodding. “Right.” I set my fork down. “But I’m pregnant now. And I’m about to go into the third trimester, and I’ll be really pregnant, and what if I can’t handle it?”
“I’ll help,” said Felicity. “Lachlan will help as best he can. Hell, I’ll teach Jensen how to use a talisman if we can dig one up for him. Connor will help.”
“If he forgives me,” I whispered.
“The point is, we’ll make it work,” she said.
“Right,” I said. I laughed a little. “Of course we will.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You want him to drink your blood, don’t you?”
“No,” I said, picking my fork back up again. I pierced a cucumber. “It’s bad for us. It stokes the blood bond. It makes us power-crazed and evil.”
She licked her lips. “Does it feel that good?”
She lowered her voice. “Does he want to drink your blood just as bad as you want him too?”
Still, I was quiet.
She leaned back in her chair. “Damn, Penny.”
“He won’t do it,” I muttered. “He wants it, but he won’t do it. And I won’t let him. It’ll be okay. Really. It will.” I was trying to convince myself as much as I was trying to convince her.
* * *
I stared out at the ocean. It was just after nightfall on a Monday evening, and the hotel was practically empty tonight, only one of the suites filled and none of the hotel rooms. The surf crashed against the beach, glowing white in the darkness. The roar of the waves was calming. I looked out into the darkness, the ocean disappearing into the black night, and I felt at peace.
“Penny?” Lachlan’s voice from behind me.
I turned to see him coming out the back door. “Hey.”
He pulled up a chair next to me. “So, it’s gone.”
“What is?”
“The camper. Buyer took it away just a little while ago.”
“Oh,” I said. “Good.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Can’t say I’m sorry to see it go myself.”
We stared out at the water together in silence. The darkness seemed to wrap around us, like a blanket, tucking us in.
“I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking,” he said suddenly. His voice was deep, like a velvet caress.
“What about?”
“Well, you’re all alone in the hotel now.”
“I’m not alone. There’s someone running the front desk all the time. And there are guests. Besides, I’m not afraid of ghosts anymore. I was being silly about that before.”
“Still,” he said. “You don’t have anyone else living here. And I have less stuff. And you should be near the ocean, in case you need to shift. Especially now, when my magic is… is…” He swallowed. “So, I just think it would be the best way to do it.”
“To do what?” I said. “What are you talking about?”
“Moving in together,” he said. “I’ll move in here. With you. I mean, as long as the offer still stands.”
I smiled. “Of course it still stands.” I reached over for him.
He pulled me into his lap.
I giggled, trying to get settled. “I barely fit.”
“You’re fine,” he told me in a rumbling voice, holding me tight.
“I’m too heavy for you.”
“Penny, you’re perfect.” He put one hand on my thigh and the other on my belly.
I leaned back against him, resting my head against his chest.
He kissed me on top of my head and he began to slowly rub my belly. “Hey in there, little guy,” he whispered. “You’re going to grow up in a hotel on the beach, you lucky boy.”
I smiled, closing my eyes. “I was thinking about names.”
“Yeah?”
“I was thinking about Carter.”
“Hmm,” he said.
“You don’t like it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t like it.”
“I like it. I was just thinking about Wyatt.”
“That’s nice,” I said. “Maybe my name’s a middle name.”
“We could think about it some more,” he said. “Talk about it some more.”
“Yeah,” I said, snuggling close.
He sucked in a breath. “And about the… the rest of it? The stuff about fighting some king and some weird monsters of the deep and…”
“Maybe you were right. Maybe Olsen Hunter was nuts.”
“The dragons weren’t following you around for nothing.”
I was quiet.
“I was only going to say,” he continued, “that we’ll figure that out too. If we have to fix that, we’ll fix it. We can do things like that.”
“We used to be able to,” I said. “We had so much power with the bond.”
“Screw the bond,” he said. “You and me? We’re pretty much unstoppable. We can do anything we need to do. We can handle it all.”
“Maybe,” I whispered.
“Definitely,” he whispered. He rubbed my belly again. “You hear that Carter or Wyatt? You sit tight in there. Mommy and Daddy are handling this. If you don’t want to be the chosen one, you don’t have to be. You’re going to have the best life any little boy could ever want, and we will make sure of that.”
I put my hand over his. “Yes,” I said fiercely, tears springing to my eyes. “We’re handling it.”
There was an answering strong kick.
Lachlan jumped.
I laughed a little.
Lachlan laughed too. “Well, I guess he heard that.”
“I guess so.”
Lachlan moved, bending over. He pressed his lips to the side of my belly. “I love you more than words,” he whispered. He looked up at me. “Both of you.”
And my heart surged, spreading a sweet ache through my body.
* * *
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