His body went limp.
“Grayson?” Lizzy sobbed out.
His body went still. A final breath stopping before it should.
One moment, he was lifeless, and in her arms. And in the next, he was gone. His body dissolved into nothing but air. Like he never truly existed. Lizzy looked around like she expected to see him somewhere. But he was gone. True death, at her hands.
She was shaking so badly she couldn’t get to her feet. She slumped over onto the ground, part of her wishing she’d died, too.
“Charlie…” she cried out.
What had she done?
She’d killed Grayson. She’d killed the vampire she loved, who’d loved her so much he’d suffered many long years for her. It had to end this way, but it still hurt more than anything else she’d ever felt, including Charlie’s teeth jamming against the bone in her shoulder. Physical pain was nothing compared to this mental anguish. Even when you were positive, it was the right choice.
“Charlie…”
He’d just gotten out of the shower and dressed, his brain befuddled that almost seventy-two hours had gone by since he’d somehow fallen into an insanely deep sleep. He suspected magic was involved, and although a little miffed, he felt more awake and alive than he had in weeks. But he was still shaking off the fog.
The only thing that had stuck with him, that dream. So life-like. Every detail remembered as if it had actually happened, and he’d bitten Lizzy. He let out a sigh. There was no use thinking about that right now. The sun was coming up, and it was time for coffee, and regrouping, in order to figure out what to do about this war to come. And the fact that Stricker, and the Feyk, were still hanging around the power source.
Charlie gasped and doubled over. Then grabbed his head. A voice was calling out for him. The pained echo of it ringing his brain like a bell.
“What the hell?” he pushed out of him. “Lizzy?” This made no sense. But the urgency surging through him sent him into instant panic mode. Lizzy needed him, but how the hell did he know this? He got upright, stretching his eyes trying to make sense of it all.
The silver of his wolf landed on a splash of red, staining the bed just below his pillow. He stared for exactly three long seconds before flying out of his bedroom door, pounding down the stairs and out of the mansion. Without even thinking his legs took him into The Demon Isle woods heading into White Pines.
He had no idea how the hell he understood where to find her, but it wasn’t even a question. He just knew. He ran and ran and ran until suddenly, there she was. Curled up on the ground like she hurt all over. And she did, but Charlie had no idea why. He approached her cautiously, getting down next to her and bringing her into his arms. “Lizzy?”
She just sobbed, and gripped onto him like her life depended on it.
He was ready to take her to the hospital, fearing this was some delayed response to the curse breaking, but then she uttered the words, “I killed him.” And that stopped him cold.
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
She pulled away so he could see, and understand. Her electric eyes fixed on his, and she watched the truth sink in. Saw the shock and reality freeze him up.
“I made my choice,” she whimpered.
Charlie set her back on the ground, stood up, and stepped back.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
She shook her head.
“You… you…” he didn’t finish. “Oh, fuck.”
“I tricked you. But I had to.”
“Why? Why would you do this?”
She reached out to him but he stepped further back.
“Charlie, I had to. It was the only way.”
“To do what?”
“Kill Grayson. Let him go.”
“What?” He shook his head and took a breath to remain calm, but his wolf was nearing dangerous levels of not okay. Thank God for the ring.
Lizzy got into his mind. Her wolf waking up inside his thoughts. He saw it all, their wolves’ connection getting stronger by the second. He saw Melinda’s prophetic dream. Lizzy’s choice, and that she’d chosen him even before she’d sentenced Grayson to death. That she held it as her own personal responsibility, to end Grayson. As kindly as possible. Just like they’d planned on doing with William. But it had to be her, and only her, to end this life she’d loved so much.
It made sense, on paper.
Charlie had felt the same way when it came to William.
But Lizzy had tricked him into biting her.
“Can you not understand why?” she begged of him. “I needed this to be me, and me alone. Biting him was the quickest and kindest way I could end his tortured existence. And… I chose you, Charlie. I chose a life with you.”
And what a hell of a way to start out!
“I didn’t get any say in that choice.” He deflated. “I thought it was a dream.”
“Are you saying if you’d known it was real, you wouldn’t have done it? You told me, if both parties were willing, the ring would allow it. I tricked you, yes, but you wanted it as much as I did.”
“It’s just not how I imagined it in my mind. I imagined it a bit more, consensual, in the, we are both alert and present, sort of sense. I would have done it differently.”
She heard the regrets in his mind. He was afraid he’d hurt her. He hadn’t been gentle, because he hadn’t thought it real. She replayed her memory of it, allowing him to see her view, to affirm it was exactly what she’d expected. And wanted.
“Charlie…” there was nothing in her voice but misery, and the need to know that in the end, she’d chosen right. She had nothing left. Was starting out at zero. One new life, waiting to begin.
And she’d been courageous beyond belief.
And he’d be the largest fool in the world, to hold this small treachery over her.
In the end, what she’d done was so perfectly, Lizzy. And exactly what he’d expect from her. To do the right thing, even if it meant it would hurt. Or might be to her own detriment. And still the biggest reason why he loved her so fucking much.
She felt his mood shift, heard it in her own mind.
This was going to take some getting used to, but right now, she’d not give it up for the world. With Grayson, the vampire had access to her mind. But now, she had access to Charlie’s, and he had access to hers. This was about to bring a whole new meaning to the word, intimacy.
He got down on the ground and dragged her onto his lap; the beautiful mess that was the woman he loved. It was hitting him, hard. Like a deadweight grounding him to the earth.
Lizzy’s ordeal was finally over.
She had chosen him to spend her life with.
It was… overwhelming. And this gift, not to be accepted lightly. She’d given up many precious things in exchange for this life.
She sniffled and lifted her head, and wow, those electric eyes were easy to look at. Something he could easily get lost in, a lot.
Mine… his wolf growled out. The silver of his wolf stared back at her, reveling in the truth. He kissed her forehead, softly. His lips forever branded with the taste of her. But he did not smell her. He sniffed again. And saw the explanation in her mind. Mathew had helped her, by giving her a potion to mask the wolf scent from the vampire. It would wear off in a few days.
His little wolf had visited hell, more than once, and survived.
All he could offer was himself. Fully. In return.
He pulled her up so her electric eyes were even with his.
“I love you, Lizzy Deane. You never have to doubt that. Ever.” He kissed her, starting at her forehead, to her nose, making his way to her lips, getting lost there for a few minutes. There was something leveling, holding the woman he loved, knowing she was really his.
“Always yours,” she promised. “You are my life now. And I plan on loving you, to death, Charlie Howard.”
He chuckled. He could agree with that sentiment. As long as it was many long years away when they were old, and gray, and had gr
eat grandkids hanging around.
“That sounds like a perfect plan,” she whispered. This mind connection thing was kind of cool. Today, at least. When she was angry at him… they’d have to see how that all worked out. She sniffled again, he pulled back, sensing her mind getting thoughtful about something that made no sense to her.
“Is it weird, Charlie, that all I want to do right now is take off all my clothes, roll around on the ground so I’m covered in earth, and run in the woods?” She sniffled again, this idea coming out of nowhere, and making no sense, whatsoever.
Charlie breathed out in befuddled disbelief.
“Oh, my little blue-eyed wolf. You’re going to be so much trouble. Aren’t you?”
And he was looking forward to every single minute of it.
##
Thanks so much for reading. I’d like to take a moment to thank every reader who takes an extra minute to leave a review on Amazon. Your time and opinion is appreciated! Thank you for letting others know what you think about this book and the series.
Book 11, TBA
Get Notified of All Future Book Releases. Sign up Here: http://eepurl.com/cmUifL
Dead Witch Walking (Demon Isle Witches Uncut): Hi-Ho Black Magic-O, A Cursing We Will Go (A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Book 10) Page 18