by Drew VanDyke
That made me bust out laughing, a stress-relief response, I guess.
Amber and Elle rushed over and we all hugged. I motioned to Colby and she joined us. We held each other for a moment until it got awkward and we all let go.
“What’s going to happen to her?” I asked Adam as his men made their way out of the auditorium with Rhonda’s comatose body.
“Knightsbridge General,” he said. “I’ll call Dad.”
“Why bother him? It wasn’t Rhonda, really. It was Jeanetta again. We really have to take care of that bitch.”
Adam stared at me. “You keep using pointless euphemisms. She’ll never stop until she’s dead.”
“What if she’s more powerful when she’d dead?” I asked. “Like Ghost Mom?”
He looked sour. “Good point. But something needs to be done.”
“Agreed.”
“I’ll call Samantha, tell her what’s coming,” Will said, but before he did, he took me in his arms and kissed me.
I melted. I truly melted, like I hadn’t in a while, since he’d gotten all testostero-PMS-y. If I hadn’t known he was the right man for me before, I did now. He may not be the pack’s alpha, but he was mine.
“Ahem,” Con muttered, and I glanced at him. Then I looked around the room and realized we had an audience still in mental thrall to take care of.
“The show must go on,” he said, and he sent all his helpers offstage and back to their seats. He pulled Amber and me aside and said, “Just follow my lead,” and then he turned to the audience, rewound the debacle out of their heads and when he snapped his fingers, followed up with a levitation spell and a silhouette play where he turned from wolf to crow to owl to mist, and then appeared at the edge of the stage while he blanked the spectators’ minds of the horror of the whole incident.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming and I want to give a special thanks to my assistants, Amber and Ashlee Scott.” As one we walked forward, taking his hands. “Enjoy the rest of your convention.” He raised our hands and we took a bow and walked off to thundering applause.
Chapter 12
After checking Rhonda into Knightsbridge General, we all gathered in a corner of the hospital cafeteria: Elle, Amber, Colby, me, the pack, the witches, Adam, Con, and Will’s mother Peg, Will’s mom, everybody. We more or less took over the place, but there weren’t many other people there right then.
Though the vampire and Peg’s match-up was still disturbing, I couldn’t exactly judge now, could I? I mean, they were no weirder than we were. Or, not much, anyway.
Peg smiled at me as if we shared a secret. After all, I had Con’s blood running through my veins as well, for a while.
Sister Lena got on the phone to Chowchilla Women’s Correctional Facility and it appeared that Jeanetta had woken up from her coma, beaming. The witch reported that before Jeanetta had a chance to say a word, one of their insiders shot her up with a powerful antipsychotic drug and she was placed in an isolation ward. Sister Nayala was even now gathering a group of witches to converge on the prison to bind her powers permanently.
After I heard this, the dialogue of The Craft ran through my head, only substituting Jeanetta’s name for Fairuza Balk’s character Nancy. I bind you Jeanetta, from doing harm to others, and yourself. At least that’s how I think it went.
“You’re sure this is gonna work?” I asked. “Permanently?”
“Yes, dear,” Lena sighed. “It’s drastic, but necessary.”
“You sure we don’t just wanna kill her?” Will interjected.
That’s my alpha, I thought.
Amber pursed her lips. The rest of them had the decency to seem uncomfortable, but I knew how they felt.
“Hey Ashlee, can I talk to you?” Will took my hand, pulling me out of my chair as the group made idle chitchat and nursed their mocha cappuccinos.
He led me across the linoleum to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the sparkling lights of Knightsbridge, our reflections wavering in the glass. He took my hands, looked into my eyes and said, “Ashlee Scott, I love you.”
I began to cry. Oh, hell, I sobbed. As he held me, the waves of tension that I’d been under since this whole thing started rolled out of me. He knelt and pressed his face into my belly, then grabbed me around the waist as I slid to the floor next to him, cry-snot pouring from my nose. I know, attractive, right? He handed me a cotton handkerchief and I blew.
Thank God for old-fashioned men with pocket hankies. Then I folded it up and handed it back to him. Yuck.
With my nose red and running, my eyes brimming with tears, he braved the terror of my mucked-up face. Took my chin in one hand, tilted his head and kissed me. His lips were soft and tender. They were everything I ever wanted and I could hear his heart pound. I put a hand upon his chest and pushed, breaking the contact.
“I look horrible,” I told him, turning my head.
“I don’t care.”
I looked into his eyes and I knew his words were true. “Why now? Is this just foreplay? Another brush with death turning you on?”
“I didn’t brush with death, you did.”
“Oh, yeah.”
He kissed me again and when we came up for air, his eyes brimmed with tears. I felt a little tap on my sternum and looked down to see a diamond ring sparkling in a blue velvet box. And then, he asked me the question I’d been waiting to hear all of my life. The question, I thought, that I would never hear when I found out I was a werewolf.
“Ashlee Marie Scott, will you marry me?”
“Here? On the floor by the window, with no one around?”
“I wanted to make sure you’d say yes first.”
“Chickenshit.” I stood up and dragged him to his feet, pointing over to where our friends sat on plastic chairs at plastic tables in a plastic cafeteria. Oh, well, it could be worse. “Do it right.”
Will took my hand and led me over to the others, who all turned to stare as he dropped to a knee. “Ashlee Marie Scott, will you marry me?” he said again.
What could I say but yes?
And I felt my mother’s arms materialize around me as she became visible to us all.
Suddenly I was swarmed by sisters and brothers. Again, it occurred to me what life was all about. It was family. Born of blood, sweat or tears, chosen or not, family was what made all the insanity make sense.
Sure, Rhonda was in a coma and my dad was on his way. But those were problems for another day. At least tonight. Or I should say, today? I thought as the sun slipped over the horizon. Today, I was going to accept the love around me.
Today, I was an unreserved yes. And the rest of the world could go – well, you know.
The End, for now.
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BOOKS BY DREW AND DAVID VANDYKE
KNIGHTSBRIDGE CANYON SERIES
SwitchBack - Book 1
MoonFall - Book 2
BloodMoon - Book 3
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Acknowledgements
For Cullen and Ganymede: A guy couldn’t ask for a better pair of packmates.
Thanks to Dave and Beth for your continued love and support and for giving me a home away from home. And for Dad, Conda, Leslie, Phaedra, Bryson, Spanky and Siegfried. It just wouldn’t be Knightsbridge without you.
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