Paranormal Friends with Benefits

by Jasmine Wylder

  Josh growled as his hands tightened on her.

  “Let ‘er go,” Jonathon hissed. He didn’t even hear his own voice.

  “I’ve saved your life. Those vampires aren’t getting out of that. Nobody is going to be coming after you now. You’d have been killed if I hadn’t arrived.”

  Maggie stomped on his foot and smashed her forehead into his nose. “You ruined everything! That was my only chance not to be a vampire anymore! And you blew it up! What am I supposed to do now? What am I supposed to do?”

  Jonathon slumped back to the surface of the deck. His head was swimming, and he didn’t hear what Josh said. All he saw was Maggie punch him square in the face. Jonathon grinned. And then everything went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  As soon as they returned to the mainland, Josh ordered Jonathon sent to the hospital.

  “So he doesn’t die,” he told Maggie with a smile that was supposed to be reassuring but only looked sinister. “And after your trying day, I’m sure you need rest.”

  He took her back to the apartment building. Maggie was already formulating a plan to escape through a window, but when they got to the apartment, he locked her up in the basement again. For her own good, of course. Maggie kicked on the door and screamed to be let out, but nobody came to answer her. She’d torn through the basement, but there was no way out except the locked, guarded room. This time, there were also cameras set up in the corners, so she didn’t even have the privacy to break down the way she wanted.

  She knew Josh saved her life. And maybe he had saved Jonathon’s as well. If he had just let her go with him, to have information about how he was doing, then she could have felt grateful toward him. She would have given him the thanks he wanted—alright, probably not exactly what he wanted but she wouldn’t be pacing around this room, wishing she could punch his face in again.

  Her whole body felt cold. Her heart beat far too fast, and her breath kept catching on sobs. Was Jonathon going to be okay? He’d been in such terrible shape. Dying. Did Josh actually send him to a hospital, or had he just been spinning a tale?

  The door opened and Maggie whirled. Anger welled in her as Josh came strutting in. He gave her a wide, self-satisfied smile.

  “Where is Jonathon?”

  The smile slipped a bit but not by much. Josh closed the door behind himself, and Maggie backed up a step. He wouldn’t try to do anything she said no to, right? Sure, he used to pressure her, but he’d never try to use physical force on her…

  “Jonathon is at the hospital. He lost a lot of blood, but he’s going to be fine.” Josh moved forward. “I saw that you got hit by a bullet, too. How is your shoulder feeling?”

  Maggie rubbed her shoulder. “I’m fine. I’ve healed.”

  “Oh, but that must have taken a toll on you. You need blood, don’t you? Well.” Josh spread his arms wide. “I’m right here. Willing and eager. Remember what it used to be like, Maggie. I know you claim that you didn’t enjoy it, but we both know that’s not true. I know what vampires need. And I’ll give you everything you want.”

  “No.”

  Josh’s smile disappeared. “Come on. You need blood, I am here, offering blood. Don’t be a fool, Maggie. Where else are you going to get what I can give you?”

  “Let me go to the hospital.”

  “Jonathon lost too much blood to help you.” Josh scowled. “Do you really think that he’ll be able to give you everything you need? I always thought he was a bit of a control freak. And after what he did to you, how can you possibly stand by his side?”

  Maggie sucked in a deep breath. She had been just a kid when she and Josh were together. He’d used these same tactics on her then, whenever she dared to complain about the way he treated her. Looking back, she saw that he brought out the worst in her. Whether she brought out good or bad in him, she didn’t know.

  “I can make my own choices. Jonathon may have chased you off, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a douche. You’ve always been a douche, and that’s why you don’t have a mate. That’s why you had to target me, a lonely, abused teenager desperate to get away from her stepfather and the pain of her home.” Maggie folded her arms and glared at him. “We both know that you don’t want me. You didn’t want me then, except for sex. You’re so caught up by the narrative that as soon as you decide you want a woman, she should throw herself at your feet because you’re an alpha.”

  “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t want. I want you, Maggie. Maybe it took me a while to understand, but you are my mate.”

  “I am not your mate.”

  Josh stared at her with a furrow in his brow. “I am. If our child had lived—”

  “Don’t you bring that up!” Maggie snarled, her hands raising into fists. “Don’t you dare—”

  “They would have been alpha after me,” Josh continued, raising his voice. “You know that. We are bound, Maggie. I know you don’t think of it that way, but we are. We should have been married now, and Jonathon took that away from us. He took everything. But we can go back. I can give you a child still. I know how vampires make babies, and I can give you a place of prestige and wealth by my side. Do you think the Elders will just let you go after what you’ve done today?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” Maggie’s voice was weak, though. Memories flooded her mind. The pain hit her stomach like it had all those years ago. She felt so empty and hollow that it left her gasping for breath.

  “You broke into their sacred place, led shifters there in fact.” Josh crossed the room and grasped both her wrists in his hands. “But as the mate to an alpha, they won’t dare touch you unless they want to start another war. I’m rich and I’m powerful. And I can give you a baby, after Jonathon killed our child before.”

  Maggie ripped herself free of him. Jonathon didn’t kill anybody. “You have a hell of a lot of nerve to bring up that,” she spat at Josh, feeling the urge to attack rising up in her, to rip out his throat and watch him bleed out. “Since I told you that I didn’t want to have children and you pretended to put on the condom. You were the one who got all the pleasure, and I took all the risk. I was seventeen,” she snarled. “Do you have any idea what the risks of teenage pregnancy are?”

  “You were strong and healthy.”

  “My stepfather would have killed me if he knew I’d gotten pregnant!” her voice was rising into a shriek of anger and pain. “If he knew I wasn’t a virgin he would have raped me. It was the best day of my life when he died. I told you how afraid I was of him, and you decided not to wear a condom anyway, after I begged you to.”

  Josh rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. You still wanted that child, don’t try to deny it.”

  Maggie shook her head, frustrated. The truth was, she did want a child. Being pregnant had terrified her. She had loved her baby, though. Even before she even got used to the idea of being pregnant. In the years since, she had wondered if she would have been able to go through with the pregnancy, knowing what shame awaited her, knowing it would mean that she’d have to drop out of high school. Knowing that she’d have had to marry Josh because she wouldn’t have known what else to do.

  But none of that was going to make sense to Josh. He didn’t think about things like that.

  “I didn’t want you to be the father of my child,” she told him bluntly. “I didn’t understand it at the time, but I didn’t want you to have that hold on me.”

  “So hateful.” Josh shook his head. “So very, very hateful. What happened to you, Maggie? Was it Jonathon? Did he cloud your mind?”

  “I don’t want anything to do with you,” Maggie replied. “Now let me go to the hospital already. There is nothing between you and me, and I want to make sure Jonathon is okay.”

  Josh let out an exaggerated groan and rolled his eyes. “I already said he is. Isn’t that enough?”

  “No.”

  “You still haven’t answered me. How can you be so concerned for him, so deeply caring, when he killed the
baby you wanted so badly? Even taking me out of the equation. You wanted to have that baby, and he killed it. Don’t say that he didn’t,” Josh continued, his voice growing louder as she opened her mouth to protest, “because he did. You’d have a child right now if it wasn’t for him. Doesn’t it ever make you angry? Don’t you ever look at his children and think, why does he get to have his when he took yours from you?”

  Maggie shook her head, trying desperately to get Josh to just shut up already. She didn’t need to hear any of this. She just had to make sure that Jonathon was okay. She needed to see him for herself.

  “Why won’t you admit it?”

  “Jonathon didn’t even know I was pregnant,” she exploded, needing Josh to stop talking about it. “I never told him. He didn’t know I was pregnant, and he didn’t know that car crash caused me to miscarry. It’s not his fault, and he didn’t kill anybody. It was an accident. That’s all it was.”

  Josh stared at her. At first, she thought it was because she was refusing to play his sick little game, but then a smile slowly wound its way across his face. His whole expression lit up like a Christmas tree. Dread sank into Maggie’s stomach. She knew by that look that she had given him something he wanted. Something he was going to use against her.

  “So, you never told Jonathon you were pregnant?”

  Maggie shook her head. “He doesn’t know.”

  “Oh, but he does know. Now, at least.” Josh laughed as he gestured to the cameras. “He’s watching the video feed right now. So how do you think he’ll react to knowing that you kept such a very large secret from him, Maggie?”

  Ice swept through Maggie’s veins. She stared up at the cameras in horror. “Jonathon, no,” she shrieked, knowing what horror and pain he must be going through right now. “Jonathon!”

  She raced for the door. Josh, laughing, caught her around the waist. He had underestimated her strength, though—again. She threw her head back, cracking it into Josh’s nose. It cracked, and his laughter turned to a wail of pain. He released her, stumbling back. Maggie darted to the door and threw it open. The bears there tried to grab her, but she slipped through their hands and raced up the corridor.

  She had to find Jonathon! Now, before it was too late.

  ***

  None of the bears tried to stop him as he hobbled out of the room showing the feed from the basement room. At first, he’d been confused and angry with Josh, trying so hard to convince Maggie of something that wasn’t true. The horrible truth had slowly trickled into his consciousness.

  And then when Maggie said the truth, his mind could no longer reject what he was hearing. His fires blew nearly out entirely, and he had jerked out of the chair he was sitting in.

  The bears only laughed as he left the room. He made his way blindly to the stairs, not knowing where he was going. Only knowing he had to get away. Get away from the truth. He remembered that night, when they got into the car crash.

  He’d had a single beer, it was raining, and he was driving too fast. He’d thought it was fine, he wouldn’t have a problem with his reflexes. He’d been wrong. He and Maggie had ended up in the hospital. As a dragon, he’d been barely scratched. Maggie had been hospitalized for two days. When she got out, she cried a lot and was withdrawn. Jonathon assumed that it was because it had brought up the memories of the car crash that killed her stepfather and almost killed Camille.

  Now he knew the truth.

  A spike of pain ran down his leg and up into his head from the injury in his side, and Jonathon was forced to stop. He stood there, panting for breath as his head swam. He really shouldn’t be doing this sort of strenuous activity so soon after being stabbed. But it felt like the walls were closing in around him, and he couldn’t breathe.

  A door below him slammed, and footsteps raced up the stairs. Maggie appeared at the next landing down, and Jonathon slumped to the floor. He made a noise of protest in his throat, sure that she wouldn’t want to see him after she was just forced to relive the horrible thing he had done to her.

  “I can explain,” Maggie babbled. “It was so long ago, and I didn’t want you feeling like you were at fault. You didn’t know, and I didn’t say anything when you got behind the wheel. I didn’t think anything would happen, either. Normally it’d be fine, we went on plenty of drives like that before.”

  But not after because Jonathon understood how close he’d come to losing her. He was never so careless with her safety again.

  “I was planning on telling you about my pregnancy. I didn’t because I was afraid, but it’s not because I was afraid of your reaction. It’s just… if I told you, everything would be more permanent.”

  Wait… was she afraid he’d be angry with her? Jonathon stared at her, not hardly believing it. He wet his lips, both nothing came out. What could he say to that?

  “I didn’t want you to be angry with yourself at first. I saw how much you blamed yourself for the crash, how much it scared you. Then as time went on, it just… stopped being relevant.”

  Jonathon hid his face in his hands. “Not relevant? I hurt you, Maggie. I took something you wanted more than anything. How is that not relevant?”

  “Because I healed. I moved on. Bringing it up again would only open old wounds, and I didn’t want that for you or me.”

  “It just seems like all I’ve ever done is hurt you. I’ve been self-centered and—”

  Maggie grasped his wrists and yanked down his hands. Josh stood on the landing beneath them, scowling. Clearly, this wasn’t the reaction he’d been hoping for from either of them. Jonathon ignored him, focusing instead on Maggie. Her crystal-clear eyes, the soft bow of her lips, the tears on her cheeks. Tears he’d caused.

  “You got me here, Jonathon. You got me this far in trying to get my humanity back. You’re not the one who stole that chance from me.” She rose her voice a little there, shooting a quick glare over her shoulder. She didn’t spare Josh much time, though. “You have been my strongest support in the most difficult times of my life. You’ve always been there for me.”

  “But I never seem to be enough. I do hurt you. Even when I’m trying to help.”

  Maggie sighed and averted her gaze.

  “I just wish I could be better. I wish I could go back and change things, so that I’m not such a crappy friend. So I could have been really there for you when you needed me most. It’s not fair that my actions caused you so much pain.” He grasped her hand in his and let out a shaky sigh. It wasn’t fair that she was the one suffering the hurt and now he was making it all about him, either. Why did he always seem to end up being such a bad friend? “What can I do, Maggie? What can I ever do to make it better?”

  Josh chose that point to interrupt, speaking with a lazy drawl. “Maybe you can stop treating her like a slave to your children when—”

  “Shut up.” Maggie whirled so suddenly even Jonathon flinched. “Don’t you dare say anything about those children. I love them. I love each and every one of them, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything!”

  Josh stepped back from the fury in her voice. Jonathon managed a small smile, relief from that at least. That was true. Maggie loved his children and they loved her. Maybe he did have something going for him after all… and maybe, when this was all over, he’d suggest Maggie adopt them. Share custody. She was already like a mother to them. Even if there never became anything between the two of them, he never wanted his children to lose her or her to lose the children…

  “But he killed your child,” Josh insisted. “How can you feel anything for him when—”

  “Jonathon was with me when nobody else was,” Maggie thundered, her voice ringing through the stairwell. “And you don’t get to tell me what I’m allowed to feel, Josh. You don’t know anything about me.”

  Josh growled. He started up the stairs, and Jonathon shot to his feet. Pain exploded through him again, and he cried out. He fell back down, clutching at his side. There was a touch of dampness to his shirt and when he glanced down, there
was a spot of red on his shirt. Great. He’d opened up the wound again. Maggie turned back to him, worry in her eyes.

  A bear charged up the stairs behind Josh. “Alpha! The vampires are attacking.”

  Josh whirled on him. A curse flew from his lips. He glanced back at Jonathon and Maggie, and his expression closed off entirely. “Get everybody out there and fighting. If they have claws, they are expected to defend us. No exceptions.”

  The bear blanched. “But the children, we have to get the children out—”

  “I said no exceptions!” Josh thundered.

  Jonathon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could anybody be so careless with the lives of children? He would have launched himself into a verbal attack on Josh’s tactics, but a new spike of pain went through him and he slumped back, panting as the world spun at the edges. Two bears came down the stairs, and one of them grabbed Maggie’s arm.

  “Leave her,” Josh snarled. “And leave the dragon. Maybe when the vampires have gotten their prize,” he said, staring hard at Maggie, “you’ll understand just what I was offering you… and what he can’t give you. You said he’s always been there for you, to protect you? Well, let him protect you now.”

  Jonathon snarled, but Josh turned and stalked off without another word. The bears glanced helplessly at one another but followed after. From outside the apartment complex, snarls, screams, and roars started echoing.

  “I have to get you out of here,” Jonathon mumbled, pulling himself back into a standing position.

  Everything tilted once more. This time, though, Maggie slid under his arm and took his weight onto her shoulders. They both stumbled a bit, but Maggie gripped him tightly around the waist. Her eyes were fiery with determination. How had she gotten so goddamn beautiful? Even now, in a mess from the fighting that had already gone on, her hair a disaster, everything about her in chaos. But then, she never needed to be all dolled up to be beautiful.

  Maggie glared at him. “Look here, dragon boy. This time, it’s me getting you out of here. You’re still bleeding. And don’t start into protests. I’m a vampire; I’m just as strong as you are.”