“I am going to ask you this one last time,” I began with a deadly calm. “Where is my wife?”
“Your whore is dead,” my father replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“She was pregnant,” I uttered in a ragged voice. “You’ve killed your own grandson.”
He looked startled for a moment, but he merely shrugged. “Then I did you a favor. Children are the unfortunate side effect of pleasure.”
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
Tempest was seriously questioning her decision to leave Aiden. It was easy to tell herself she’d done the right thing. There were many logical reasons to support her decision. Sadly, those were not the things that stood out in her mind. She missed laughing with him, fighting with him, and dear God how she missed sex with him. He’d gotten to her. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since she’d left him and she was a complete mess.
Willow had been right. There was nothing she could do for the latest victim. The woman who’d survived the attack was in a coma, and the police weren’t sharing what they knew yet. Willow might be able to communicate with her in that state. Each coma was different, but some coma patients released their soul temporarily. Those souls tended to stay close to the body. If they were ready to drift away from the body, it meant they were done fighting for life and only machines were keeping the body alive. In this case, the soul was still hanging around the body, which meant she was likely to recover. Sadly, they had no good excuse to get into the hospital room.
The attack had occurred in San Francisco. Their contact in the department, Detective Ramirez, knew they were somehow gifted, but he wasn’t sold enough to bring them into the ICU to visit a patient in a coma. Even if they learned something, this might be too much information for him to process. He’d likely arrange for Ivy to visit the woman when she regained consciousness. Until then, they were twiddling their thumbs waiting.
Tempest couldn’t go out hunting because they had no idea where to start yet. She got the impression Detective Ramirez was intentionally avoiding sharing too many details because the woman had resembled Tempest too much for his comfort. He had apparently been extremely peeved with their involvement in the capture of the serial rapist. According to Ivy, he had threatened dire consequences if they endangered themselves while interfering with police business again. Apparently, they were still allowed to interfere as long as they didn’t endanger themselves.
All this wasn’t really a surprise, and it forced her to face the possibility that cowardice was the reason she’d really hurried back. It seemed she was simply afraid to deal with her feelings for Aiden.
Aiden had every reason to hate her after what she’d done. She kept forcing him to chase after her and pushing him away. There was no doubt in her mind she’d been leading him on, even if it hadn’t been intentional. She’d said they could try to make it work, but she’d never really allowed herself to believe it was possible. Now, she was faced with the sad possibility he might decide she wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
She’d gone hiking in the hopes of clearing her head. Unfortunately, all it was accomplishing was to remind her of the day she’d spent hiking with Aiden. She would be a fool to let him go. There had to be a way to make things work. It’s not like they were going to get married or even move in together right away. She didn’t have to live at the center. She could always hire people to work most nights and get her own place. Of course, she hated the idea of being too far away to help if there was an emergency.
When she’d been at Aiden’s cousin’s house, she’d noticed a cottage close to the main house. They could build one of those so she’d be close enough to deal with emergencies.
She was sure Aiden wasn’t lying about wanting her to continue with her work. It would be hard for him to watch her hunt. He’d worry and complain, but he wouldn’t try to stop her. His ability to track might actually be useful.
Hopefully, he’d forgive her when she called to apologize. Calling didn’t feel right. She needed to apologize in person. Her first smile since leaving came at the thought of his face when she showed up. She frowned, wondering if he’d take her back or if she’d pushed him away too many times.
Normally, Tempest was hyperaware of her surroundings, looking for potential danger. It was the hunter in her. It was also smart. A distracted woman was more likely to become a victim. Today, her mind was completely focused on Aiden.
She felt the sting at the back of her neck. Reaching around, she expected to find a bee sting but found a dart, instead. The world grew dim around her. A familiar voice murmured strange words she couldn’t make out. Familiar arms lifted her from the ground. She smelled the all too familiar cologne as the world faded to black.