Seth waited long seconds before scooting over a smidge, but he didn’t relinquish my hand. When Gibson put his arms around me, I gasped a little. “My wife and three month old daughter thank you for coming tonight. That was the stupidest and bravest thing I’ve ever seen.” He leaned back. “I don’t know why you found us and I don’t want to know. Though I have a feeling you wouldn’t tell us anyway.”
I felt my eyes watering. I didn’t know what to say. I had never expected anyone to be with Seth when I got there. I hadn’t expected consequences, though it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. If Seth hadn’t bonded yet, they would have all died in that fire tonight. I groaned and closed my eyes, hanging my head. Gibson’s daughter would have been fatherless.
Seth’s fingers rubbed over mine and I looked up.
You did good.
You were pissed at me not twenty minutes ago.
I was scared for you.
I ‘oomphed’ when Trouble slammed into me with a hug, lifting me from the pavement and taking my hand from Seth’s.
“Hey,” he growled and then sighed when he saw it was a lost cause as Trouble spun me around.
“Girl, I don’t know what he did to deserve you, but daggum…dump this guy already and just marry me.”
“All right,” Seth said roughly. Clearly it was too much for our bodies to handle and what we’d just been through. I patted Trouble’s shoulder and smiled.
“Sorry. I’m as taken as they come.”
“I can see that. Thank you for what you did. I don’t know if you’re a fairy or a siren—”
“For all that’s holy, Landon!” Seth shouted.
The guy had to go that last step, the last little bit and just say the words that brought us over the line. He couldn’t just let the myth lie there. I sighed and gave him a small smile. “You’re welcome.”
I pulled from his grasp and went back to Seth, who was already reaching for me. He pulled me back into his chest and rubbed his hand down my hair, trying to think of what to do next.
I’ve got to get you out of here.
“Please, not without you,” I murmured.
“What?” Trouble asked and then squinted. “Oh. Wow, you two are really are going at it, aren’t you?”
“Guys, look…” Seth gulped. “I…”
“She saved our life,” Gibson reasoned. “End of discussion. For today anyway.” He looked at Trouble for confirmation and he nodded emphatically, winking at me in that way that was going to get him a black eye one day. He patted Seth on the shoulder. “Get her out of here before anyone sees her like that. We’ll stall for a few minutes.”
Seth nodded gratefully. “Thanks, man.” They walked back through the shrubs and then he looked back at me. “Ava, there’s something I haven’t told you.”
I blinked. “And this is a good time for a confession?”
“No, it’s not, but I have no choice. I wanted to wait.” He swallowed. “But it’s going to get you home safely so.” He closed his eyes. I waited. He didn’t say anything. After about two minutes, he opened his eyes and cupped my face, kissing my lips softly. “Rodney will be here in a few minutes to get you.”
I just stared. “How—”
“I’ll explain everything, I promise, but right this second, I just need to hold you before he takes you from me.”
I shook my head. “No. Come with me.”
“I can’t, sweetheart,” he said and crushed me to his chest, fitting me under his chin. “There was an incident. People got hurt, a fireman was…killed. The police will be here, if they aren’t already, family will have to be notified. I can’t leave no matter how much it hurts to put you in that car.”
“I’m so sorry about your friend,” I told him as softly as I knew how to soften the blow, though that was probably stupid. “I...”
“We told him he couldn’t make it.” He closed his eyes. “He said one of us had to try. I ordered him not to,” his head shook and I cupped his neck, “but he had ran and leapt before I could stop him. He said he was the only one who wasn’t attached to anyone in this world and so it had to be him. He said he had to do this for…” He stopped and licked his lip. “Do it for our families.”
I felt the tears come. “What was his name?”
“John,” he whispered.
“I’m so sorry.” I felt helpless, wishing there was something I could do—
“You’ve done enough tonight. And you’re helping me so much by just being here right now.” He gulped and sighed as he closed his eyes again and tugged me closer. “When are you going to get that through that pretty head of yours?” he said quietly.
My arms wouldn’t stop shaking. It wasn’t that cold in his big jacket, but I just couldn’t…stop…
“Your system overloaded with adrenaline to get you through that. Now that it’s all over, you’re shaking because you’re body doesn’t know what else to do with it.”
I reached up on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m sorry if I messed everything up for you.” I looked into his blue eyes and felt it all come crashing down on me, a wave of misery and worry and happiness and relief. My face crumpled, my chest ached as the sob tore from me. “Your heartbeat—”
“Shhh,” he soothed and sat on one of the concrete parking slabs. He put his legs out in front of him and turned me to face him. I automatically put one leg on each side of his thighs and let him tug me to him. He pressed me to his chest and put my face against his neck, one of his hands ran from the small of my back to the top of my spine. I sighed from my soul to my lungs at all the ways he was good at taking care of me. “First things, first,” he murmured into the skin near my hairline. “My job isn’t more important that you. Second.” That hand kept soothing, working its way up and down my spine. Even though it wasn’t touching my skin, it was a magic all its own. “I have never been more terrified in my entire life than when I saw you come around that corner.” I lifted my head, ready to take more scolding. He cupped my face with both hands and brought me to him for one sweet kiss right in the center of my lips. “And I’ve never been more proud.” I jolted. Proud? “And I’ve never been more honored and scared in the same moment.” My chest shook. “I’ve never been happy and worried at the same time. I’ve never wanted to spank you and kiss you both.” I smiled through my tears. “And I’ve never felt more that you are the one put on this earth just for me.”
I tried to look down, but he wouldn’t let me, bringing my face back up with his fingers. “You were angry.”
“I was scared out of mind for you.” His thumbs skimmed my cheeks. “My chest ached beyond anything I’ve ever felt.” It was his imprint, whether he knew it or not. “If I could have gotten you to leave, I would have done anything.”
“Don’t you know that I felt the exact same thing?” I sniffed and felt a tremor in my chest. “If I couldn’t have reached you—” A sob tore through me as I continued to shake.
“Okay, okay.” He stopped that, feeling what it was doing to me. Finally getting that I felt just as much as he did. “But you did reach me. And you saved the lives of two rookies.”
“Yeah,” I sighed and sniffed again. “Two rookies who think I’m a siren.”
He chuckled a little. “We’ll come up with something to handle those two. Don’t worry about them.”
“They probably think I lured you in with my siren song and that’s why you’ve…”
“What?” He grinned. “Fallen for you so quickly? Keep bringing you around? Maybe you are a siren. If that’s what you are then I’m happy to be caught in your snare. As long as you keep me there.”
“Very funny,” I whispered.
He sobered. “You saved my life, sweetheart. Thank you,” he whispered.
I didn’t know what to say. “I’d do it all over again,” I whispered in return.
His arms twitched a little and that’s when I remembered he’d given me his jacket. Gah, how could I have not noticed that!
“Probably becaus
e we almost died.”
“Put your arms in here to keep warm,” I ignored him.
He smiled and made a little noise in the back of his throat. “That’s one way to start a fire,” he murmured, but followed my instructions as I opened my jacket for him.
His arms wrapped around me on the inside of the jacket, overlapping, bringing us so close, there was literally no space between us. We were pressed together everywhere and I wasn’t the only one who was having trouble breathing. Our quick breaths puffed cold fog between us.
We stared at each other, letting the tension build, as his hands caressed and moved on me. He brought his thumb to my lips before letting his hand move up to my cheek as his fingertips grazed my flesh softly, his fingers writing love letters to my skin that no pen and paper could even begin to comprehend.
And then his hungry mouth touched mine. I pressed right back. I was still shaking. I didn’t know how to stop, but I just took what he gave me and wrapped my arms around his shoulders to try to keep him warm. That wasn’t the only reason, but it was the main one.
Mostly.
At this angle, I was a little taller than him and I liked that immensely. I used the leverage, taking the sides of my jacket, making sure they were good and open wide around him, before letting my hand scrub the back of his head, nails and fingers. I opened my mouth wide, needing to get as much of him as possible.
He groaned into my mouth and I didn’t think he’d ever kissed me this deeply. Or maybe I was kissing him this way. Either way, I just needed this. I needed to feel him alive and real and safe in my arms. I felt that my cheeks were still wet, or maybe it was new wetness. I didn’t know. I was so raw I didn’t know what to do with myself at this point. I just knew I needed Seth, that he was the cure for everything wrong in this moment in time.
He brought one of his hands up in the back of the jacket to my neck and ran it into my hair as far as he could reach. I felt my eyes roll a little before he released my neck and went back to hugging and tugging my torso and shirt.
When I couldn’t breathe any longer, I kept going, but he pulled back, suspending my desperation. “I’m not going anywhere, Ave. We’re safe, okay?”
I sighed, my eyes falling to a close and let him settle my desperate, restless body. He tucked me to his chest and we waited just like that until Dad’s car pulled into the lot.
We got up and he opened the door for me. I knew leaving was going to be hard, but it was like my body literally didn’t want to go. It was painful. He knew it; he felt the same. He kissed me once more and then physically set me inside on the seat.
He leaned inside. “Rodney, thanks man.” Rodney nodded and they shared this look that I knew meant something. It had to do with how Rodney was here. I looked at Seth, but his eyes begged me to ask later. I nodded. “Crank up the heat, will ya?” he asked Rodney.
I started to take the jacket off.
“Keep it on. It’s too cold.”
“What are you going to say to explain why you don’t have it?”
“Baby, it doesn’t matter,” he said sadly.
I got it. “Seth, no. You love this job.”
“I love you more.” He got down on his haunches beside me. “You could have died today because you were coming to save me. I’ll never be able to go into another burning building knowing that if something happened my heartbeat would call you to me. I was the biggest idiot for not realizing it in the first place.”
I felt a tear slide down my hot cheek. “I hate that you have to give this up for me,” I whispered, feeling so guilty.
He smiled as he wiped it away. “Ah, sweetheart. I’d do anything for you. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
I hiccupped with my tears miserably and closed my eyes. I felt him lean in and kiss my forehead, but as he leaned away, I gripped his face and brought him back to me, kissing him, thanking him, loving him.
His fingers caressed and loved on my skin in small circles. All our stalling was pathetic, but the loud boom from the building pulled us back to reality.
He sighed as he released me. “Everything’s okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He licked his lips. “Promise.”
I nodded, realizing he was releasing me with his words, and held onto his fingers until the last second as he leaned away. The door was slammed and Rodney immediately drove away, probably understanding that he needed to get me away from there, but away from Seth, too, because I wanted nothing more than to wrench that door open and run back to him as I watched him from the window. He didn’t move. He watched us go, his chest heaving, puffs of cold air leaving his mouth.
I was leaving him at the very site that I’d found him about to die. The imprint in my chest wasn’t happy at all. It was pissed, in fact.
I rolled over to face away from the window as Rodney drove past the fire trucks and building. I shut my eyes and pretended nothing existed right now but Seth and that he was okay.
Rodney gripped my hand. His was so warm. I opened my eyes to look at him and was surprised by the look of worry on his face. He looked between me and the road.
“You scared the hell out of us.” Oh, right… I ran out in the middle of the night. Forgot about that little tidbit. “Dad figured it out, that it had to be something to do with Seth. So naturally they thought that the Watson’s had kidnapped you or Seth or something and they’d never see again. Little did they know you were just saving your boy from a freaking fire. That’s all,” he spouted sarcastically, angrily.
Everyone was going to scold me tonight it seemed.
“I had to,” I whispered. “He was—”
“I get it.” He looked at me and smiled a little. “I changed my mind.”
“About what?” I was suddenly exhausted. Not tired. There was no way I could sleep. Just…exhausted, drained, emotionally shattered.
“I do want to find my soulmate.” I felt the first of what I knew would be many small sobs wrack into me. “I do want to bond with someone. And one day…she’ll need me. And I’ll be there, just like you were for Seth tonight.”
I let them go, unable to hold them in any longer. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and used that leverage to tug me closer until I was leaning against him. I held his arm like a vice grip.
Sweetheart…
I’m fine. Just…doing some bonding with Rodney, I promised him. Please hurry back to me.
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.
“I love you, Rod. Thanks for coming to get me.”
“This might sound weird at a time like this, but that guy seriously has a thing for you.”
I snorted. “I hope so.”
When we pulled in, Dad and Mom were pulling an epic freak out on our porch. Their eyes searched me as we got out of the car and came toward them and they looked so wide-eyed. When Dad saw the fireman’s jacket, the pieces started to click and they weren’t exactly pulling in Seth’s favor.
“Daddy,” I said as Rodney helped me up the porch stairs.
Daddy snatched me gently to his chest and hugged me hard, in one of those hard hugs I used to get as a kid. “Daddy, you’re squeezing me,” I whispered what I always told him, making me five years old again.
I felt his chest shake once as he pulled back and cupped my cheek. “Ava…” He shook his head. “If I had lost you because of this…”
“Caleb,” Mom implored, “baby, she had to.” She wiped her eye and came to me, taking me in her arms. “Oh, God, thank you.” She looked at Daddy over her shoulder. “We get these gifts for a reason, remember? The same reason I get visions. I don’t get them and them not come true half the time. They do come true unless we fight them for a purpose. And we feel our soulmate’s heartbeat so we can do something about it if they need us.”
Daddy ran his hand through his hair. “What if—” He lifted his hands in surrender. “Baby girl, I’m glad you’re okay. Everybody come inside out of the cold.”
He went inside, leaving the door wide open.
Mom tug
ged me inside. “He’s been going crazy since you ran out.”
“I figured. I’m sorry. There wasn’t time to—”
“I know. Your dad has saved me before and I’ve saved him, both because of our heartbeats over the years. We both know how it works. Your dad is just worried about his only little girl.” She started to take Seth’s jacket off and I yanked the lapels back into place.
“Sorry. No, Mom, not yet.” I couldn’t take it off…
“I shouldn’t have even tried. Sorry.” She smiled softly. “When will he be here?”
“How do you know he’s coming here?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Because he’s Virtuoso.”
I sighed. “He would be here already, but a fireman…died.”
She gasped softly. “Oh, no.”
“He had to stay behind and give reports or statements or whatever. He couldn’t leave because he was there and saw it. He was his friend.”
“Oh…poor guy. Poor Seth.” She rubbed my arm. “Sometimes your father forgets that we live in a human world and the human world doesn’t know or care about our kind and what we need.”
That’s exactly what I felt. I needed Seth, I needed to comfort him, and he couldn’t be here. He watched his friend die, and I needed to help him somehow.
“What happened, Ava?” she whispered. I didn’t answer—couldn’t. She must have known. “Just go try to get some sleep. It’ll make the time go by faster,” she said that part in a hurry when she saw me protesting.
“No. I can’t sleep. I’ll just wait in my room.”
I went toward the stairs, but felt a hand on my arm. “Rodney, not now,” I begged, but it was Dad. He had one of his mugs in his hand with hot chocolate.
“Here,” he urged gently, and I knew this was his apology. Daddy was so protective of his girls, and when he got heated, he always felt bad after. “It’ll help warm you up.”
“I was in a fire, Daddy,” I said with angry distraction and shook my head back and forth with my frenzy. “I don’t need to be warmed up.”