Turning back to Marabella’s ghostly figure, she roars, her canines slipping out as she pounces on him. He stood no chance once she was on top of him. She grabs his face, her fingers going through his eye sockets as she melts his face off and pushes it inward.
Marabella jumps in my arms when I hear the pop sound of his skull against the pavement. Yet she still digs her hands in using both, and his brains spill out of his ears before she pounds into him, obliterating what is left. She keeps screaming, “don’t touch her.” She freezes suddenly, shaking her head, and the black mist comes away like she is shaking off the dust.
“And that?” I ask him. Seeing the demonic mist spill into the air around her, evaporating.
“It can’t be,” Kaif whispers.
“What is it? It feels like-”
“Like ours,” he states what I am thinking but praying he won’t say.
“That’s not possible, though,” I tell him.
“No, it’s not. That magic comes from your bloodline and only yours; you are all that’s left that shares that magic,” he mutters. It’s clear we’re both bloody confused.
I wave my hand, banishing my magic and settling back into the present. Marabella shakes in my arms. Her entire body trembles violently, almost like she is seizing.
“I got you, you’re okay. I can make it go away.” I whisper next to her ear.
“Rose,” she sobs, and I reach down, brushing Rose’s hair away.
“She won’t remember this, not what happened here,” I tell her, and she pulls back to look at me. “Let’s get you out of here,” I whisper to her. I have to pry her hands from the front of my shirt because she won’t let go.
“I have to grab Rose,” I tell her, and she reluctantly lets me go.
I grab Rose and place her in the car’s backseat. Turning around, Marabella is rubbing her arms, staring at the dead men, and I walk over to her, rubbing her arms and drawing her attention away.
“What about their bodies?” she whispers.
“Hop in the car. I will take care of it.” She looks back at me, her eyes scrutinizing my face, making me wonder what she is looking for.
“She is probably wondering why you aren’t being a snollygoster,” Kaif huffs.
“If you are going to insult me, at least use words from this era that I understand!” I snap at him.
“Hmm, forgot you’re a simpleton; what about a cunt? Asshole? Them words you should know, and describe your unsavory personality perfectly,” Kaif huffs, and I growl at him.
“Damn cretin,” I hiss at him.
Kaif huffs, snarling in my head. Marabella’s voice pulls me away and back to her. “Why, why did you come? Why help?” she whispers the questions.
Does she really think that little of me? Marabella may think I don’t want her, but I would allow no one to harm her, not even myself. If I am selfish, I want to give in to the mate bond, but I know the harm that will come to her if I do.
I will always come for her; she just has to ask. I don’t care what she thinks of me. How much we argue, how much she hates me – that will never change. I will always fight alongside her, with her, and always for her.
“Because you’re mine, you’ll always be mine,” I tell her; stepping closer.
I press my lips to her forehead. She clutches the front of my shirt, and I pull her toward my car, placing her in the front seat and shutting the door.
I check the street name and send a few text messages to have this place cleaned up. It is late enough in the night that no one will pass down this street. There are no houses here, and the end of this street turns into a dead end. The clean-up won’t take long anyway, not for my men, who assure me they will be here in five minutes.
I thought about taking her to the hotel as I got in the car. I’m not sure if that’s the best idea, but maybe it’s the best I can do for now.
Marabella stares vacantly out the window as I open the car door and get in the driver’s seat. I touch her hand with mine and she jumps before blinking and looking over at me. “Will you take us home?” she asks, and I shake my head, starting my car.
“No, you can stay at the manor with me,” I tell her, and she looks over into the back seat at Rose. “She is fine, I promise. I can hear her heart beating,” I assure her.
“Jonah will hate me,” she whispers, and I bite the inside of my cheek.
“He doesn’t need to know. I picked you and Rose up,” I tell her, and she looks back at me.
“But we snuck out; we weren’t supposed to be in the city,” she says, and I raise an eyebrow at her.
She doesn’t seem like the type to sneak out. No, I know she is not the type that sneaks out in the middle of the night, so that leaves this idea to be owned by Rose, which doesn’t at all surprise me.
“Where did you go?” I ask her, and she tells me the name of some Henry person, apparently his birthday party. It irks me that she went along with Rose’s plan; she should have known better.
“Fine, you went to this party, and I met you there, and you stayed at my house. That is what you tell Jonah, and that is what Rose will believe. She doesn’t need to remember anything else,” I tell her.
She nods, and I pull onto the highway, heading out of the city. We drive for fifteen minutes before we pull in through the wrought-iron gates.
“You live here?” I nod, driving down the long driveway. “It…It looks haunted,” I chuckle at her words. Jonah always says the same thing, that the shadows spook him.
“It is,” I admit, and she looks at me and then looks back at the old manor. I think I can see a tiny spark of curiosity, and is that excitement there?
“This place is older than the city; it used to house the Octavian Coven when it was built,” I explain.