Chosen One (Forever Evermore #6)(21)
I didn’t think it possible, but my heart kind of…hurt…melting for him in that moment as he plainly pulled back his own feelings to talk sensibly…to make sure I was safe. I rested my hand on his cheek, caressing his stubbly chin softly. “Cain,” I peered back and forth between his eyes, telling him honestly, “you’re a good man.”
That made him scowl further, but his fingers didn’t stop their soft play, gliding down my neck. “I’m trying to convince you I can help, and all you say is I’m a good man?”
“Mmm-hmm.” I kissed the tip of his nose lightly. “And you convinced me. Your debate valid in reasoning and fact. All of what you said is true. All of which I already know. It just may take a bit for me to break out of the mold, so you’ll just have to have patience.”
“I’ll take it,” Cain growled, pulling me halfway under him, making me squeal in contented laughter. He stared down at me, brushing hair off my forehead with gentle fingers. “Are you planning to finish the game you started with Mr. Stellar?”
“Nope,” my lips popped with the word, “I’m right where I want to be.” If I was stuck in this life, in this time, I was exactly where I wanted to be.
A slow tilt of his lips, the sweetest smile I had ever seen. “You don’t say,” more tilting of his lips, “that’s incredibly fortunate, seeing as I’m exactly where I want to be, too.”
“Oh,” I said with extra oomph, my eyes wide, “now that is fortunate.” I grinned, kissing him quickly before letting my head fall back to the pillow. “I’m still so happy you left that note.”
“Me, too,” he said softly, a deep rumble, his gaze running over my face before his lips gently landed on mine, kissing me lightly, murmuring against my lips, “Honey.”
I groaned in contentment. “I like that…darling.” His lips curved against mine, a large grin, and on a sigh, I kissed him back leisurely.
Chapter Six
Lying on a cot inside a jail cell, bleeding from multiple different spots, bones broken, also, in different multiple locations, while in silver handcuffs, I had to wonder how the hell this had happened. Only last week, I had been lying on a soft bed, happy and sated and relaxed with Cain, our first moment of a “possibly-not-just-casual”. And now, I was the exact opposite, gritting my teeth through the pain, and trying to stay conscious.
It probably had something to do with the illegal rave party the Prodigies, plus Fi, Kincaid’s mate I had finally—again—met tonight. Or the possibility of the Com police, eventually along with the MIA, had broken it up. There was also the likelihood of me being separated from Nelson during the mad dash of the raid, and when I had seen Kincaid and Venclaire get stunned, then taken down from behind, and silvered, I may have…reacted…on instinct, coming to their rescue. It more than likely, though, was a result of me failing in that attempt as a swarm of Com police and MIA had surrounded me after I took four down. After that, it all got a bit blurry.
I remembered being on the ground at one point staring directly into Venclaire’s eyes as he shouted at them to stop, right before a foot connected with my gut. I was then strategically taken to another less rowdy room as those caught in the rave were beginning to get hauled away. A few of those in Law enforcement I had taken down beat the living shit out of me while I was silvered.
Currently, I could hear Kincaid and Venclaire down the hallway voicing their opinions loudly that I be released. I was really hoping someone took their advice because I was seriously beginning to wonder if I was going to die, breathing becoming an issue while my heart beat erratically from all the blood loss. Someone else was shouting back at them, they had no jurisdiction because I was Elemental, and not Vampire or Shifter. Well…that would be a Law I would definitely nudge the Prodigies shoulders into changing…if I survived.
Then I heard Kincaid chuckling, and he bellowed over the officer’s shout, “You want jurisdiction? You’ve fucking got it. From what I can see through that little window…he’s walking in through the front door right now.”
Venclaire’s reply was steady. “The last guy to upset him over her ended up spending three days in the ground. So, you might want to run…if you think it’ll help.”
“Where is she?” Fergus’s voice bellowed through the entire jail, sounding farther away, but echoing roughly through the silvered bars.
Venclaire muttered, “Yeah, actually, I’m pretty sure it’s too late for you to run.”
“Kincaid? Venclaire?” Fergus shouted loudly. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Back here!” Kincaid called steadily, but loudly.
The jailer must have tried to run because I heard a hard grunt, then Kincaid murmured almost so quietly I couldn’t hear him, “Nope. You’re going to deal with some of this fallout because if she were my kind…and the state she’s in…I would rip everyone’s fucking head off that did this to her.”
A door banged loudly in the direction of their voices, everyone’s heads inside the different cells, all the captured ravers, staring down the hallway where they were, everyone mute to listen to their conversation. Everyone in my cell staying clear of me like the plague after Kincaid and Venclaire, and King Townsend and King Bridges, who had been by their sides, bailing them out of trouble, while all four of them had stood outside my cell, staring, Kincaid and Venclaire, arguing for a good minute on who should call Fergus, neither one of them wanting to do so. Venclaire got that honor by a lost coin toss, his conversation on the phone, apparently, relieved to have reached the King, and not Fergus, asking him to relay the message I was in jail.