Warrior (Relentless #4)(115)

“Take care of that for me, and send Paulette up,” I said before I turned and stepped over the pair of severed legs on the floor.

I turned from the window as Chris ran into the room. He stared with wonder at the boy and girl on the bed. I understood his disbelief. It was rare that we recovered an orphan once they’d been taken by a vampire. That both twins had survived was nothing short of a miracle.

“They’re injured but alive,” I told Chris. “Do we have a healer on the team?”

“Paulette will know what to do.”

The blonde warrior ran into the room, followed by another female warrior I didn’t know. Paulette approached the bed slowly and crouched beside it. She smiled at the boy, who watched her with wary eyes. The girl still had her face hidden in her brother’s shirt.

“Hey there,” she said gently. “I’m Paulette. You’re Colin, right?”

The boy nodded, and I knew he and his sister were in good hands. I walked out of the room with Chris trailing me.

He didn’t speak until we were back on the first floor.

“You were supposed to wait for the team.” He waved at the four vampires I’d dispatched a little while ago. “You couldn’t save one for me?”

“If I’d waited, those children would be dead.”

He had no argument for that.

I wiped my blade on the nearest vampire’s pants and walked outside. Taking a deep breath of cool night air, I waited for the satisfaction that always filled me after a successful job. My Mori was quiet, sated from our seven vampire kills, but I felt none of the usual gratification. If anything, I was more wound up than when I’d arrived.

I’d come here desperately needing an outlet for my frustration and to put some distance between Sara and me. Not because I didn’t want to be near her, but because I wanted it too much. Kissing her and feeling her respond to me had only intensified my need to be with her. Since the moment I left her in the medical ward, her absence was a physical ache in my chest, and my body felt like a wire strung too taut.

“You two must have had a hell of a falling out.”

I looked sideways at Chris, who had come out to stand beside me. “Who?”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the only person who can put you in a mood like the one you’ve been in since we left home. What happened after you left the menagerie that night?”

“Nothing happened.” Chris was my best friend, but there was no way I was sharing something so private with him.

“Okay,” he drawled. “Then I guess we’ll be heading home now that the job is done. The Council will be so delighted you saved the children they’ll probably forget to scold you for ignoring their orders.”

I scowled and started walking to my bike, which I’d left at the end of the street. “Maybe the Council should get out of their offices every now and then, and remember what it’s like in the real world.”

He snorted softly. “You should tell them that.”

“Maybe I will.”

We reached my bike, and I stowed away my sword before I straddled the seat. “I’m going to spend another day or two here. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Chris gave me an understanding smile. “I’ll see you at home.”





*


I barely noticed my surroundings as I drove through Boise the next evening. My mind was too preoccupied, thinking about the long overdue conversation I needed to have with Sara when I got home. I didn’t know if she was ready to hear the truth, but she deserved to know what was happening between us. There was no going back to the way things were, not after I’d kissed her.

Remorse filled me over the way I’d left her. I should have tried to talk to her, if not that night, then the next day. I’d thought I was doing the right thing by leaving and giving us both some space.

I realized now that I’d left because I’d been afraid she wanted nothing to do with me. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have realized that no one responded to a kiss the way she had if they weren’t attracted to the other person. Maybe I’d misread her reaction, and what I’d taken as distress had really been the confusion of a girl receiving her first kiss.

I’m such an idiot, I thought for the hundredth time since I left Salt Lake City. I wouldn’t blame Sara if she refused to speak to me for another week. How had I managed to screw things up so badly?

A mocking laugh burst from me. I had known many women in my lifetime, and I’d always been confident and sure of myself with them. One kiss from Sara and I was fumbling like a prepubescent teen.

It was after ten when I pulled into the garage at Westhorne. Grabbing my bag and sword, I walked to the main building, wondering what Sara was doing at that moment. I’d only been gone for three days, but it felt like much longer. I was going to drop my stuff off at my place, and then I was going to find her and make things right between us.

The first place I went was her room. Not finding her there, I checked the common rooms, the library, and the menagerie. I was frowning when I entered the main hall again. It was a Saturday night, but there weren’t a lot of places she would go. Maybe she was with Jordan in the other girl’s room.

Disappointment pricked my chest. It looked like our talk was going to have to wait until tomorrow.