A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Books 1-7 (Wicked Good Witches Seasons) (102 page)

Lucas had no response.

“I’m going to go take a bath.” Lizzy headed up the stairs to her room.

##

Riley drove his motorcycle into the line to board the ferry. He left most of his belongings behind. And his phone. They’d just try to stop him, talk him into coming back.

Once on board, he stayed put. Ready to ride as soon as they reached the mainland. He had no idea where he was headed, but he was leaving the Demon Isle and he was never coming back.

CHAPTER 17

It was late at night. Charlie sat in the lounge at the hospital. He’d just left Melinda’s room. She’d been sedated and was sleeping now. It tore at him that she’d not gotten to say goodbye to their father.

He looked up when he heard Michael’s voice.

“How’s Emily?”

“She’s… conscious.” Michael didn’t know how else to answer. “She’s a wreck. The doctors have given her the okay to leave though, and she wants to get out of here. So if you don’t mind me taking the jeep, I’m going to take her home. When I say home, I mean the mansion.” He said it, the intent meaning that Emily would be living with them from now on.

“Of course. She can’t go back to her house. And take the jeep, I don’t mind. I could use a walk anyway. Need some air… but I’m going to stick around for a little while longer.”

“Okay. I’ll see you at home.”

There was so much more they wanted to say to each other, but neither had the heart or spirit to talk. It would all have to wait.

##

The jeep came to a stop in the Howard’s driveway. Michael looked over at Emily. She hadn’t spoken a word. He got out and ran around, opening her door. She didn’t even notice.

“Emily,” he called out softly.

She turned. “Oh. Sorry.” She looked up and saw where Michael had brought her.

“Thank you for not taking me to my house… I can’t… I can’t go back there.”

“Emily. That isn’t your home anymore. This is your home now. It’s where you belong. Here with me.”

Tears streamed. She could not stop them.

Michael helped her inside and to his room.

“Would you like a hot shower? Or a bath? Food? Maybe some tea?”

She shook her head weakly.

He gently pulled off her clothes and threw them on the floor. And did the same to himself. He got her into his bed and crawled in behind her, cradling her with his body.

He would never let go.

And he’d do anything to make his Emily shine again. 

##

Charlie checked on Melinda. She was out. But he doubted she was sleeping peacefully.

He left the hospital planning to return early the next morning, walking aimlessly. He let the cool breeze wash over him, a hint of salt tickling his lips. Even with all that had happened, and all that might happen in the future, he didn’t want to live anywhere else. The Demon Isle would always be his home. 

He feared what this experience would do to his sister. Not just losing her father for a second time. But watching William’s torture. Being held captive. Being hurt. So many things he never wanted to see happen to her, ever. 

His father had said it, but truer words there had never been. None of them would ever be the same…

He walked, and walked, thinking he should go home. Talk to William. Check in on Michael. Go to bed. Crash and sleep for three days straight. His thoughts would not relent, a mixture of adrenaline, dread, numbness and calmness each duking it out, to claim control.

He had no desire to return home. No desire to face whatever was coming next. He wasn’t sure how they would recover from this experience.

They had each been scarred in some way, and not every wound would heal, properly. Some might not ever fully heal, just like the wolf bite on his shoulder from Eva Jordan.

“Hey.” A soft voice startled him.

Charlie looked up, stunned.

“Lizzy. Um, hi.” He hadn’t paid any attention to where he’d been walking, but he’d ended up in front of the Deane Manor. He shrugged, bewildered. “I’m not sure how I got here.”

She grinned coolly. “You wanted to see me.”

Charlie shook his head. When would her bluntness stop catching him off guard?

He surprised himself by admitting, “I guess I did want to see you.”  

“I couldn’t sleep,” she sighed. “I got in a fight with Lucas. Took a bath and climbed into bed, but gave up trying. Been standing out here, looking across the Isle. It’s all lit up tonight.”

Though late, many of the tourists still shot fireworks into the sky. Bursts of color popping to life, draping the Isle in a colorful glow. The clouds had lifted, leaving the moon and stars to shine brightly overhead.  

“It’s kind of breathtaking,” said Lizzy.

“It is breathtaking,” he agreed.

She turned to him, knowing he was not speaking of the Isle. “What you did tonight, Charlie. That was… beautiful to watch, all things considered.”

His cheeks got hot, his tongue flustered. “Yes. Well… it was very… um… self-deprecating. There was no lower to go. But I would have tried anything to get Eva to...” he trailed off.

“It was complete humility, and strength, Charlie. You should be proud of it. You will be a good leader.”

“I’m not sure I want to be,” he whispered coarsely. “I always have, in some ways. I don’t know if… if I can be like my dad.”

“I saw how proud he was of you. He believed you could.”

A sudden fury of color lit up the sky.

Charlie looked across the Isle, in awe of it.

In awe of his life. His future.

His gaze settled on Lizzy. “It really is breathtaking.
”
 

“Are you falling in love with a Deane, Charlie Howard?”

It was his turn to be blunt.

“Not falling…” he confessed. “Your father, and your fiancé, were correct when they said the fall was hard and instant. I fell in love with you around ten-thirty this morning while you were making potions in my kitchen. I fell
madly
in love with you when you fought by my side and I knew with such complete certainty that you owned my soul. You are
the
someone special, Lisbeth.” Charlie didn’t know where the words came from.

It wasn’t anything he’d thought out. Or planned. It just happened. His mind perfectly clear on this. He never thought he’d have that singular moment when he just knew without a doubt that he’d found that someone extraordinary.

Lizzy stared intently, her eyes swimming in thought.

“Is it possible that I rendered Lizzy Deane, speechless,” said Charlie, thrilled at the prospect. It wasn’t even a concern to him that she didn’t return his sentiment.

She stepped over, getting onto her tiptoes to reach his ear. “Actually,” she quipped with a sigh, “I was just imagining how utterly adorable our babies are going to be.”

He let out a rushed breath. 

“And I want a lot of them, Charlie.” She reached up and put her fingers to his lips before he could speak. “Don’t argue. Don’t worry. And don’t over think it.” She turned away from him and headed for the manor. “Pleasant dreams, Charlie.”

His mouth opened, but he found himself having another
Jack
Howard
moment, his tongue too befuddled to get the words right.

When he finally spoke, what came out was, “How many is a lot?”

But Lizzy had returned home.

##

Courtney Jessup’s body lay in the woods where William had killed her.

It had occurred during his blood rage while chasing and killing Eva Jordan.

Her pupils moved, underneath closed eyelids.

She lifted off the ground into a sitting position, her broken neck snapping jarringly back into place.

Her mouth opened, a deep inhale expanding in her lungs.

Her eyes flew open. A fury of blue.

She twisted her head back and forth, unfamiliar with her surroundings.

Her lips felt funny. She lifted her hand expecting she had a fat lip.

She gasped. Her hand dropping.

Her tongue ran over the outside of her teeth. There was a new addition.

Fangs.

She panicked. Getting to her feet. How had this happened? She’d come here for a specific purpose, to Kill Stricker, and now…

“That fucking bastard turned me into a vampire.”

She looked up, the sky starting to lighten.

She needed cover, or her life as a vampire would be very short.

She saw the hollowed out log, the one the white-haired woman had tried to hide inside of. She wondered what had happened to that woman.

“Son of a bitch. Why didn’t I just run away? Stay out of it? Just let it go?” She could have just ignored the woman, kept to her task… but no, she had to step in and help.

“And look at me now! Hiding in a log in the middle of the freakin’ God damned woods!”

The sun peeked over the horizon. She got to her hands and knees and wiggled her way inside the log. She watched the sun come up, cursing as her tongue ran across her new fangs.

A rumble inside her belly ached, begging for just one thing…
blood.

This could not be her life now. She could not be a vampire. She was a witch.

With one final name on her hit list.

“Make that two,” she growled angrily.

Courtney Jessup added a new target to her hit list.

The vampire would pay for doing this to her.

##

William Wakefield returned to his study. He’d showered and dressed, looking more like himself. His injuries hidden. Some still healing.

He’d left Charlie with Melinda, and had heard Michael return with Emily not long ago.

He hadn’t told them he was home, he preferred to be alone.

To mourn the loss of his friend. Jack Howard.

To accept what he’d done with Melinda. What he’d told her. 

He’d come close. So precariously close, to asking for death.

He would never have uttered the words. But he had wanted it. He had wanted it to end. Seeing Melinda, hearing her voice, was the only thing that had kept him from begging for release. 

‘I love you, William…’
So sweet. So much pain in the words. Even more pain in hearing them. More pain than all his physical injuries combined.

It was not the first time he’d suffered, physically. He’d been tortured before. You didn’t live to be over four-hundred-years-old without making a few enemies.

He felt certain, that much greater torment was about to begin.

He’d given in to Melinda, and himself, in the dream world he created to ease her suffering. His love was out in the open. He had succumbed to it in a manner he’d never done before. He had become attached to Melinda in a way he’d never allowed before. Even with Angelina.

It filled him with such uncertainty.

He had opened himself up, given himself completely. There was no shoving it back into hiding. This bond he created with Melinda… he was not sure it was a bond he could break, or wanted to break. He had no idea what this would do to him in the future.

He feared for her. What this battle had done to her.

She might wake, and never be the same Melinda, he loved, again.

There would be a dark mark on her heart from this day forward.

On all their hearts.

“God.
Jack.
Dear, dear Jack.” Grief threatened to overwhelm him. “You are with Catherine now.” It was the only bit of solace in his friend’s death.

Catherine…
her secret words to him. Her silent request.

One she had whispered only to him, right before she left Emily’s body and moved on from this world.

Even after what he had accepted, and admitted to Melinda and himself… he just could not. It wasn’t right. Or fair. Even now.

‘William, I know you love my daughter. Don’t argue. You’re a bad liar.’ She smiled kindly. ‘She loves you too. But she’s young and doesn’t know what her heart wants. Give her time to live. To figure out what she wants from this life. And if she chooses you… don’t turn her away. Love her. Forever. You may not see it yet, but she is stronger than you think.’

Catherine’s words had horrified him in a way he had difficulty expressing.

He hadn’t believed it. That Melinda loved him. He hadn’t even admitted it to himself yet.

And the very idea of what Catherine was asking him to do. Telling him it was
okay
to do. To take Melinda out of this life and curse her to
his
existence. To force her to watch her friends and family grow old and die, while she remained, unchanged. Never moving forward.

Yes. Melinda had great strength in her. He saw that now more than ever.

But his was a cruel fate he’d wish on no one.

A fate he’d never impose without incredible cause.

He loved Melinda too much. Too much to ask this of her, to make her choose. It would cause such pain and strife.

No. It was better that he die when she did.

It was a loving gesture, for a mother to give her blessing to such a union. It meant so much to him that he was loved, and trusted, in this way. But he could not do it. Ever.