Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (41 page)

He rolled her on top of him, kissing her so thoroughly that she remembered what they were
not
talking about before her last little doubt so rudely interrupted.

~ ~ ~

Epilogue

Heather looked beautiful, standing there holding her bulging, pregnant belly. She also looked about to collapse under the stress of eyeing so many books.

“
Do you want to sit, Heather?”

“
They should put a couch in this aisle. I’m okay, though.”

Funny how time shifts alongside enormous change. For Heather, the last six months had passed at a slow, grinding pace that she bemoaned often. “When will this baby get here already?” Heather felt every minute. Maybe it was the nature of pregnancy. Sadie didn’t want to understand firsthand for a long time to come. But then, time itself had changed for her.

Heather’s rounding belly, five months along now, peeked out from her t-shirt’s edge. “What’s the one everyone always talks about?” Heather asked. “You know the one in that movie?”

Sadie grinned. It was the fourth time Heather had asked and now, finally at the bookstore after a short lunch, had again forgotten. “What To Expect When You’re Expecting.” Sadie expected her sister to eventually bring up that day six months back, the day she’d transported her. But Heather never did.

Heather reached to the shelf and pulled out two different volumes. “These look good.” She handed one over. “Get both. I’ll return what I don’t want.”

“
Are you sure? There are a lot to choose from here. Why don’t we find a seat and page through a couple?”

“
Elijah won’t get antsy?”

Sadie laughed. “No. He’ll keep himself busy.” Circling the parking lot was good practice. His mediocre driving skills needed polishing if they were going to stay this side of realm lines for long. Transporting too much would draw attention. She’d learned how to drive in a parking lot. So could he. “What about the baby manual one Jen mentioned
?
Her co-worker recommended it?”

Heather yawned. “I can’t remember. I swear if Remy wasn’t with me each morning, I’d forget to leave the house dressed. I like these for now.”

“
You’re sure?”

“
Absolutely. Besides
,
I need a nap.” Her second yawn proved it.

They got in line.

“
Your make-up job is pitiful, by the way.”

Sadie automatically fingered the area under her eye. There might not be enough cover up on the planet to hide the results of the kick during sparring last night. Elijah felt terrible. “He isn’t beating me, if that’s what you think.”

A smile spread over her sister’s face. The new freckles the pregnancy brought on made her look so wholesome. “You’re probably beating him,” Heather said. “Poor guy’s finally fighting back, right?”

Sadie chuckled, her wings shaking with it, though no one noticed. Not an immortal in the place that she could hear. The clerk rang up Heather’s books. Sadie handed over cash. Their lunch date today had gone well. It reinforced Sadie’s security in the knowledge that Heather would be okay. She was well and safe. They were once again friends, a wonder in and of itself.

God, she would miss her these next few months more than words could measure.

The summer heat enveloped them as they exited and made their way to the curb. Elijah was somewhere out there on the expanse of asphalt, winding in and out of parking spaces. Sadie tamped down the emotion welling inside her. She didn’t know how long she would be gone. How much of her sister and cousin’s lives would she miss? How mad would they be at her for disappearing?

The silver Mercedes came into view. It was Sadie’s cue. She hugged Heather tightly, wings and all. “I’m so happy for you and Remy. I had such a great time today.”

“
Aw! Me too.” Heather swiped at wetness from the corners of her eyes. “I’m still getting used to this new you, all independent and cocky, but I’m happy for you, too. You know that, right?”

“
Of course.” Any more and she would cry. If she cried, Heather would get suspicious. Possibly feel bad or worried. “Listen, call me later. We should do this again.”

“
I’d love that,” Heather said.

Another hug and she walked to her car, waving at Elijah behind the wheel.

Sadie watched Heather go, finding her sister’s waddle beyond adorable. She’d been wrong about Heather and children. Now it made perfect sense for her sister to be starting a family. A wave of sadness swept over her. When would she get to meet her niece or nephew?

Elijah rolled down the driver side window. “Sadie?”

With a slight nod she came around and got in. Heather’s car veered around a far edge merging into traffic, then disappeared from view. Elijah pulled forward. “Better,” Sadie said, referring to his shifting gears. “Not a single jerk.”

Elijah squeezed the ticklish spot on her knee making her erupt in giggles. “I’m a fast learner.” His hand settled at her thigh. “Did you tell her anything?”

“
No. I think you were right. It’d only make her worry. Only make leaving harder.”

“
I have four enforcers who will give their lives for them, who will constantly be watching over Heather and Jen. I promise you they will be safe. I promise if they show signs of transforming, we’ll immediately be notified.”

“
I know. I guess I wish I’d known more back before all this. Maybe I would have appreciated her more. Not been so hard on her.”

“
She loves you. She’ll understand. Maybe not at first, but we will be back. You have my word.”

Sadie could only nod. Sadness clogged her throat. An uncertain future stretched out before them, a different landscape than her previous life. She felt the difference as much as she felt the hot wind, the tangy sun, as much as her heart beating in her chest.

She wasn’t scared, though. Because she had love. She had Elijah. And together, they could conquer anything.

The End

###

Praise for
HeartsBlood
…

“
Oh. Dear. God. I loved
HeartsBlood!
When I was reading it, I couldn’t put it down. When I wasn’t reading it, it was all I could think about. I loved that I couldn’t figure out what was coming next. The plot was truly spellbinding. Seriously—I laughed, I cried, I worried. And when I finished the book, I wanted to pick it back up and start from the beginning again.”

Lori W. (@funnycakes)

“
HeartsBlood
is not one of those books that you swallow up in one sitting. It is deep, thoughtful, and very well executed. It will make you think about reality as you know and understand it and wonder if magic is real—we just don’t realize it!”

Cher Dawn (@cher_dawn)

“
HeartsBlood
is a paranormal romance? I hate to argue with Carolyn, but this is a kick-butt-and-take-names urban fantasy. No, it is a thriller. Wait. I think it might be an action-packed story of love and magic that defies classification! I fear only women will read
HeartsBlood
,
when it was one of the most exciting thrillers I have read in a long while!

Guys, take note:
HeartsBlood
is for you, too!”

Ben Hopkin (
@actingnodrama
)

HeartsBlood

by

Carolyn McCray

Start Reading

About the Author

Other Works by Carolyn McCray/Cristyn West

Copyright Information

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Table of Contents

* * * * *

CHAPTER 1

Lightning flashed across the San Franciscan skyline, crackling and dancing on the horizon. Light flooded through the ambulance bay doors into the emergency room. Once inside, the illumination struck its own path, bending around corners, filling every square inch of the triage area with a stark brilliance.

While everyone else might have been impressed with the bolt’s raw power or otherworldly glow, Dr. Salista Calon used that flash to place a nearly perfect suture across Mr. Kasza’s ragged wound.

“
Nice,
mija
,” Maria intoned as she sponged the laceration’s edge.

Sal smiled at the head nurse’s compliment, especially since her friend had uttered it in Spanish to describe her affection. While Sal had a Welsh father to explain the green flecks in her otherwise brown eyes, the full-blooded Maria eschewed their shared Latina heritage and dyed her hair a blue-black normally reserved for Goth girls. Her punk-rock cut dared anyone to call her a Chica. The platinum-blonde bangs didn’t hurt, either.

“
We don’t need no stinking plastic surgeon when we’ve got Salista, Warrior Doc!” Maria added.

Their rotund patient didn’t seem quite so amused. No matter the nurse’s opinion of her surgical skills, Mr. Kasza had very much wanted a plastic surgeon to close his cut. He’d said so at very high volumes for a very long time. However, the storm hadn’t heard, or at the least, hadn’t cared.

As thunder echoed not far off, rain hit the ambulance bay in sheets, obscuring the view. The world outside their dry sanctuary had become nothing more than a watercolor painting. While the City was used to its fair share of precipitation, this summer storm had taken everyone by surprise.

They’d had over four inches, and the forecast called for another three.

Mr. Kasza didn’t think that those woes should apply to him. He had continued under that delusion until the plastic surgeon called to say he’d ditched the waterlogged 101 without ever catching sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, so he turned back to his home in Marin. Even then, Maria had to scare the patient with impending sepsis or an unsightly scar to get him to allow Sal to sew the wound closed.

“
You gonna finish, or what?” he wheezed.

Before Sal could answer, Maria snorted. “Oh,
now
you’re in a hurry. If we’d seen a little more of this attitude an hour ago, we’d be done.”

While some women had wing girls for club hopping, Sal had something far more important—a best friend who could run patient interference better than most linebackers.

Today, Sal was more grateful than usual. What should have been a slam dunk four-hour shift, the storm had dragged out into a grueling twelve-hour debacle.

The day had teed off with a seven-car pileup during the morning commute, then rolled into a cable car derailment down by Pier 39. That’s about the time the central air conditioning went out. Gradually, the ER’s smell of bitter antiseptic gave way to a rather rank odor.

Ready to go home, Sal really didn’t want to explain to Mr. Kasza that she had to wait for another lightning strike to provide enough illumination to finish stitching him up.