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“So, are you still in trouble?” I whispered.
He weighed that up before whispering back. “Not sure. But I think I might let your mother handle things for a while.”
I stifled a laugh. “Not sure if that’s a good idea.”
He chuckled, then stopped and took both my hands. “I’m not sure about a lot of things, except one.”
My heart stuttered, and my breath caught.
He ran his thumbs over the tops of my hands. “I know I’ve never felt more alive than I have around you. I know I was meant to come here. And I know I never want to leave.”
I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. When I finally spoke, all I could come up with was a jittery joke.
“Technically, that’s three things.”
He flashed a smile. “Call me greedy.”
A thousand emotions choked me. Not one helped me come up with an intelligent response, though. The best I could do was, “Well, Sedona is a nice place…”
Nash shook his head. “It’s not the place. It’s because you’re here.”
I cleared my throat, trying to remain composed. In the end, I flung my arms around him, holding him tight. So tight, my chest squeezed, and it was hard to breathe. But easing up a little didn’t change that, so I went back to a desperate squeeze in case another warlock, vampire, or shifter came along to take him from me.
“I’d like you to stay too,” I whispered. “No — I’d love it.”
He grinned. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. Just as clearly as I felt so many other things. Joy. Hope. Energy. Desire.
And above all, impatience. I wanted to fast-forward in time to a point past coffee and muffins, past the interrogations andeverything else we couldn’t avoid. I wanted to pop back out at the point when all that was done and Nash and I could be alone. To talk. To love. To figure things out.
Nash kissed my neck, then my cheek, and finally my lips, promising we’d get to that. Soon.
Chapter Thirty-One
NASH
It had been a hell of a night, and it was shaping up to be a hell of a morning. We’d beaten back the threat of Harlon and Angelina, but now we had Captain Edwards and Erin’s mother to deal with. Worse, I was fading fast.
“Are you all right?” Erin asked, helping me up the porch steps.
I tried answering, but all that came out was a mumble, and my vision blurred.
“Nash!” She grabbed my arm, barely keeping me from face-planting on the top step.
“Post-eleftheroswithdrawal,” Edwards grumbled, though he sounded miles away.
“Post-what?” Erin shrieked.
I moved my lips, trying to tell her what the agency had taught me.
In the rare case of a vampire’s victim surviving the latter’s demise, the body seeks to establish a new state of homeostasis by ridding itself of lingering chemical residue.
Like withdrawal for a drug addict, in other words, but it all came out slurred.
This life-threatening condition often disrupts brain chemistry and results in death…
God, I hoped not. Not now that things were finally looking up.
Or down, I thought as I toppled onto the porch sofa.
