Avenge (2 page)

Voices from all around me drifted into
my ears. They were wondering if they should leave me alone for a
few minutes, and guilt ate at me for bringing everyone down, which
only compounded my bad mood. We’d been through this enough times
since she’d been taken, and my friends knew my mood grew worse
every time we came back empty-handed.

“
Ugh! I’m exhausted,
filthy, my favorite shirt got clawed, and we still have no clue
who’s ordering all these attacks. There have been more this month
than the last two combined.” I sighed as strong arms came around me
and wrapped me in an embrace.

“
I know this is
frustrating, but we must check each lead that comes our way in case
one of them pans out. And it wasn’t all for naught, we were able to
recover six souls during this last trip.”

I turned to my boyfriend,
Max, and discerned nothing but empathy and love swirling in his
eyes.
God I love that
man
, I thought. He knew exactly what I
needed to hear and how to keep me from wanting to tear my hair out
in frustration. Simply being in his arms could turn my sour mood
around like nothing else. His touch soothed every nerve in my body,
like aloe on a sunburn.

“
I know.” I leaned against
him, accepting the comfort he offered. “Every time we recover a
soul that has been stolen, it is a victory. I wish—“

“
I know you wish, so do I.
We all do.” He kissed the top of my head before spinning me around
to face him.

“
Do you see this?” He
slipped his pinky into the diamond and sapphire ring I wore around
my neck. He’d given it to me a few days after he revealed that we
were each half of the original soul created by God. I shivered as
his skin made contact with mine, and he lifted the silver band up
to my gaze.

“
Yes,” I replied
breathlessly. His touch always had that effect on me, and even
though we’d been together several months now, it never
changed.

“
This ring is more than a
promise of my love to you. It’s a promise that your needs are my
needs, that your desires are mine, and that nothing will stop me
from giving you everything you deserve.” He bent down to kiss my
fingers, which were now entwined in his own, holding the ring. “We
won’t stop hunting the bastards who stole Jessica’s soul. Ever. But
it won’t happen overnight. You need to be patient. Do you trust
me?”

My voice cracked as I replied, “You
know I do.”

“
Then trust me to make this
right.”

No matter how frustrated I was at our
lack of progress, being with Max always made it better. When he was
around, his love filled me with such hope that all other emotions
were pushed to the side. I gazed up at him, the world melting away
with the feeling of his arms around me. I wrapped my hands around
his corded neck, pulling his tall, muscular body closer to mine and
wished we were alone. He placed tiny kisses down my face, stopping
at my earlobe where he nibbled playfully. I giggled with delight at
the ticklish sensation, completely forgetting my train of
thought.

A hard shoulder knocked me further
into Max. I didn’t need to turn around; that arm could only belong
to one person. A bitter, cranky old carrot top in purple Skeletoes
that I swore she wore just to freak me out. “Get a room
already.”

It was Elizabeth, the British monarch
whose sole purpose was to tell me how much I sucked on a regular
basis, or at least that’s what I assumed since she was so good at
it. I opened my mouth to retort, but was cut off again by my best
friend.

“
Oh come off it, Lizzie,
not everyone is a prude like you. You rock the big V like a
superstar, but we all know deep down you’re just jealous you’re not
getting any.” Cassie turned to me and winked before skipping away
to hide behind Adam. She’d need his big, brute strength to protect
her now.

Covering my mouth with my hand, I
squelched my laugh, but couldn’t hold it in for long. Even James,
our mostly stoic leader, couldn’t keep the grin off his face. Leave
it to Cassie to cheer everyone up.

Elizabeth’s glare at Cassie was full
of contempt; she was obviously planning retribution. Anyone who
called her Lizzie had a death wish. And over the last six months,
those two butted heads more than anyone else. Cassie didn’t seem to
be frightened of the Queen and took every opportunity possible to
put her in her place. Which was exactly why Cassie was my best
friend.

I took Max’s hand and gave it a tug as
I inched my way backwards. We needed to be far, far away from here
before Elizabeth blew her lid. Adam apparently had the same idea
and was already leading—and by leading I do mean dragging—Cassie
toward the Commons.

“
Debriefing in one hour;
don’t be late,” James called to us as members of the team headed in
opposite directions.

I groaned. Each of the debriefings was
the same and I was not in the mood. “Great, a few more hours of
rehashing how the vampires and werewolves have been toying with us
for the last six months. And how hope of finding Jessica’s soul
keeps slipping farther and farther away. I’ll bring the popcorn.”
My voice dripped sarcasm as I remembered why I was moody to begin
with.

“
Lucy, I know you don’t
believe that. You’ve seen the good that we’ve done over the past
few months. We saved Mr. Leonard from dying prematurely tonight and
he’s just one example.” Max hugged me a little harder and led me
into the Commons where I plopped onto the couch, too exhausted
emotionally and physically to go any further.

I’d gone through several of the stages
of grief in the past six months. The first night, I refused to
admit Jessica was gone and spent several hours searching for her,
convinced she was “hiding.” Then, after the first failed rescue
mission I’d begged Marco to get me an appointment with the Alpha
and Omega so I could plead for her life. That meeting never
happened; Marco wouldn’t even consider it, saying it wasn’t
possible and I’d make a fool of myself. I spent the next two months
seething, killing so many vampires and retrieving so many souls
that I received a commendation. Max accepted it on my behalf when I
refused to be acknowledged. I didn’t deserve an award for failing
to rescue my sister. If anything, I should have been
punished.

Now, I was in the depression stage,
where everything was dark, dreary, and nothing ever went right. My
emotions were wading in a pool of honey; the harder I tried to get
out, the further down I sank. I knew it wasn’t healthy for me, but
getting out was harder than getting in.

“
Lucy, dear, amiga,” Cassie
started, plopping down next to me and covering my hands with her
own while Max and Adam went off to grab us a couple of coffees. I
was going to need as much extra caffeine as possible to deal with
James’ debriefing. That man could pontificate for hours if you let
him.

“
I’m not in the mood to
talk, Cass.”

“
That’s great, because I’m
going to do all the talking and you’re going to listen.” I sat up a
little in my seat hearing her serious tone. “First let me start off
by reminding you that we all love you, and we’re here for
you.”

“
I know that.” I smiled
back up to her. “Thank you.”

“
Good. So here’s the hard
part: we’ve all lost our friends and family. Death is a part of
life. You need to move past this.”

I shook my head and fought back fresh
tears. “It’s not the same. Your loved ones lived full, long lives.”
Cassie started to interject, but I cut her off. “But more
importantly, you weren’t responsible for their soul being kidnapped
by monsters.”

“
None of that was your
fault. You didn’t cause her cancer. You fought your damnedest to
keep her safe. You didn’t fail and no one blames you. You’ve had a
crappy year—“

I snorted a half laugh/half scoff.
“Enough to put most people in therapy for life. Let’s see,” I
ticked off fingers as I counted, “I died in a car accident, became
a Patronus, was almost killed and raped by a vampire, was beaten
into shape mercilessly by a British royal and her sidekick, my baby
sister died, her soul was stolen by vampires, and I found out that
I was half of the original soul created by God. Yeah, I need years
of therapy and a whole lot of sleep before my world starts making
sense again.”

“
You’ve certainly had it
rougher than most, but pull on your big girl panties and stop
wallowing. You have a lot of wonderful things going on in your life
too, don’t forget. You’re allowed to have a bad day, but how does
it help to live every day under a raincloud?”

Cassie gave me a giant hug before
standing up and heading back toward Adam, who was busy adding sugar
to his coffee. I leaned back into the plush, soft leather of the
oversized couch, closing my eyes for a moment while I thought about
what she said.

When my eyes fluttered open, confusion
swept across me. This was not where I was when I closed my eyes.
How did I get into my bed? I pressed a button on my bracelet. Six
hours passed since we arrived back from our last mission and it was
the middle of the night. Where was everyone? And how in the world
did I get here?

Tossing the covers aside, I crept down
the hall and into the living room. The small TV was on, muted, and
Max was asleep on the couch. The poor thing must have carried me
back after I fell asleep, and now he was all tuckered out. I
tiptoed back into the hall closet to fetch him a blanket. As much
as I wanted him next to me as I slept tonight, I didn’t have the
heart to wake him. I bent down to grab a blanket when something
suddenly grabbed me.

I whirled around and didn’t hesitate
to attack, throwing my elbow into the nose of my assailant,
followed by a hard step down on his foot.

“
Son of a—ow,
Luce!”

I flipped on the light switch, taking
a closer look at my assailant. I was horrified. It wasn’t a vampire
or stranger attacking me. It was Max. And I had broken my
boyfriend’s nose.

“
Oh, babe, I’m so sorry! I
didn’t know who was grabbing me. I acted on instinct.”

Max pinched the bridge of his nose to
stop the flow of blood while I ran to get some ice from the
freezer. “We’re in our apartment alone, who else would it
be?”

“
I know, I’m so sorry. What
can I do to make it better?” I led him to the couch and sat on the
arm next to him, gently placing the baggie of ice on his already
healing nose. Blood dripped in a single steak off his chin and fell
onto the sleeve of his soft, cashmere Henley shirt. I reached
behind me to grab some tissues to wipe it away before more damage
was done.

“
It’ll heal in a moment.
Don’t worry about it.” Max’s nasally voice made me stifle a giggle.
Soon the bleeding stopped and in no time the swelling began to go
down.

I ran my hand down his cheek, my
fingers delighting in the scratchy surface from his five o’clock
shadow. I cupped his face in my hands and laid a gentle kiss on his
soft lips.

“
There, all better,” I
stated.

He pulled me off the arm of the couch
and onto his lap. I snuggled into his chest as he wrapped his free
arm around me. I sighed contentedly, happy to be close to him. Ever
since he revealed that we were each half of the original soul, it
was hard to keep us away from each other. We were rarely apart;
neither of us concentrating well at whatever we were doing because
we were too busy wondering about each other.

“
Do you remember the first
few weeks we dated?” Max whispered in my ear.

I sank down on the couch, resting my
head in his lap while he stroked my hair. “Ugh! It was torture. We
could only see each other a few hours a day and kept sneaking
kisses between training sessions.” I smiled remembering our
“honeymoon stage,” as Cassie called it.

“
It was never enough.” Max
leaned down to brush his lips softly against mine. “I can never get
enough of you.”

My lips tingled where he touched and I
fought the urge to pull him down closer to me. “You were my rock.
You kept me grounded and centered when everything else was spinning
out of control. I don’t know if I would have made it through that
first month without you.”

Max sensed that I might cry, so he
changed the subject to happier thoughts. “How many pillows do you
think Adam and James threw at us every time we started making
out?”

I threw my head back, laughing at the
memory. “Oh, I don’t know. A hundred? At least they weren’t as
annoyed as Elizabeth. She was so sick of us. I think she vomited a
little in her mouth every time she saw us together.” I lifted my
head and cupped my hand to his ear, whispering, “I secretly enjoyed
watching her squirm for once!”

“
I can’t say I didn’t enjoy
it a little too,” he chuckled, then paused as if remembering
something else. “Do you remember the black eye I got after I ran
into the end of the bleachers because I was too busy staring at
you?”

“
Yes, it matched my bruises
from tripping over the painted lines on the basketball court and
running into trees while jogging because I was lost in thoughts of
you. We were quite the ditzy duo for a while there. Thank goodness
Cassie intervened and offered to switch apartments so we could have
more time together. Not that she wasn’t getting something out of it
too, of course.”