Blackbird (33 page)

              “You did the right thing,” she whispered, drawing Lindsay in close to hold the weeping, broken woman in her arms. “He was a dangerous man.”

              “Perhaps, but I’m not bonded to anyone now. I’m alone.”

              “You’re not alone, you have me. You have your sister now, remember?”

              Lindsay cried even harder, as if that were the worst news she could possibly hear. “But
you
are bonded to
him
. And I am bonded to no one. Without Victor…”

              Chelle turned Lindsay to face her. “Listen to me. You’re going to come home with us and we’re going to figure all of this out. It’ll all be ok. I know you’ve been through a lot and so have I, but we’ll figure it out together.”

              Lindsay hugged Chelle close as tears continued to stream down her face. “Chelle, thank you. You’ve given me more love in a few moments than Victor gave me in a lifetime.”

              Standing, she turned to face the window as her wings emerged once more. Suddenly Chelle was frightened. “Lindsay, what are you doing?”

              Lindsay gave no answer. She simply took a deep breath and hurled herself out the window. Chelle tried to stand but fell again and Robert ran to her, helping her up as they stepped over shards of broken glass. “She’s up there,” Robert said pointing skyward.

              They watched in the darkness as Lindsay flew up, up, up. Her beautiful blue wings took her up like a rocket and when she was almost out of sight instead of flying off, she simply drew them in, taking them back into her body one last time, leaving her as human and fragile as anyone else. Now she was falling, plummeting toward the pavement hard and fast. “Robert, my wings...”

              Both of them knew what they were about to witness but they were helpless to stop it. Chelle’s wings were non-functional and Lindsay was about to fall to her death. “There’s nothing you can do,” he said.

              “But…”

              “Don’t look, Chelle,” he said turning her away from the window. “Just don’t look.”

              A moment later there was a massive thump just outside and Chelle fell apart, sobbing in Robert’s arms.

***

              The sun was coming up when he had finally gotten Chelle home. It had been a mercilessly long night by the time the police had been called and everything had been sorted out. It had been ruled a kidnapping and the perpetrators were dead. That was that. She had taken off the pressure suit, showered and fallen into bed next to him. He felt like he could sleep a hundred years and when they both woke the next afternoon he felt like he had.

              Being near one another had helped them heal from their physical and emotional turmoil the night before. Although it would take years to fully digest what had happened, they woke up whole and mostly happy that they were once again within close proximity to each other.

              He smiled at her, pulling her body as close to his as he could and as their skin made contact they both sighed with relief. He was so overjoyed that he couldn’t help but blurt out what was on his mind. “Fly away with me,” he said.

              “I’m tired of flying, for now anyway.”

              “On a plane, silly. You’ve never been on one. You’ve never been anywhere. Let’s go down south. Let’s go tonight.”

              She laughed. How he loved that sound. “You’re forgetting I’m a poor waitress. I can’t afford that.”

              “What if you were the wife of a bar owner? Could you afford it then?”

              “Robert?”

              “Come away with me. Just the two of us. We’ll get married down there and stay for a couple of weeks. When we come back we’ll run things together. I’ve seen how hard you work. I think together we could do great things. Not just in this way, but in every way. I know we have this crazy mating bond and we
need
to be together, but Chelle, I loved you even before that and I know I’m always gonna love you. It feels right, you know it.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Say yes,” he whispered.

              “Yes,” she whispered back.

              “Yes?”

              “Yes. Of course, yes.”

              Robert pulled the blankets up over their head and kissed her slowly, deeply, passionately. “I’m so happy,” he said between kissing her. “And if I can ever tear myself away from this bed I’ll start making reservations.”

              “Maybe we do that tomorrow. Maybe for today we just stay right here in this bed.”

              “I like the way you think…” he kissed her again. “Mrs. Cole.”

              “Not yet,” she laughed.

              “Not yet, but soon, and then forever,” he said getting on top of her.

              “Forever,” she smiled.

About the Author

             
Jessica MacIntyre is a writer who is also a rabid Foo Fighters fan, a devoted Schmiddian and someone who both loves and admires Grumpy Cat. She lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with her husband of seventeen years, Andy, and their two children, Holly and Angus. They also have a cat named Charcoal.

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Watch for the second book in the Blackbird series coming this fall. Blackbird: The Gathering.