Framed (30 page)

I looked up to see Sean eying the two of us; he didn't look pleased.

“So what happened?” Jay asked, oblivious to the tension in the room.

“That's what
I
want to know,” Sean said, his gaze unfaltering. “You first, Jay.”

“I decided to stay behind when everyone went after Ruby, uh, I mean after Scarlet. I wanted to see if Ronnie was alive. When I got to her, I realized that Scarlet had stuffed her clothes in the wound to stop the bleeding,” he said, pointing in my direction. “I was getting ready to call for help when Cooper rounded the corner, dragging the girl with him.”

“You brought Peyta on
purpose
?” Sean asked.

“Hey, I didn't know what else to do,” Cooper explained. “Ruby ran out the door after whispering Ronnie's name and barking an order at me to stay with Peyta. I knew about the dreams and the visions, so I knew what it meant—the Revenant was after her. I also knew she wasn't likely to get there in time."

He looked uncomfortable while he delivered that final line. He liked Ronnie, and, better than that, I think he respected her. Never in a million years would he have wished harm to fall upon her. Certainly not at the hands of the Rev.

"Peyta is a Healer," he continued with a shrug. "You said this is her gift, her calling, so I figured if anyone could heal Ronnie it would be her. If there was anything left to heal...”

Sean stared at him across the narrow divide. Cooper returned the gesture.

“And then what?” I asked, hoping to distract them both. A fight was brewing, and I'd had enough of that for a good week or two, at least.

“Peyta was startled when I stormed the room and yanked her out of bed. I tried my best to explain without scaring her. It didn't go as well as I'd have liked,” he said, pressing his lips together tightly. “She was in rough shape by the time we arrived. Seeing her mom did nothing to help.”

“I've never heard someone scream like that,” Jay added. “I thought she'd wake the neighborhood for sure. The last thing we needed was cops showing up.”

“I covered her mouth quickly and tried to calm her, but it wasn't working, so I carried her down the alley and put her down next to her mother,” Cooper continued. “I was hoping that the dire nature of the situation would override her fear. It eventually did.”

“But how did she do it? She's barely been trained, and Ronnie isn't PC, or even a werewolf for that matter. Can Healers
heal
humans?” I asked, looking to Sean for the answer.

“Conventionally speaking, no,” he responded. “However, there is very little about Peyta's powers that appear to be conventional. I'm not sure that I'd put anything past her at this point, but if you'd told me it was possible at the time I'd not have believed it to be true.”

“What
exactly
did she do?” I asked, knowing full well she hadn't pulled a Sophie. She was only covered in a modest amount of blood—the amount you'd expect to see on someone who'd been handling a bleeding person or blood-soaked corpse.

“That was the weirdest part,” Jay said. “It didn't look like she did
anything
.”

“All I know is that one second Ronnie was seconds from death, and the next...she was looking at me with terror in her eyes,” Cooper added.

“So she just laid on her mom, and
poof,
she was better?” I asked, incredulously.

“Peyta's powers lie inside her mind, Ruby,” Sean started, shifting his weight against the counter. “Perhaps she doesn't need to take such a physical route to heal. This opens up a lot of possibilities.”

“Possibilities for what?” I asked, not liking where I thought he was going.

“We need a Healer, Ruby. We've always had one,” Sean said quietly. “Peyta is our best option.”

“NO!” I snapped, before catching myself and lowering my voice. I didn't want to disturb Ronnie or upset Peyta any further. “That is
completely
out of the question. That girl has been through more in the last couple of months than anyone should endure in a lifetime, and you're suggesting we
continue
to expose her to this life of madness? Totally unacceptable, Sean. No fucking way I'm going to let it happen.”

I couldn't recall the exact point that I jumped off the counter to stand nose to nose with him, but I felt the heat our proximity created as soon as I finished my rant. Judging by the flare of his eyes, he'd felt it too.

“We would keep her sa—”
“No, Sean. No,” I repeated flatly. “Ronnie will
never
allow such a thing, and neither will I.”

“You don't need to freak out about it...it's a non-issue for now anyway,” Jay said, trying to hose down the fire. “The Elders have to approve of the Healer before she is bonded to the PC.”

His last few words echoed through my mind.
Bonded to the PC
made my heart fall into the boots I'd reclaimed from Peyta's room.
Sean
chose the Healer.
Sean
bonded her to the PC—he'd said as much himself.

“You can't have her,” I threatened, my voice a low growl.

“We will have her, Ruby. It's only a question of time,” Sean sighed, allowing his exhaustion to show.

I stood gobsmacked, mouth open, unable to form words. I felt tears pooling behind my eyes, just threatening to expose my emotions, when a tiny voice spoke from the far side of the room.

“Ruby?” Peyta called, sounding shaky and tired. “Is everything okay?”

We all turned to see Peyta hovering in the doorway, looking young and frightened. I softened my face to try and reassure her as I walked over to give her a hug. As I passed Jay, the tenderness he felt for Peyta was plain.

“Sorry, Peyta. We're all just a little high strung and discussing things that we should probably leave alone for now,” I said, flashing fiery eyes at Sean. “How's your mom?”

“No change. I'm hoping she does better tomorrow, but I'm worried, Ruby. What if she doesn't?”

“Is she sleeping?”

“She's in and out of it. She wakes up looking panicked, and I try to get her to go back to sleep. She keeps mumbling something about not letting him take me...that he can't have me. She's not making any sense," she said, her concern for her mother's mental status plain on her face. "I should probably go back up there. I don't want her to wake up alone. She'll totally freak out if I'm not there.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked.

“No, it's OK,” she sighed. “You've had a long night too. I don't know all the details yet, but when you're naked and covered with blood there’s got to be one hell of a story that accompanies it. You have plenty of time to fill me in later, though I'm starting to think I don't really want to know.”

She managed a wan smile before turning to leave.

“I'll dish once your mom is doing better,” I said as she slowly walked back out of the room.

“Yeah you will,” she yawned, giving a tiny wave over her shoulder as her sign off for the night. I knew sleep would not be in the cards for her.

“Maybe we should head out,” Cooper said, looking at me directly. “We can take Ronnie's car.”

“I will stay here,” Sean said icily.

“
I
can stay if you want,” Jay offered. “You've had a rough night too. I'll call you if anything changes.”

“Fine,” he replied, “but even the
slightest
hint of something off and you call. Don't disappoint me, Jay. And don't forget what she is slated to become. Peyta is our first concern, and her safety is paramount. If her mother must die to ensure that, then so be it.”

Jay swallowed hard before nodding once, “Understood.”

“And be aware that the Rev may not have gone far,” Sean reminded him, alluding to the fact that he hadn't accomplished his mission yet and may be back for another stab at it. I cringed at the thought.

As Sean and Jay continued their discussion, I was plagued by a choice I hoped I wouldn't have to make. Two cars. Two men. One me.

I wanted to go home to my bed and the comfort that Cooper could always bring after the most traumatic of situations, but I didn't want to muddy those waters any more than I already had that night. Death hadn't saved me from dealing with the situation, and I didn't want to make it worse before I could make it better. I knew that Sean was hurting deep below his business exterior, but I also knew he'd never ask me directly to go with him. It seemed awkward for me to ask him if he
wanted
me to, but somehow I knew it was the right thing to do. As I mulled over the potential implications of either choice, Cooper looked at me strangely as though he knew I was doing relationship calculus in my mind.

“You keep thinking that hard and you'll blow a fuse out in that head of yours,” he said jokingly. “You ready?”

“I...uh, yeah," I stuttered, hesitating momentarily. "Yeah, I'm ready to leave.”

He smiled wide and hopped off the counter, grabbing the keys to the car off a hook on the wall next to the phone.

“Then let's leave.”

Sean stood in the kitchen, expressionless, before following Cooper's lead. He walked past me, making a conscious effort not to touch me at all. I looked to Jay who only shrugged in response to my silent call for help. Feeling hopeless, I too turned and walked out of the kitchen, creating a well spaced, single-file line—Cooper in the lead and me in dead last.

Once outside, Sean walked over to the SUV and got in without a word. He fired it up and put it slowly in reverse, having to back out of the lengthy driveway. I looked to Cooper quickly, my face telling him all he needed to know, my desperation and indecision plain.

“I have to,” I said, before sprinting down the gravel path.

I crashed into the passenger side of the Jeep just as Sean was putting it in gear on the road, and yanked the door open.

“Do you need me?” I asked, breathing heavily. It was a really, really long driveway.

“
What
?” he asked, sounding confused.

“Look...I'm not very good at this, Sean, but I want to be there for you if you need me to,” I explained, feeling terribly vulnerable and slightly embarrassed. “So do you?”

He looked at me strangely, the light of the stars and the dash casting beautiful shadows along the planes of his face. He said nothing, and, after a moment or two, my pride got the best of me.

“I guess you don't,” I said, slamming the door before I made my way toward the headlights coming down the driveway.

“Ruby,” he called from behind me. “Wait. Please wait.”

Against my better judgment, I did.

“I do,” he said simply.

“Do what?”

“Need you,” he replied. “You surprised me just now with what you said. It took a minute to process. Does the offer still stand?”

“I don't like being made to feel stupid, Sean,” I whispered, anger in my tone.

“I know that, Ruby...I know
you
. I didn't mean for it to come off that way.”

Cooper honked the horn at us, his not-so-subtle way of making it known that I needed to shit or get off the pot. I'm sure he wasn't happy with the situation in general.

“OK,” I told Sean, making my way back to the Jeep.

I had a strange but distinct feeling of frustration coursing through my body, and I needed to figure out why. It seemed that Sean and I were always a frequency apart, like a radio station we just couldn't quite dial into. In the beginning, I'd always felt a step or ten behind; Sean had all the information and I had none. But somehow his friendly charm and playful ways wooed me—sucked me in—and I fell hard.

After the Sophie fiasco, things changed, and it seemed that, no matter how hard either of us tried, we just couldn't get back on track. With the doors of opportunity opening again for us, I wondered if the fates would
ever
allow for us to be on the same page at the same time.

I'd learned a lot over that previous year of life. One of those things was that there were myriad types of love. The love that burns hard and fast, then extinguishes, unable to spark again. The love that sneaks up on you slowly over time, making you wonder how you'd never seen it in the first place.

And love that's doomed from the start.

I had the sneaking suspicion that I'd experienced all three, and, regardless of how I tried to talk myself out of it, I knew it was true. I was in a pickle.

“Cooper was right," Sean said sarcastically. "You
are
going to burn a fuse out in that head of yours,”

“Cooper is surprisingly right about a lot of things,” I replied, still staring off into the distance.

“Such as?”

“Can we drop it, please?”

He said nothing in response, and the silence between us permeated once again. I felt like I was going to go insane without some sort of distraction, so I leaned over to turn on the radio. I was greeted by a sobering tune, the lyrics of which proved to be more than apropos.

They were all about love and need and the knowledge that relationships were so often better in the beginning. It was the road you traveled together that wore things down, taking something that once seemed so wonderful and welcome, and eroding it slowly—methodically—until all that was left was a fraction of what had once been there. If only it was possible to go back to that place in time.