He rolled, pulling me with him until my head was on his chest. His finger traced circles on my back. “Chase has maybe found one of our people. Troy, he thinks. If you can believe it, he lives in Fredericksburg.” A beautiful town that was an hour away in the hill country of central Texas. “I’m going to go with him in the morning to see Troy. He didn’t have his mind wiped. He’ll know us. We’ll see what we can do. I’ll be back by dinner. You should rest. With the kids away, you can actually take the time to sleep.”
I kissed his side. “Sounds like a plan.”
The night was warm and so was Malcolm. Morning came slowly. I was kissed awake, Malcolm’s breath on my cheek and my forehead. He’d interrupted a dream. Something about birds and fire. I wasn’t sure if it was a good dream or a bad one. It slipped away fast.
“I’ve got to go. I thought about slipping out, except I wanted to see your eyes first thing in the morning.”
I tugged his neck down and kissed him square on the lips. “Make Chase get you back for dinner. I’ll cook.”
He smirked. “I’ll get takeout. You stay in bed all day. Don’t burn the house down using the oven. Or if you must cook, let your mother help you.”
“Thanks, Malcolm. My ego is bruised. You haven’t even been with me that long, and you’re already criticizing.”
Malcolm pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. “I’ll text you before I’m coming home. Hey, babe?”
“Hmm?” He smelled so good. I wanted to roll around in it. “What’s up?”
“Last night was different, wasn’t it? I mean it’s always amazing with you, with us. Last night felt like …”
I finished for him. “A return. To us. To everything. Yes. I agree.”
His eyes were warm. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
He slipped out of my room. I heard the door open and close downstairs. I thought about coffee, but the bed was still comfy. I’d been shot the day before. That kind of event warranted a lazy day.
I rolled over sometime later because my phone buzzed. It was Victoria checking in on me. You doing okay one day past gut shot? Also, I think Chase is in love. I mean it’s too fast, obviously, but he has really fallen for Annika.
The clock read noon. I actually couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept this late. College? I set them up. And yes, I’m okay. Tired. But not in pain anymore.
See you tomorrow? We should have lunch. A lunch where nothing bad happens.
Sounds like a plan.
I rolled out of bed and let the shower beat on me for a while. My muscles loosened under the spray. Things were looking up. I’d gotten shot, and I’d lived through it. My kids were having a wonderful time in San Antonio, or I’d have heard otherwise. I turned off the water and towel dried my white hair. Even my scary-looking locks couldn’t put a dour spin on my day. I shot Levi a text letting him know I was okay and asking for an update on our babies. 90210 was on Netflix, and I sat to binge watch with popcorn.
I used to love the show.
At some point I must have dozed off. When I woke, it was dark. Really dark. I turned on the light and groped around half-asleep for my phone. It was ten o’clock at night. Malcolm should have returned hours ago.
Did you get held up? I sent him a text. For good measure, I sent Chase the same message. My stomach rumbled. I needed to put something in it besides popcorn. Maybe the knitting together of skin that shouldn’t have repaired burned a lot of calories.
My parents were nowhere to be found. A note on the fridge said they’d be back on Monday. My father was trying to spend as much time doing things with my mother as he possibly could before she couldn't anymore. I rubbed my eyes. There wasn’t much to eat in the house. Soup turned out to be my best option.
I warmed up the tomato and ate it slowly, staring at my phone like I could will it to buzz at me. When I’d finished eating and it hadn’t, I decided I didn’t care if I looked like a psycho girlfriend, and I sent Malcolm another note.
Worried. This is the deal with being my guy, you have to check in if you’re not going to be here when you say you are.
It dawned on me I’d never heard from Levi too, which was also startling and weird. What the hell was going on? I texted again. Everything fine?
This time I got an answer from Levi. It would be if you’d leave me alone to enjoy our children without you.
O-kay. I set down the phone. Had Levi fallen and hit his head? We weren’t together, and I knew he didn’t love that, but he’d saved me during the light fight. We were friends; he’d said so himself. All right, I was going to leave him alone. Maybe I was being unreasonable in expecting people to check in with me. Maybe it was super-annoying.
I climbed my stairs and sat on the bed to wait. Malcolm would be home soon. He’d apologize with a grin, and he’d have Chinese food for us to share. I’d needle him and let him make it up to me. There had to be a good reason he didn’t answer me. Maybe they were hiding. We’d been trained to do that really well. They’d turned off their phones, and they were stuck. Malcolm and Chase were amazingly resilient and smart. Together they’d be really unstoppable. I didn’t have to worry.
Seconds felt like hours. The night wasn’t going to end ever. I couldn’t text Victoria. She had a baby whom she needed to be with and a husband who wouldn’t appreciate hearing from me every second of every day just because I got a little anxious.
Television got really dull. There was nothing to watch, nothing to do. All kinds of eventualities filled my imagination. The ghosts. The demons. The shadows. Death.
When morning came, I was exactly where I’d been when I sat. And there was still no Malcolm.
By nine AM, I sat outside of his house looking for any signs of life inside. If he was being an ass and not talking to me for some reason, I’d deal. I’d even throw something at him. Anything to calm the utter terror.
His car wasn’t in the driveway. I walked toward the house like it could give me some answers. A glance through the window elicited no results. There were no signs of life in the house. I made my way around back. There was nothing in the backyard either. The ground was a little bit dug up and recovered.
The phoenix must be below my feet. We had to keep it underground and away from the shadows. If they couldn’t see it, they couldn’t take it.
I ran my hands over the dirt.
My stomach tingled, the new skin not liking the squatting. I walked slowly toward my car. I had one more place I could try before I panicked and phoned the hospitals.
I’d been to Block’s house exactly once. He and I had been close when we’d lived in the Other space. He was quiet and didn’t tend to deal in drama. We’d spent a lot of time together reading the great works of literature. Or, at least what the Others deemed them to be. In this world, he and Malcolm were business partners.
If Malcolm couldn’t or wouldn’t get in touch with me, he would with Block. Of that I was certain. I rang the doorbell. It took a minute, but Block arrived wearing nothing but his pajama pants. He stared at me, and I looked away. I’d never been really comfortable with seeing people half-dressed. Keith, Block’s real name, wasn’t what I’d have called a traditionally handsome man. He had blond hair, almost as white as my own; his eyes were the lightest blue possible before they wouldn’t be a color at all. He had pale skin and high cheekbones. He was also covered in burn scars. I didn’t know why. If anyone knew, no one talked about it, and I didn’t have the guts to ask.
“Hi. Sorry to just drop by.”
“The burns are pretty bad to look at. I’ll go get a shirt.”
I grabbed his arm. “I’m not looking at you because I’m horribly embarrassed to see my friends half-naked. Not because of the burns. So, yes, put on your shirt. I’m a prude. But not because you think I care about the scars.”
He snickered in the back of his throat. “Okay. I’ll get on a shirt.”
I walked into his foyer. The last time I’d been here, I’d been half out of it having
first nearly died carrying around light all day and then exorcising a demon from Victoria. Now that I was only terrified and not undone by the paranormal world, I could see how his home was decorated in a very cozy way. For a single man, he’d spent time placing items on shelves that obviously had meaning to him.
“To what do I owe the early visit?”
I took a deep breath. “I guess I could have texted. It seemed like the kind of thing I should come over to talk about.”
“Which is what?” He sipped from a grey cup. “Want something to drink? Eat? This is a protein shake.”
“No, the very idea of food makes me want to throw up.” I took his arm. “Have you heard from Malcolm?”
He raised his eyebrows, his forehead wrinkling when he did. “No. Last I heard he was going with Chase to make first contact with Troy. Then back here to you. Did something happen?”
My last chance at getting an answer from someone who knew something blew away with the wind. I wanted to collapse to the ground even as I kept my back straight. If something was wrong again, I had to be strong, not pathetic.
“He never came back. I can’t get him or Chase on the phone. I thought maybe he was angry with me. I’d done something to piss him off. You’d know for sure.”
He hugged me, which shocked me and steadied me at the same time. “There’s nothing you could do that would ever make him stop talking to you. He’d scream and yell at you. When he first came to America, we ran into each other. No coincidences when it comes to us, right?” I laughed. Yes, he was right.
I pulled back, taking a steadying breath and nodding. “That must have been startling.”
“Actually, it was an incredible relief. I had all my memories. I knew what we were supposed to be doing but for eight years, nothing. No one. You were all gone, like you’d never existed. Then Malcolm was there. We stared at each other across this awful restaurant, and … I finally felt like I could breathe again.”
I could almost picture it as he spoke. “What did you do?”
“He walked up to me, sat down across the table, and asked me what the hell had happened to me.” He held up his hand. “Don’t worry, Kendall. Most people are too polite to ask about the burns. Malcolm doesn’t have that gene. My parents were so angry at me for disappearing and reappearing they systematically burned me every night to punish me until I was eighteen and I ran away.”
I gasped, utter horror rending me speechless. I touched the side of his face, and he nodded, sadly. “Malcolm offered to take care of them for me. He’s good like that. I declined, but the offer was nice. Anyway, he’d spent the whole time in Egypt thinking you were here wondering where he was. He couldn’t find you. I heard about you nearly every day after, even when we knew where you were and you didn’t know us. He’s not going silent by choice, I can guarantee.”
Block pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey man, it’s me. I’m with Kendall. Whatever’s happened, we’re going to fix it.”
I believed him.
THE END
Don’t miss the next book in the series Fragility Unearthed, already published.
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And please turn the page for a list of all of Rebecca’s Books
Other books by Rebecca Royce…
Wings of Artemis
Kidnapped By Her Husbands
Rescued by Their Wife
Crashing Into Destiny
Meeting Them
Reclaiming Their Love
Loving Them
Ship Called Malice
Saving Them
Dark Demise
Light Unfolding (coming soon)
Last Hope
Tradition Be Damned
Past Be Damned
Destiny Be Damned
Compassion Be Damned
Dragon Wars
Forever
Eternal
Always
Evermore
Endless
Wards and Wands
Hexed and Vexed
Curse Reversed
Tragic Magic (Coming Soon)
Safe Haven
Everywhere and Nowhere
Dimension X (coming soon)
More coming soon….
Soul Bound
Prisoner of the Dragons
More coming soon….
Shadow Promised
Strange Days
Weird Nights
Bizarre Years
More coming soon…
The Warrior
Initiation
Driven
Subversive
Redemption
Justice
Warrior World (spin off of The Warrior)
Deacon
Micah
Jason (coming soon)
The Westervelt Wolves
Her Wolf
Summer’s Wolf
Wolf Reborn
Wolf’s Valentine
Wolf’s Magic
Alpha Wolf
Angel’s Wolf
Darkest Wolf
Lone Wolf
Fallen Alpha
Alpha Rising
Alpha’s Strength
Alpha’s Sacrifice
Alpha’s Truth
Alpha Enticing
Hidden Alpha (coming soon)
The Capes
Seductive Powers
Adrenaline Rush
Last Ascension
The Conditioned
Eye Contact
Embraced
Unlawful (coming soon…)
The Outsiders
Love Beyond Time
Love Beyond Sanity
Love Beyond Loyalty
Love Beyond Sight
Love Beyond Expectations
Love Beyond Oceans
Love Beyond Flames
Love Beyond Lies (coming soon)
Cascade
Haunted Redemption
Phoenix Everlasting
Fragility Unearthed
Persuasion Enraptured
Reverse Harem Story
Unconventional
Unexpected
Undeniable (Coming Soon)
Stand Alone Titles
Planet Bear
Under The Lights
No Quitting Allowed
Mr. Wrong
Bite Marks
Bitten Surrender
The Vampire and The Virgin
Demon Within
Crimson Lust
About the Author
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.
In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
I'd love to hear from you!
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Rebecca Royce
Rebecca Royce, Phoenix Everlasting
(Series: The Cascade # 2)
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