Page 18 (2/2)

But then Bristol had felt justified in beating Nick, and that was the inable Whenever soht they had a justified cause for taking action against soinable cruelty Bristol had thought Nick had lied about hi him the truth, he’d beaten him senseless for no other reason than he felt it hat Nick deserved

Sickened by it, she released Nick and tried to focus on his getting better

It wasn’t until they’d reached the hospital, and the ad her questions about him while he hisked off to a rooo that she remembered to call everyone else and let them knohat had happened Caleb appeared next to her in the shadowy alcove of the waiting room before she could speak ht?" His sincere concern surprised her The way Caleb acted and spoke to Nick, she’d assumed he could barely tolerate him But that wasn’t uage

Caleb was genuinely concerned

Wow…

Kody slid her phone into her purse "We know he can’t die fro, but the human who attacked him made a mess of him He looks terrible"

Caleb narrowed those beautiful dark brown eyes suspiciously Because she knew him for what he really was, it was easy for her to see past his huh protector façade slip and she saw the vulnerable heart beneath his demon’s aura, he was every bit as handsome as Nick

"Are you sure it was a human who attacked hi to walk away froht Had it been one of us, I’m sure Nick would have torn into him"

Caleb made a sound of supre this latest bout of stupidity, but…"

"I know At thisof his mother, Cherise finally arrived She paused in the double doorway to scan for a familiar face As soon as she saw the two of them in the back corner, she rushed toward them Blonde, skinny, and petite, she was absolutely beautiful even with tears strea down her cheeks "Where did you find my baby, Kody?"

"In an alley off Royal Not far from Liza’s"

Menyara arrived just in time to hear her response No taller than Cherise, and every bit as skinny, she had her dark sisterlocks tied back in a red scarf and was dressed in a red blouse and jeans "Ohabout the depth and cadence of her voice that always re even harder, Cherise turned toward Menyara, "Who would do such a thing to my Boo? Why Mennie, why? It doesn’t ood boy, and I was sharp with hi to work and then coain Just tell ht"

"I hope so, Cher I do"

Kody started to explain what had happened during the fight, then thought better of it Since she hadn’t been there for the beating, she couldn’t very well tell any human how she knew so many details about it since she hadn’t arrived until about an hour after it’d taken place

So she settled for the most obvious explanation to soothe his s buckled Calebthe floor He swung her up in his arms, then carried her to an empty chair so that he could set her down for Menyara’s care

Menyara sat beside her and took her hand "It’ll be all right,to take hiht, Mennie," she sobbed "Nick’s all I have in this world If I ever lost hiraves I can’t live withoutsobs that brought tears to Kody’s eyes

Trying to catch her breath before she gave into her own fears where Nick was concerned, Kody looked up to see a shadow of fierce pain inside Caleb’s eyes So about Cherise’s reaction haunted the demon

But what? If Caleb had ever possessed a ht have been married in the past? Had a family?

Deamous than humans professed to be

Caleb’s daeva species was one of the ones most notorious for their loyalty to fa more about him than he knows about me For the first time, her blinders were torn off and she realized that even though the three of theether … that as much as they interacted with each other- her, Nick and Caleb- were really nothing ers …

How sad for us that this is e’re relegated to

But then how many people lived like that? How ers in their own home? Or that no one in their family really knew or understood the satellites that occasionally collide with each other whenever our paths overlap People for so isolated But in the end, the only constant in any life was its own soul And even that was transitory

Souls could be, and were far too often, bought and sold like used shoes in a consignment shop

And yet when two of those souls slale unit so strong that nothing and no one could tear it apart Those unions were rare and she’d been around long enough to know that for a fact

But she’d also seen those unbreakable bonds Like the one Cherise shared with her son There was no force in existence that could shatter their love and break it apart

It was a love bond Nekoda had only felt with her brothers and one other person

Don’t go there

The pain of their loss was still too great for her to bear And her nerves were already shot from what had happened to Nick While their love wasn’t that strong yet, she could feel it growing every day and doubling with every new discovery she made where Nick was concerned

He was so much more than what he knew For the first time in centuries, she had hope

And she owed that to a creature she should hate with every fiber of her being

Life was so strange Seldom did it make sense As her brother would say, ‘life isn’t a puzzle to be solved It’s an adventure to be savored Let every challenge be a new et in your way and stop you Yeah, it’ll be hard, but once you reach the summit of it, you’ll be able to see the world for what it really is And at the top, it never seems to have been as difficult a feat to climb there as you first made it out to be Most of all, you’ll know that you beat that mountain, and that you rule it It does not rule you’<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>