She didn’t hesitate to break into a run, sprinting toward us. “What happened?” she demanded, falling to her knees beside James.
“He’s been stabbed. Knife wound to the left kidney.”
She focused on the knife still lodged in his body. “You kept the knife in there—good. Stay here and monitor him. I’ll be right back with a gurney.”
Without waiting for my response, she turned and ran. As soon as she’d sprinted out of sight, I lay a hand to James’s forehead, strengthening the memory loss rune I’d already laid there. Despite what he’d done to Brydie when they were in a relationship, he didn’t deserve to carry the recriminations of what he’d done now. He didn’t deserve Talorgan’s possession. He’d been a pawn—another victim that Talorgan had used for his own means. Removing all trace of tonight’s activities would give James a chance to continue his life. To move forward without questioning his sanity.
Content that the rune was fortified, I left him and melted back into the shadows.
Moments later, I eased into the driver’s seat of the black Land Cruiser and pulled up to the intersection with the hospital on my left. Turning, I glanced at the entrance and saw the same nurse with a male doctor hurrying down the street, pushing a gurney.
The light turned green. Satisfied, I shifted the Land Cruiser into gear and moved forward, turning my focus to the real issue at hand. The biggest fight was yet to come, and the descendant was out of choices.
14
Brydie
He’d left me. Alone.
He’d said I’d be safe; I didn’t feel safe. Violence had touched my door. My villa no longer felt like home, tainted by the violence that had just fallen.
I couldn’t stop trembling. Reaction had set in. Thoughts plagued me, flashbacks of what I’d seen, what had just happened. A small part of my brain understood that James had just tried to kill me. But then Gage had saved me and he’d...stabbed James!
Oh god!
I bit my lip hard, trying to force the images from my mind. I needed to do something. If I didn’t, I was going to lose it completely. Swallowing hard, I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the incessant pounding of my head; ignoring how my body ached, how bruised and shaken I felt, and all the pain and emotions that were fighting for purchase.
Push it all down. File it away. There’ll be time to reflect on this later.
I limped slowly down the hallway, righting things that had tipped over or been smashed in the struggle. An area of the carpet had buckled, and I automatically reached out to smooth it. It was then I saw it.
James’ blood.
I stared at it, breathless. The images hit me again and again, slamming without pause in my mind. His gloved hand over my mouth, dragging me away. His face as he’d stared at me with all-consuming hatred.
I couldn’t stop the avalanche that followed. The dam had broken, and emotions rolled over me like waves on the beach, obliterating the wall I’d desperately erected. A wrenching cry erupted from my mouth as my knees buckled and I crumbled to the floor. I sobbed, releasing the well of tension that had carried me through the evening’s events.
I cried until I had breath no more. Numb and cold, I didn’t know how long I sat there, staring at that stain on the carpet. Time had no consequence, and I would have sat there forever if I hadn’t felt a warmth bloom, hot and heavy below my breasts.
The pendant!
Without thinking, my fingers crept unerringly toward the stone. As my fingers curled around it, a muted vibration sent a warm tingle up my arm. It was so faint as to be insignificant, but it triggered a memory—one I couldn’t ignore—of that moment before James had attacked.
I remembered a quick flash of light when he’d grabbed me. I’d also felt a burn at my chest, and I recalled that it had happened moments before James had touched me. My breath caught. It was a question I hesitated to form in my mind, but it forced its way out regardless.
Had it been the pendant? Had it sought to warn me?
I held the stone up in front of my face, the chain’s length enabling me to see the whole cross. As if sensing my thoughts, my palms tingled, and then it came again—a faint tremor. Muted but insistent, it was the slightest vibration.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Is this real? I felt foolish as soon as I’d voiced the question. Don’t be stupid! The pendant isn’t a cognizant being!
A sharp, insistent pulse hit my palm, and I hissed, dropping the pendant. It swung back against my chest. I lifted my hand to my face, and my mouth dropped open when I saw the faintest outline of a cross in the center of my palm.
Oh my god!
Thoughts churned like thick soup through my mind, and I hesitated to accept what I was looking at—what it meant. Gage will be back soon, I repeated to myself. Reaffirming that mantra over and over, I searched for another anchor to hold me together. My gaze unerringly fell again on that innocent drop of blood.
It doesn’t belong here.
Stubbornly pushing all other thoughts out of my mind, I got to my feet and gathered my cleaning supplies from the kitchen. Ignoring the pain in my right knee, I knelt, narrowing my focus on that little stain as I scrubbed, rinsed, and dabbed until there was no trace of it ever being there before.
It was how he found me. I’d been so consumed in cleaning any trace of James’s existence from that spot that I hadn’t heard the front door open and close.
“Brydie.”
I was startled by his low murmur, but I didn’t look up.
His booted feet appeared in my periphery. I ignored him, intent on the task at hand.
Gage reached out and pulled the scrubbing brush from my hand. My gaze fixated on his long fingers, and I remembered their strength and how they had wrapped around James’s throat. I instantly felt cold. So cold.
I began to shake, but mercifully the tears didn’t start again. Vulnerable and exhausted, I looked up into his face. His blue eyes were unreadable.
“He was going to kill me, wasn’t he?” I whispered.
Gage didn’t look away, his focus absolute. “Yes.”
“Is he—” I hesitated, wondering how much I wanted to know.
“He’s alive,” Gage confirmed, his voice brusque and sharp.
My breath whooshed out in an audible rush. No matter what had happened tonight, I didn’t want James to be dead. Now that I could see past that outcome; there was one burning question I desperately needed an answer to.
“Why?” I asked him, my voice breaking. “Why did James try to kill me?”
Gage’s jaw clenched before his gaze dropped to my chest. The pendant. My fingers tingled in response, wanting to reach up and touch it, but I clenched them together, stamping on the urge.
His gaze sharpened on my face. “What is it?” he demanded.
Knowing there was no point denying it, I swallowed before murmuring, “I felt it.”
“Tell me.”
Averting my gaze, I shared hesitantly, “Just before James grabbed me, there was a flash and I...felt the pendant burn with heat.”