Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (13 page)

“So what? You’re the queen, make it like it
was before.” Her mom had reached for her, and her dad had told her
to hush. She’d snarled at him and told him to shut up, that he was
useless to her. She was walking toward the queen to do what she
couldn’t remember now, but she wanted her to understand that she
wasn’t going to live in a world with humans, especially without
magic.

One of the Royal Guard had stepped forward
and blocked her. Megan could look back on it now and realize that
confronting the queen on her own grounds had been stupid. Very much
so. She should have waited until she was alone with her and tried
to reason with her then. But the guard had stopped Megan from doing
what she’d wanted and she’d lost control of her magic.

It was over in seconds. And in those few
seconds, her father had been killed and her mother wounded. While
Megan was being dragged away in chains, Lizzy had watched her
humiliation. Then three days later, she and her mother and a nurse
had been moved to the human world.

It had taken her mom a month to heal from
the sword that had cut into her belly. She’d been cut badly while
she’d been trying to save Megan’s dad. But her mom had never healed
from losing her mate. It was as if she’d been a ghost only moving
through the motions of living and never speaking to her. Megan’s
mother never uttered a word to her from the day Megan’s dad died
until she joined him. On the day that Megan had turned nineteen and
moved out, her mother went to her bed and never rose again. She’d
died as quietly as she’d lived. And now this was going on.

~~~

Megan drove across town to where she knew
the trash was picked up on Thursdays. She had to wait nearly ten
minutes on one of the workers to get finished smoking before she
could dump the body. But by then it was nearly dinner time and she
was starving. Going through a drive-thru, she got a burger and
fries and headed back. It was black as pitch in the alley, so she
ate her quick dinner and then got out to get it over with.

The body was gone. Megan even drove out of
the alley into the light to make sure, but the shower curtain and
the body were gone. Panicky, she even looked under the truck to see
if she was there and then in the dumpster. She was fucking
gone.

Megan retraced her steps and realized that
the only time she hadn’t been with the truck and body was when
she’d gone in to change. She thought about going door to door and
asking her neighbors if they’d seen her, but she couldn’t figure
out how to ask. “Hey, I had a body in the back of my truck, did you
take it?” seemed kind of stupid, and calling the cops because
someone had stolen from her seemed equally stupid. She went to the
basement and looked around, making sure that she’d not left the
body there. She found nothing.

“Think, think, think. It has to be
somewhere. Someone must have taken it and now they have…” She
smiled as she thought of where the body might be. “Now they have to
deal with her.”

Megan went to her apartment and splurged on
a bottle of wine and some ice cream. After she’d drank about half,
she’d gone to bed feeling pretty good about herself. In the
morning, she decided she was going to have a sale in celebration.
And by evening, she should have Logan. Maybe she would give him
back to Lizzy all beat to hell as a nice wedding gift.

~~~

Mel stood when Logan and Lizzy came toward
her. She’d sent her guard for them the moment her man had returned
to the castle. He’d called her, then the doctor, but it was too
late to save her. Lula Burris was going to die.

“I can’t use my magic on her because of the
extensive damage done to her brain. Someone has…she’s been hurt too
badly for me to save even if I could.”

Lizzy nodded, and Logan sat down.

“I didn’t know we’d find her there, I swear
it. I only used the mirror to see her and keep tabs on her. That’s
all, I swear it.”

“Mel, sit down, please. You said she was
dying. May I see her?” Logan asked.

Mel nodded and one of her men took him to
the infirmary. She looked at Lizzy. “I’m so sorry I didn’t step in
sooner. I didn’t know.” Lizzy stood and went to sit beside her. She
held her as she sobbed. That poor little boy had lost his mother
because she’d been too late. When she was able to stop crying, she
looked up at Lizzy.

“You said you used the mirror. I don’t
understand.”

She nodded at the younger woman and
smiled.

“Is it a magical mirror like the witch from
those movies use?”

“No, it was a bottle, a green bottle.
Remember how they worked? You would put it out where the one you
were watching would touch it. Once they did, the bottle would act
as a sort of GPS for the one who had cast it. I thought if she got
close to any of you, I’d be able to warn you. But she didn’t leave
and I nearly stopped it. But then the bottle broke and her blood
mixed with the magic and I was able to see her intent. And the
woman.”

“Lula Burris. What was she doing to
her?”

Mel got up to pace the room, not really
wanting to answer her.

“Mel?”

“She was dead then. Or as close as she could
be. Nothing in the human world would have saved her and I thought
by bringing her here she’d have a chance. For Mathew. But her mind
had been scrambled. Megan had raped her mind harshly and made
whatever magic I could have saved her body with null with her brain
dead in so many places.”

Logan came back and sat down. He looked like
he didn’t know what to do, and before she could apologize, he
thanked her. She looked at Lizzy before looking back at him. “I
don’t understand. Or you don’t. I could have saved her, but I
didn’t. Mathew is never going to forgive me for th—”

“Mathew will never know how she died or by
who,” he told her. “He’ll know that you tried to save her and that
you’d been watching over her, but I won’t lie to him about what you
think you didn’t do.”

He leaned forward and started to take her
hands and stopped. Instead, she took his. She reached for Shamus
and asked him to join them and to forgive Logan for what he was
doing.

As he walked in the door, he leaned down and
hugged Lizzy, a fair trade to touching her, she supposed he
thought, then he sat with her on the couch and nodded to them both.
“I’m sorry for your loss. I know that you two weren’t on the best
of terms, but losing someone hurts. And as many times as I’ve been
to battle, it never gets any better.” Logan nodded. “Mellie tell
you what happened?”

“Yes, and I was just telling her that she
did everything she could. Mathew will be grateful to know that she
wasn’t alone when she died, and that…” Logan stood up and then
stopped. “I’d like to bring him here to see her, so he can say
goodbye, but not…is there a way to make her less…abused?”

“Yes. We can do that.” Mel nodded to a guard
and had them go back for Mathew. “You’ll need to tell me what to do
before he gets here. I’ve asked Sara and Aaron to come with him.
You’ve told him, told Mathew?”

“Yes. He’s waiting for me to make sure it
was her. He didn’t say much, but I think he knows it’s bad.” Mel
stood to go with Logan and let him continue while she made the
woman look like he’d asked. “I always knew that she’d end up in the
wrong hands. Hers mostly, but I knew that she’d pass early. She was
wild and dangerous the entire time I knew her. Had it not been for
her getting pregnant with Mathew, I don’t think I would have stayed
with her as long as I did.”

Mathew was escorted into the room by Lizzy.
Aaron and Sara were right behind him. He looked so pale and
terrified that Mel found she wanted to run and hide. When her
grandmother and mom came in the room as well, she was so grateful
that she nearly sobbed. Her grandmother took his other hand and
walked to the bed with him.

No one said anything for several minutes.
Mel wasn’t sure if they were waiting on Mathew or his dad, but her
grandmother broke the silence by asking Mathew what he wanted to do
with her when she passed completely over.

“I don’t know. Bury her, I guess.” He looked
at her then back at her grandmother. “Isn’t that what you do
here?”

“No. We take them out and find a special
place for them in the glen. Do you know what a glen is?” He nodded.
“Smart boy. Well, we take them to the glen and find a nice spot
we’d like to sit in when we come to visit them. The fairies help us
out by planting a ring of flowers around the area, and once she’s
buried there, we are presented with the final flower. It will never
die, and anytime you want to visit her, you just put it in the
ground and an image of them appears. Not like she looks now, but
one from your own memories.”

“That would be nice.”

Mel looked at her grandmother and nodded.
She could do that for him.

“Mathew, Mel will take you out tomorrow and
we’ll look around. Then when you’re ready, we can have the fairies
start. It can be there for as long as you need it, and they’ll care
for it for you.” Mel felt a hand brush against her and she looked
down. It was Logan’s.

“Thank you for this.”

She nodded.

“You’re an amazing woman, and I’ll never
forget what you’ve done here today.”

Mel nodded and then mouthed her thanks to
her grandmother. She waved her off as she continued speaking to
Mathew. When he seemed to grow restless, Lizzy took him in the
other room and sat with him. Mel stayed with Lula.

“Do you know who did this to her?”

Mel looked at Aaron when he’d asked.

“I’d very much like to help you bring her to
justice if you’re involved.”

“I am. It’s Megan. She had her held in a
basement where my guard found her. She was taking her to be…” She
looked at Logan who told her to continue. “She was taking her to a
dumpster a few miles from where she has the shop I was telling you
about. I was able to get some information from Lula. She felt
horrible, but she’d told Megan of your fear of dark closed spaces.
That was on her mind when she died in your world.”

“When will you be bringing her in?”

Mel looked away from Aaron.

“You can’t, can you? You have to follow some
rules of engagement or something equally stupid.”

“You know that I have to follow the rules
here as much as you do in your own world. It fucking sucks, but
that’s the only way I can make this work. She killed a human, so in
my eyes, my hands are tied. When she does something to someone that
belongs to me, then I can step in.” She wanted to stomp her foot in
frustration. “What would you have me do, Aaron? Kill every human
that murders one of their own? I can’t do that anymore than you
can.”

Aaron took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. The guards had entered the room with swords drawn the
moment she’d raised her voice. But they knew better than to touch
Aaron. He was powerful, but he was also her family. Even when he
was mad, she knew he’d never harm her, but they didn’t trust that.
They would hurt him for her, but she knew as well as most of them
that many of them would be hurt badly in the process.

“I’m going to have a talk with her
then.”

She shook her head.

“You can’t talk to her, but I can.”

“No, don’t yet. If she knows that we are
aware of her, she’ll move on and we may never find her again. If
she thinks that she’s gotten away, she’ll get cocky again and do
something stupid. We both know that Megan isn’t incredibly
smart.”

Aaron agreed, but he wasn’t happy.

When Mathew came back, his eyes were red and
swollen, as were Lizzy’s. Mel knew that they’d talked, and she knew
that Lizzy would be there for the little boy. At just after sunrise
the next morning, Lula Barrett Burris passed away, never waking to
see those around her. Mathew held her hand as she took her last
breaths, and when she did, he went to his dad and new mom and let
them hold him as he cried.

Logan moved along the offices of his
building without really seeing anything. He wasn’t sad because Lula
was gone, but he was in shock. He thought that Mathew was taking it
much better than he was and smiled when he thought of why. Aaron
and his family had been there with him the entire way. And Lizzy
had been as protective as a bear when it came to him. He was
sitting behind his desk when his phone rang.

“Mr. Burris, you will be here in the morning
for the sale of the buildings downtown, will you not? There has
been some…well, the city had an unexpected expense and if you back
out now, we could be in trouble, major trouble.”

Logan rubbed his forehead as the mayor
spoke.

“The fire station just collapsed. Trucks and
all were inside. No fire fighters, mind you, but the equipment was
a loss. I just don’t know what we’ll do now. Not at all.”

Logan had told them that the building was in
bad shape, and at one point had offered to lend them the money to
get it updated. But the city had very little money and less in the
way of taxable income. He was reaching for a file when Aaron
knocked on his door.

“I’ll be there, Mr. Mayor. I have an
appointment in the early morning I can’t miss, but I’ll be there at
eleven as we’d discussed.” The mayor thanked him several times and
finally, Logan had to hang up on him. “The fire house collapsed
last night and now the city doesn’t have any equipment.”

“I know. I received a call earlier this
morning asking if our department could help them out for a while.
That’s why I’m here. I wanted to talk to you about a few
things.”

Logan nodded and leaned back in his chair as
Aaron got comfortable.

“What are your plans after this mess is
over?”

“I plan to move into our new home and make
love to my wife every chance I get. Why?” Aaron growled and Logan
grinned. “If you didn’t want me to tell you then you shouldn’t have
asked.”