Page 108 of Ophelia's Vampire

My gut twists painfully with the idea of leaving Ophelia, but if the coven leaders are meeting to determine how they’re going to handle Haverstad being exposed for the monster he is, and where they go from here in determining their place in our post-Acts reality…

Philippe gives me the time and place, just an hour from now, in neutral territory outside city limits. Knowing how long it’s going to take me to drive there, I’ll have to leave immediately. I hang up without a farewell and turn to face Ophelia.

“What is it?”

I relay what Philippe told me, and by the time I’m done, she’s nodding in agreement.

“Yeah. Yeah, you should go.”

“I want you to know it’s not willingly,” I tell her, trying and failing to inject a teasing note into my voice. “I’d much rather stay here and—”

“I’ll still be here,” she says softly. “When you get back. I’ll be here.”

Though it nearly tears me in half, I dress and prepare to leave. I press one last kiss to her lips before I depart, leaning into the strength of her and trusting I’ll be able to find the courage to tell her all the things I need to when I return.

35

Ophelia

Cas is gone for hours.

By the time I wake from my restless, shallow sleep, it’s a little after seven and he’s still not back.

I stretch out in his bed, gazing up at the carved ceiling and trying not to feel too disappointed I’m waking up alone. Or worried it’s been so long since he left.

Crawling out of bed, I locate my phone in the pants I left on the floor before I showered last night, and find that its battery must have run out sometime between then and now.

Plugging it in and leaving it to rest on the bedside table, I sprawl back against the pillows with all my racing thoughts to keep me company.

And it’s not just scenes from the graveyard that take center stage.

It’s also everything that happened afterwards.

The way Cas held me, touched me, looked at me. Like I was the most precious thing in the world to him, like he really couldn’t believe I would have put myself in danger to protect him.

The tenderness in his eyes, something raw and unspoken lingering just beneath the surface.

I wonder what he would have said if he’d stayed.

I wonder what he’ll say when he gets back.

Our job is done. Though, I can’t help but snort a small laugh at that. Cas and I really bumbled our way through this case, and I can’t say for certain how much of a difference we made by being involved.

Maybe we didn’t make any difference at all. Maybe all we accomplished was not fucking things up too spectacularly, and… this. The rest of it. Whatever it is.

The first thing I do once my phone has enough of a charge to flicker back to life is send Cas a text. I immediately get back a reply that he’s alright, and that discussions are taking longer than he expected.

It’s enough.

As long as he’s safe, I can be patient.

The second thing I do is swallow a lump of guilt when I see all the missed calls and messages from Cleo.

Apparently news of what happened last night has already reached Seattle. I dial her number, and she answers on the second ring.

“Lia,” she says, breathless. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I was just—”

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