Page 84 of Demon Loved
“Yes, you fainted,” he said as he moved farther into the room. “I thought it best to bring you here so you could rest.”
She raised a hand to her temple and rubbed it. “My head hurts.”
“Not so surprising, considering what you just endured.” He lifted his cup of tea, adding, “Would you like this? It’s oolong, and I haven’t drunk any yet.”
“I don’t want to deprive you of your tea — ” she began, and he smiled.
“I only made it because I needed something to do,” he told her. “I would much prefer it if you would have some.”
“Tea usually does help my headaches,” she said.
He came over to the bed and handed her the mug he’d been holding. She wrapped her fingers around it, as if she needed as much of its warmth as possible.
Perhaps she would be even warmer if he took her in his arms, but he knew he shouldn’t make that sort of advance, not when she needed time to recover from her faint…and the ordeal that had preceded it.
“Thank you.”
She lifted the mug to her lips and took a small sip, followed by another. A faint smile touched the corners of her mouth and she said, “Yes, I think that’s helping.” A few more swallows, and she added, “What happened?”
“You banished the Collector to a void in creation,” he replied, and now she grinned.
“I remember that part. But then it all got kind of hazy.”
“You summoned all the power you could to make sure he was gone,” Belshegar said. “It was too much for you, though, and you lost consciousness. I brought you back here so you could rest.”
“Where’s everyone else?” she asked, and her gaze moved past him to the open door and into the living room, as if she halfway expected to see the rest of the McAllister protectors assembled on the couch.
“I can’t say for sure,” he said. “However, I assume they probably went to Angela and Connor’s home to discuss what happened.”
Bree nodded and sipped some more tea. “I suppose I can see why they’d want to have a post-mortem.” A long pause, and then she added, “So…he’s really gone?”
A question Belshegar had known she would ask. While he didn’t have a concrete answer at this point, he thought he could guess at the truth of the situation…and knew it was probably not anything she would wish to hear.
But he wouldn’t lie to her. He had done enough of that already…under duress, true, but still…and yet she loved him anyway.
“Gone for now,” he said, trying to sound calm and matter-of-fact. “It’s difficult to say whether the rift you created is permanent. Nature abhors a vacuum, as they say, and it’s possible the void will collapse eventually and the Collector will be freed. Also, even though he is trapped, that doesn’t mean he has been stripped of all his powers. It’s possible that he might determine some way to summon one of his artifacts to him, something that would allow him to escape.”
Brianna shot him an ironic look. “If you’re trying to cheer me up, Belshegar, you’re not doing a very good job of it.”
He allowed himself a very small smile. “Would you have preferred that I lied to you?”
At once, she shook her head. “Of course not. It’s just….” The words trailed off, and she put on a rueful smile to match his.
“I understand,” he said. “It would have been better if this had all been wrapped up in a neat bow, as Elena might have put it. But this past week has taught me that reality — in this world, at any rate — is much messier than that.”
“You can say that again.” Brianna lifted the cup of tea to her lips and drank once more. At any other time, he might have worried about her consuming so much caffeine when she should be sleeping…when he’d made the tea for himself, he’d had no need to worry about how it would affect him…but he hoped she would be so wearied from her earlier exertions that an extra dose of stimulant wouldn’t be enough to prevent her from getting the rest she needed.
Then she sent him a curious glance, as if truly taking his measure for the first time.
“You still look human.”
“Yes,” he replied quietly.
She set the mug of tea down on a coaster that appeared to have taken up permanent residence on her nightstand, probably so she could enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in bed, as she was doing now. “Does that mean the Collector’s magic is still affecting you?”
Since he’d had some time to mull the conundrum while she was resting, Belshegar hoped he might have a sufficient answer to that question. “Not precisely.”
Her brows lifted, but he guessed she was willing to wait for him to provide an answer, since she didn’t say anything.
