Page 57 of A Deeper Blue
Episode 25
All the Ways
Azure
Azure walked slowly out to the barn where Rafe had taken apart his motorcycle and had laid out various engine bits on a horse blanket on the ground next to it. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him. He had just gotten his family back. How could she ask him to leave again? Why hadn’t they talked about this last night?
Her common sense drew the line at that one. There was useful guilt, and then there was just self-flagellation. They hadn’t talked about it because they’d talked about other things and because they had been busy having sex. Wonderful, beautiful, soul-affirming sex that she never wanted to forget or give up. Rafe made her feel safe and loved, and grounded like she could take on the world because she had someone beside her.
To be fair, she could have talked to him earlier in the day, but her conversation with Scarlet had left her fatigued, and she’d napped. And now she was here, and she was going to have to face the situation. Azure risked an eye-blink of the second sight. It gave her nothing. Damn it. It was as though her gift had taken a restroom break and left aback in 5 minutessign. She was on her own.
“Well, Lady Blue, what’s the word?” he asked when she was still a few feet away. “Did everyone figure out what was good for them and fall in line?” He was lying by his motorcycle; he had a headlamp on, staring up into the internal bits.
“Don’t say it like that,” said Azure. “This was not my plan. They aren’t… falling in line. But yes, they have reached a consensus. Even the mermaids and selkies.”
“Oh, OK,” he said, sarcasm laying heavy on his tone.
Azure made a hiss of frustration, and he sat up and flashed her a grin that said she could phrase it however she liked, but he hadn’t changed his mind about what happened.
“You’re the one who said we shouldn’t say anything about shee—”
“Ahhhhh,” he said, shaking a finger at her. “We don’t use certain herbivore referencing words here.”
“You said it,” Azure began, coming closer.
“When I was very far away, where no one was going to hear me.”
He stripped off the headlamp and stood up. Azure looked up at him, her heart in her mouth. His eyes were so green, and she loved the way his nose was just a little crooked.
“Baby Blue,” he said, crooking a finger under her chin and giving her a tiny kiss. “You look like you have something to say.”
“They want me to go to Texas,” she said, deciding to get it out there. “To talk to Supernaturals there.”
“Uh-huh,” he said. “That’s kind of what I thought they’d say. The Lobo packs are big there. It would be good to hook in with them.”
Azure stared at him, uncertain about what he was saying. He didn’t seem upset.
“There’s a few covens down there too. It makes sense,” she agreed, so that she would have something to say. Was this rejection? He didn’t seem like he was pulling back, but a simple agreement wasn’t how she’d thought this conversation was going to go.
“Mmm,” he said, looking away from her and scanning the horizon line, in what she was coming to recognize as a wolf habit. “You’re worried about the bike, aren’t you?”
“I—,” Azure cut off and paused. “What?”
“Don’t be. I know it looks like a hot mess right now, but I’ll have her back up and running in no time. Three days tops. You’ll need that time anyway to get all your stops and contacts worked out, right?”
“I, well, yeah. A couple of weeks, I think. I was hoping to head back to Milo’s for a day or two before heading south.”
“Of course,” said Rafe before kissing her again. “Need to keep the seedlings safe. The bigger worry,” he said, turning to look at his bike with a frown, “is where I’m going to put your humongous pile of shit.”
“It is one backpack!” yelped Azure, outraged. She had never in her life been considered an over-packer.
His eyes slid slyly sideways, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Jerk!” she exclaimed and whacked at his arm as he chuckled fiendishly. His arm snaked out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly to him.
“Yes,” he agreed. “But I’m your jerk, and I’ll take you wherever you need to go.”
He looked down at her, and Azure found her heart beating rapidly.
