Page 84 of Bad Moon Rising
Roman blinked, his mind hazy. Someone shook him.
Flynn said, “Come on, mate. We have to get off the train.”
“Were you in on this…her plan?” His words sounded slurred to him.
“No. Mom called me to say you needed help getting off the train. What’d Nova do?”
“She drugged me. I need to get back to her.”
“There’s no time. Our meeting with the monarch is in twenty minutes.”
Him being in London and accepting her death was murder. Pure and simple.
He gasped as pain lacerated his chest but accepted it. He deserved it. Shit, his nose was bleeding again. He wiped it with his sleeve.
“We’ll have to hope we have time to clean you up.”
A blur of time later, they stood in Gerard’s office. Gerard asked, “Where is she? Did you take care of her already?”
The king fidgeted behind him and scrolled through screens on his cell phone as if none of this mattered to him. Nova’s life was nothing to him but an annoyance.
Fury poured through him. He slammed his fist down on the desk. “I’m not doing this.”
Flynn caught his arm on the second descent. “Chill. You’re not doing anything.”
“I’m done with all of it,” he roared. “Fucking hate it all. The orders, the bullshit, the intolerance…” He swiped a hand across Gerard’s desk sending papers and files flying. “I’m done being cursed to work for narcissistic assholes.”
Flynn caught his hand on its next descent. He pushed him backward until they were against the wall. In Gaelic he said, “Stop it.”
He whispered, “I can’t watch whatever’s coming. It’s murder.”
So low that Gerard couldn’t overhead Flynn said, “What’s murder? I was told she drugged you and put you on the train. Nova ran. She’s gone. The worst is we might be forced to hunt her down.” His phone dinged. “What’s this? From Cooper?”
“What the hell is going on?” Gerard asked.
Flynn cleared his throat. “She escaped us, Gerard. We weren’t sure where she went, but I just got this text from someone in the Anti-Werewolf League who knows about us. They—”
Flynn released Roman to stare at his phone. His forehead furrowed. He plugged his phone into Gerard’s computer so it could transmit the live image on the screen.
Roman held his breath as an image came up on the screen.
Gerard and the king breathed behind him, emitting the odors of excitement and sweat. They both stared at the fifty-inch screen. If both humans weren’t protected by the blood curse, he’d annihilate them without guilt. For forcing him to watch the love of his life die.
The image of Nova, her arms tied behind her in an office chair, came into view. The binding was a joke for one of their kind.
Her head moved as if tracking Cooper in a way that suggested heavy sedation. Her voice came out slurred. “If he hadn’t drugged me, I’d kill you.”
Roman hid the tremors that started in his hands and spread up his arms. Flynn would notice.
“Tell me why this isn’t one of you doing this instead of whoever that guy might be?” the king asked.
“She escaped us before we got called in,” Flynn said again, gaze transfixed on the screen. He asked Roman in Gaelic, “What’s going on? That’s Cooper and another person from the A.W.L.”
“Why didn’t you guys kill her on sight?” Gerard asked.
Roman forced a breath. His heart pounding shredded his ribs. He felt broken, already grieving for Nova. Gerard and the monarch could not learn about the depths of his feelings for her. “I followed your orders. She drugged me and got away.”
“You failed.” The king waved at the screen. “She’s alive.”
