Of Magic And Monsters

14. Of RVs and Nightmares

Chapter Fourteen

Of RVs and Nightmares

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Twenty minutes later, with stomachs full of beef soup, Dominic and I sat on the porch. The sun rested high in the sky in midday. For fall, it was still pretty warm here. Strange, since only half a days drive north brought us into an impenetrable winter.

"Who's cabin was that?" I brought up to Dominic, who sat beside me on the swinging chair.

"Mine," he replied. "I was in a short-term alliance with a coven of witches."

I perked up at that. "Yeah? Who's the leader?"

"Dara."

I gaped at Dominic. "No way. Dara? The Dara? The witch of the north? Can you introduce me?"

He smiled. "I could." Slowly, as he studied my face, his smile fell. "After all of this is over and you get your answers, we will still be together. I will take you to her myself."

My shoulders tensed. He peered at me, but I couldn't turn to face him. "So you don't lose control," I assumed. "Of your wolf."

Dominic paused a moment. "There's more to it than that," he finally admitted. He took my hand in his, placing it on his thigh. I still wouldn't look. "You saved me from a life of misery," he whispered.

"What about now?" I argued. "Your father is dead."

He tightened his hold on my hand. "What do you want?" When I didn't answer, he tried again. "Do you want me, Cecily?"

"I don't know what I want."

"I want you," he admitted in a low growl. "More the longer I spend around you. Over the five months when my father tried to control me, you were the only thing keeping me sane. Over the past three years, you were nothing but a memory I clung to like my life depended on it, because it did. Now, you're real. Very real." His free hand brushed my cheek, pushing stands of hair behind my ear. "Are you holding back from me?"

I don't know what I'm doing. I searched my lap and shoulders, realizing Charles must have fled to give us privacy. The little shit. "I don't know what I want from anyone or anything. I won't know until I find my answers."

"I can live with that." He leaned in closer until his lips brushed my cheeks. Deep shivers ran from the base of my skull all the way down to my tailbone. "I often imagined what I would do if I could go back in time. Would I have kept you locked up so you couldn't run away? Would I have never introduced you to my father, and instead fled the country with you? I agonized over the many ways I could have kept you alive."

His lips trembled against my skin. I couldn't stop myself from placing both hands overtop his. "I'm sorry," I muttered, meaning it this time. "There's a lot of things I would have done differently if I could go back."

"But we can't," he concluded, pulling away. "We can only move forward, and I plan on doing that by your side."

I finally glanced over at him. He had a stubborn look on his face. "Like I said; I won't know where my head is at until it's cleared with the information only Bones can give me."

He nodded once in understanding. Dominic's eyes studied my face, down the length of my neck, then my chest. He reached forward, and for a second I thought he was going to cop a feel. Instead, he plucked the ruby and admired it. "I'm sure this belonged to Rory," he murmured.

"It was always mine," I defended, louder than I meant to. "Your memory must be off."

"When it concerns you, my memory is never off." Dominic examined it a moment more. I went to swat his hand away, but he grasped my hand instead. This forced me to look into his darkening brown eyes. "You said you hadn't been with Alastair. What about anyone else?"