Avenge Read Free

I sat up a
little in my seat hearing her serious tone. “First let me start off
by reminding you that we all love you, and we’re here for
you.”
    “ I know that.” I smiled
back up to her. “Thank you.”
    “ Good. So here’s the hard
part: we’ve all lost our friends and family. Death is a part of
life. You need to move past this.”
    I shook my head and fought back fresh
tears. “It’s not the same. Your loved ones lived full, long lives.”
Cassie started to interject, but I cut her off. “But more
importantly, you weren’t responsible for their soul being kidnapped
by monsters.”
    “ None of that was your
fault. You didn’t cause her cancer. You fought your damnedest to
keep her safe. You didn’t fail and no one blames you. You’ve had a
crappy year—“
    I snorted a half laugh/half scoff.
“Enough to put most people in therapy for life. Let’s see,” I
ticked off fingers as I counted, “I died in a car accident, became
a Patronus, was almost killed and raped by a vampire, was beaten
into shape mercilessly by a British royal and her sidekick, my baby
sister died, her soul was stolen by vampires, and I found out that
I was half of the original soul created by God. Yeah, I need years
of therapy and a whole lot of sleep before my world starts making
sense again.”
    “ You’ve certainly had it
rougher than most, but pull on your big girl panties and stop
wallowing. You have a lot of wonderful things going on in your life
too, don’t forget. You’re allowed to have a bad day, but how does
it help to live every day under a raincloud?”
    Cassie gave me a giant hug before
standing up and heading back toward Adam, who was busy adding sugar
to his coffee. I leaned back into the plush, soft leather of the
oversized couch, closing my eyes for a moment while I thought about
what she said.
    When my eyes fluttered open, confusion
swept across me. This was not where I was when I closed my eyes.
How did I get into my bed? I pressed a button on my bracelet. Six
hours passed since we arrived back from our last mission and it was
the middle of the night. Where was everyone? And how in the world
did I get here?
    Tossing the covers aside, I crept down
the hall and into the living room. The small TV was on, muted, and
Max was asleep on the couch. The poor thing must have carried me
back after I fell asleep, and now he was all tuckered out. I
tiptoed back into the hall closet to fetch him a blanket. As much
as I wanted him next to me as I slept tonight, I didn’t have the
heart to wake him. I bent down to grab a blanket when something
suddenly grabbed me.
    I whirled around and didn’t hesitate
to attack, throwing my elbow into the nose of my assailant,
followed by a hard step down on his foot.
    “ Son of a—ow,
Luce!”
    I flipped on the light switch, taking
a closer look at my assailant. I was horrified. It wasn’t a vampire
or stranger attacking me. It was Max. And I had broken my
boyfriend’s nose.
    “ Oh, babe, I’m so sorry! I
didn’t know who was grabbing me. I acted on instinct.”
    Max pinched the bridge of his nose to
stop the flow of blood while I ran to get some ice from the
freezer. “We’re in our apartment alone, who else would it
be?”
    “ I know, I’m so sorry. What
can I do to make it better?” I led him to the couch and sat on the
arm next to him, gently placing the baggie of ice on his already
healing nose. Blood dripped in a single steak off his chin and fell
onto the sleeve of his soft, cashmere Henley shirt. I reached
behind me to grab some tissues to wipe it away before more damage
was done.
    “ It’ll heal in a moment.
Don’t worry about it.” Max’s nasally voice made me stifle a giggle.
Soon the bleeding stopped and in no time the swelling began to go
down.
    I ran my hand down his cheek, my
fingers delighting in the scratchy surface from his five o’clock
shadow. I cupped his face in my hands and laid a gentle kiss on his
soft lips.
    “ There, all better,”