Brave (Healer) Read Free

anymore.
                  Standing beside him, I feel like a tiny China doll. He is mammoth and every inch of him is like an obnoxiously over-the-top parade of his masculinity. I thought Jonathan was tall and I thought Maurice was brawny but Oliver took these attributes to new heights.
                  ‘I am not leaving with you!’ I repeat but I find myself folding my t-shirts neatly into the bag.
                  Then my phone goes and it’s Rose. I haven’t heard her voice since my birthday, ‘Hello?’
                  ‘Oh good, Cassie. Are you well? Is Oliver with you?’
                  I grumble, ‘Yeah. Thanks for forewarning me, Rose.’
                  It would seem courteous to warn me that a strange man would be appearing in my house and about to whisk me away. After all I was kidnapped and almost killed by a vampire only six months ago. The wound is still quite fresh. There is only so much I can rely on my Healer blood before fear kicks in.
                  ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know how we let Maurice slip under the radar but he managed it. Oliver’s house has strong anti-vampire wardens and he is a werewolf so...’
                  ‘Wait, what?’
                  ‘Well, look at him,’ Rose says.
                  I take a peek at Oliver who’s bulging arms are flexing as he piles my shoes into a black bin bag. He is certainly ensuring I won’t be short of my commodities. Okay, he is definitely a werewolf. All that hair and his size. It’s easy to see how he could shift into a beast. It is more surprising that I didn’t notice it straight away.
                  I glance away when he lifts his head and catches me staring. ‘Okay, yeah,’ I mumble.
                  ‘Anyway since he’s a werewolf, he is extra effective in protecting you against Maurice.’
                  I thought that my Healer blood would keep me safe but that assumption was blown away when I met Maurice, how can Oliver, as big as he is, protect me from someone as lethal as Maurice? I guess I don’t know enough about werewolves. I always supposed they existed too but they, like witches, had never revealed themselves like the vampires in America. I’ll just have to trust Rose, she has kept me safe so far.
                  ‘And you? Are you safe? If Arrow’s spells aren’t working here, can she protect you against Maurice if he shows up?’ I ask. There is nothing to suggest that Maurice won’t seek revenge by brutally murdering his old assistant.
                  I want to ask about Gabe too. I don’t know if he is even still with them but I like to think she is keeping an eye on him. Maurice doesn’t know that Gabe lost his memory to save himself from the fate of becoming a vampire; he is just as much in the firing line as Rose and I. However, as usual, I’m too cowardly to mention his name because there is no reply that would satiate me.
                  ‘We’ll be fine. Arrow’s magic is much more efficient for us because we are so close to it. Arrow reckons she couldn’t extend the spell as far as Ayrin for very long without it weakening and we can’t send any witches out to you because we need as much spell power as possible right now.’
                  I’m uncertain. Rose promises that they’ll keep the wards up for my family as best they can but they doubt that Maurice will touch my family when he realises I’m not here. They doubt. I can’t rely on a hunch when it comes to my family. There is no way I am leaving them behind. If Maurice comes to find me he will tear the house apart and kill anybody in his road. Lily isn’t even a day old yet.
                  Rose can sense my apprehension from miles away, ‘Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to your family, Cass, I just need you