Interlude Seven

Fitz.

They say that love makes fools of us all. Well, I was risking my life to save a fucking chipmunk, so what does that make me?

I ran through the crowd after I sent my mate and her friends away so that they’d at least get to live though this day. I mean, I’ll get my head blown off, but at least Itty Bitty and The Flash are gonna be fine. And Willow. As long as she was okay, everything would be fine. It would really suck if I died before we even got to have sex. I should have just taken her damn panties off.

Someone grabbed the machine guns that Pepper dropped, and thankfully one was empty. Yay me. It was a woman who had the gun, and she was mowing down guards like there was no tomorrow.

There were pieces of drywall and glass among the bodies, and bloodstains on the once white marble floor. I desperately looked for the tiny bug that was apparently the only thing keeping the crazy girl from a complete break. I started for the stage, and my eyes scanned the floor for anything that moved.

It only took a minute for me to spot the little body. It was lying in the middle of a pile of glass, and it wasn’t moving. If there is a god, he’d give me this one. Don’t let him be dead. I repeated the mantra as I walked over to him, only having to snap one neck on my way. I scooped up the little bastard, and started running to the door.

I got out the door, and stood at the top of the stairs to check on him. If he was dead, then I would need to hide him. I wasn’t making that girl look at her dead pet.

“Just this one time, God. Do me a favor. You screwed me over at every chance you could in my life,” I said out loud. “This little fucker better be alive.” I opened my hands and looked at him. He was on his side and his eyes were closed, but he was breathing.

I narrowed my eyes when I didn’t see a bit of damage. “You little son of a bitch. Are you sleeping?” He poked his head up, and sniffed at the air. He stood on his back legs, and then bent to lick my hand. “You were… There were gunshots… how— never mind.”

I walked down the stairs with the sound of sirens approaching. We didn’t have much time to find Dawnie, and get the hell outta Dodge.

When I heard my mate crying, I found her with the other two. All sobbing for the little demon and her lost pet. I moved over to them with my hands over the troublemaker. I knelt down and held my hands out to Pepper, but she didn’t uncover her eyes.

Willow saw me. She asked the question with her eyes, and I answered with a smile. Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes changed into something I’d never seen from her before. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it.

Pepper sniffled, and looked up, seeing me before my hands. Then her gaze went down, and I saw pure hope shine from her tearful eyes. I opened my hands, and the rodent sniffed at her.

She made a sound that was shock mixed with relief like I’d never heard before. Then she looked at me with all the gratefulness that her little soul could muster. Then she launched herself forward, and wrapped her arms around my neck so tight I thought I’d choke.

“Easy, Itty Bitty,” I said as I tried to push her back. She wasn’t letting go.

“Thank you so much,” she cried. “I thought he was gone.” She let go of me, and picked up her pet. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m gonna keep you safe.” She kissed him, and then stood up. Her hands were still shaking as she held Twix in them. She wasn’t very steady, but Ferris was taking care of that.

“Car?” I said as I stood with the rest of them.

Willow and Ferris led me to the SUV as the sirens got louder. I got into the driver’s seat next to Willow while the kids got into the back. I took off as the lights that belonged with the sirens came into sight.

“Did you see where the demons went?” Willow turned her head to ask Pepper.

“No. When I was under the stage, I could see up from the floorboards. I told Amy that I was undoing the chain bolts, and they needed to wait ‘til everyone was free before they went. They all ran in different directions when the fight started.”

“Fantastic,” I sighed. “So we don’t know where Dawnie is?”

“Nope,” Willow sighed back at me.

I took a different road to avoid the police. Should be interesting for them. Walking in on a bloodbath. I could only imagine what the news would say in the morning.

“What should we do?” Ferris asked.

“Drive around ‘til we find her, I guess.” I turned down a dark street, and decided I probably wasn’t sleeping tonight.

We drove in circles for two hours as we looked for the woman. Odds were that she was long gone, but I couldn’t turn in yet. Maybe another hour and they’ll let me. Most likely the demon would go home, and we would find her there. We had her address in that file anyway.

I was starting to doze off when Willow shouted, “There!”

My attention went to where she pointed. It was a gutter. Dawnie had one foot on the street, and the other on the sidewalk as she was pulling at her chains… that were stuck in the gutter. They circled her wrists and neck, and it dragged her body down as she tried to break free.

I pulled over, and the woman stared at us with fright. She fought harder to get free, but it wasn’t happening. We got out of the car, and tried to appear as nonviolent as we could.

“Dawnie,” Willow said. “We’re here to help you.”

She shook her head. “I saw you there. You wanted to buy us.” She yanked harder at the chains, but nothing came.

“No,” she said. “We were there to find you, and get the others out. My name is Willow. I’m the hybrid. Have you heard of me? They wanted me too.”

Dawnie’s eyes widened again. “Warren? Is your mother Jemma Warren?”

Willow’s mouth dropped open, and she smiled. “Yes. You know my mother?”

Dawnie yanked again. “I met her a couple weeks ago. She was looking for you and your brother and your father.”

Father? Not good. Willow’s face registered the words, but she didn’t say anything. She was nearly swaying on her feet anyway.

“Hold on.” Pepper moved to the demon. “We need your help. We’re looking for some people. There’s a group of people trying to kill us all so they can get Willow. We have to find her parents. Will you help us? We can pay you whatever you want.”

The woman looked from Willow, back to Pepper. “You saved us all?”

Pepper nodded.

“Okay. Then I can help you. But I’m stuck.” She made a great effort to get free, but it only made her fall on her ass.

“I can fix that for you.” Pepper closed her eyes. The chains vanished off of Dawnie, and then they appeared in the grass a few feet from us.

Dawnie stood, and looked at herself in shock. “Wow. That was cool.”

“Thank you.” Pepper nodded. “Come on. We have a hotel we’re staying in.”

We got into the car, and Dawnie sat between Ferris and Pepper. She spent a lot of the car ride talking to Twix, and then I realized the woman was insane.

“Back home my alligator, Bitey, is waiting for me. I feed him chicken and rice, and I read to him at night. Do you like books?” she asked the animal who couldn’t talk back. “Me too! I like ones with pictures.”

We got to the hotel, and started heading for Phin and Ferris’s room. Willow nearly stumbled, but I caught her. She mumbled a thank you, and we got to the door. Ferris opened it and we went in.

Juliet was awake, and sitting on the bed while Phin was downing a water bottle.

“You found her.” Juliet smiled. “And you snapped my neck, Fitz!”

Dawnie looked back at me with fear, and I waved my hand. “To be fair, she was trying to get my mate to flirt with other people.”

There were several protests. None from Willow. I looked back and she was leaning against the wall, yawning.

“That doesn’t sound very nice at all,” Dawnie scolded Juliet, who rolled her eyes.

Pepper held her hand up. “Can we talk more about Jemma? What happened with her and why wasn’t Leo there?”

Dawnie turned to her. “She came by my home before I was taken. She told me very little about why she was there, but she said that she was looking for her family. She was separated from her kids a while before, and she lost her husband in a fight. She doesn’t know where he went, and he wasn’t at their rendezvous spot. She thought maybe she missed him. So I helped her track who she needed to. I guess, she didn’t find you guys.”

“No,” Pepper said. “But at least we know she’s okay.”

“But Dad might not be,” Phin said. “He might have died.”

Dawnie shook her head. “I tracked him. If he died, then it was very recent.”

“Whose room is she staying in?” Pepper asked. “We have limited beds. Someone needs to share.”

We all looked at each other and I said, “I’m with Willow. No negotiations.”

Phin narrowed his eyes at me. “Then it should stay girls and boys. Would you mind sharing a bed with Pepper?”

Juliet shrugged. “Sure. Then Dawnie gets her own bed, and you boys do to. Solved. Now, who’s gonna catch her up on everything?” She sounded put out by the idea.

Ferris smiled. “I volunteer as tribute.” He sat on his bed, and launched into the tale.

I looked back to Willow, and her eyes were barely even open. She needed sleep.

“I’m taking her back,” I said as I walked to her. “You guys have this handled?”

“Yup.” Ferris nodded, and went back to the story.

Willow yawned again, and tried to take a step. She almost fell, but I caught her. I picked her up, and cradled her in my arms without a single word of protest. She laid her head on my shoulder as I brought her to our room.

I opened and closed the door without much trouble, and laid her on her bed. She sat up, and put her head against the backboard. I dug through my bag and handed her one of my shirts to wear. I didn’t have shorts for her, so it would have to do. I turned as she changed.

When the dress hit the floor, I turned around. She was in my shirt, but she wasn’t lying down. She was sitting up again. I moved her legs aside, and sat next to her. “You should sleep, Willow. You’ve had a long day.”

I leaned down to kiss her forehead and tell her goodnight. I hesitated on moving back again when she smiled, and touched her fingertips to my cheek. In a sleepy voice, she said, “You did really good tonight. You saved the day.”

“It was nothing.”

She shook her head, and her hand slid to the back of my neck as she pulled me to her. She kissed me softly and deliberately. I almost didn’t believe it was happening since she’d never actually been the one to initiate before. But she was exhausted. She wasn’t in her right mind. I knew she didn’t want me in the way that this kiss hinted.

“You were so beautiful tonight,” I told her between breaths. It wasn’t just the dress, it was the fighting. She wasn’t that girl I met in my shop months ago. She was getting stronger, and I was in love with seeing it in action. “You are so beautiful.”

When we were finished, she said, “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

She tried to force her eyes to stay open. “I think I’m starting to like you.”

I smiled at her. “Yeah, you said for a whole day and a half. New record.”

She softly shook her head. “I mean, I really, really like you. And the thought of it is terrifying me.”

I had to go over the words twice in my head before I figured out that it was real. That she was saying she had feelings for me. Truly, I didn’t think that would ever happen. I knew she was tired, and this was probably false, but she gave me more hope to hold onto. It sent flashes through my head. Pictures of a future we could have if she found a way to love me. I’d do whatever she wanted me to. I’d follow her to the end of the world, and jump if she asked me to.

The other side of this was the last thing she said. She was scared of the idea of having feelings for me. Being with me was something else entirely. She didn’t want to have those feelings that were starting to bubble up for her. And I knew she would fight. I would fight too.

I pushed her hair from her face. “I think you need sleep, Sugar.”

She shook her head, and her eyes were desperate. “No. Please don’t make me sleep.” She started crying, and I couldn’t figure out what happened.

“Why don’t you want to sleep?”

“I don’t wanna see it again.” Sorrow and fear took over her expression as she cried silently.

I held her against my chest. “What are you afraid of seeing?”

“All of it. The dream. And what I did tonight.”

I still didn’t know what she was talking about. “What did you do?”

She looked up at me like I should already know. It turned out I did. “I killed somebody. He used to be a person with a life, and a heartbeat. I killed him.”

She was so delicate and soft. Everything about her told me that, but this more than anything proved it. “He was trying to kill you. You were defending yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong, please hear me.”

My words didn’t help. “It doesn’t change the fact that I ended a life. What if he had a family?”

I didn’t care if he had a hundred kids at home without a father now. He tried to kill her, and if she hadn’t done it for me, I would have done far worse than she did.

“If he had good people in his life, then he would have made better choices. He chose to try and kill an innocent girl. Don’t feel bad about keeping yourself alive.”

She held my hand and said, “I still don’t want to sleep.”

I sighed. “You need to.” I laid her on her back, and stayed at her side. “It wouldn’t be wise to go about tomorrow being sleepy. Just in case we leave, and some of those people try and pay another visit.”

“I’m not tired,” she lied.

I smiled at that. “You are.”

“Not even a little.” She blinked slowly.

I knew that I was a bad man, but this made me feel a little worse. I had good intentions, really I did. I knew it would make her sleep, and if anyone would believe that there was any other reason for my actions, then that’s on them and not me. If I could bring her peace of any sort, I had to try it.

“I think I know how to make you sleepy. It should relax you,” I told her.

“What is it?” she yawned again.

I watched her as my hand started at her knee, and slowly moved up her thigh. She didn’t catch on until I was moving the shirt up.

“Last time—” she started, but I cut her off.

“This isn’t last time.” I kissed her to try and remove the doubt she had. When I touched her, she inhaled sharply through her nose as her back arched up to me. I smiled when she pulled me closer.

Her hips moved with me, and it made me want to do so much more than I was allowing myself. I did my best to slide my fingers along carefully, and not be too eager. Last time, I was surprised she got any pleasure out of it for how poorly I did it. She made me nervous. It felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. Nearly seven years of experience meant nothing when I looked at this girl.

Sleepily, Willow alternated between moaning and biting her lip. God, she felt so soft, and I swear I was getting as much out of every stroke as she did. I wanted to watch her eyes while I touched her, but she had to be just on the edge of falling asleep.

Willow weaved her fingers into my hair, and her other hand was on my side, gripping my shirt as she panted through the kiss. She’d stop every few seconds to try and breathe before she pulled me back to her.

God, there was so much more I wanted to do with her. For her. To her. But I need to try and be good to her. Try because she told me that if I tried for her, then she would try for me. All I wanted in the whole world was for her to try for me.

Her breathing stopped altogether, and I was a little surprised at how long it took. She must’ve been so upset. I didn’t let up on the careful strokes as Willow came, crying out so beautifully that I lost my breathed. As she did, she held my side tighter, and her lips separated from mine as she fell flat back on the bed. Her eyes were nothing more than slits as she looked at me softly.

I moved my hand, and pulled her shirt back down before I laid next to her. I didn’t know how she would react, and I was worried she’d come back with hate for me. Maybe I deserved it, but I really only wanted her to feel better. She might have taken this as another violation. Me taking advantage of her when she was in no position to fight me. So fear coursed through my veins until I heard her speak.

“Will you be here when I wake up?” Her head turned so she could see me.

She wants me to stay… “Always, Sugar.”

I moved to her, and laid my head on her stomach. My hand held her hip, and I waited for her to tell me to get off of her. She never did. She tickled the back of my neck with the tips of her fingers, and I closed my eyes. Everything felt so perfect. If this was all I could ever have from her, then I would take it gladly and never look back.

So again, I did one of my favorite things I do for her. I sang her to sleep with words that said what I didn’t know how to say otherwise.