or water purification tablets.”
A smidge of envy had me agreeing with him. I wished I could do even one trick. One small thing.
“It’s time.” He threw off his sleeping bag. “Be ready to help me restrain her if she’s got the munchies.”
“Okay.” I tossed my bag aside and scooted close to him. “I’m ready.”
With a grimace, Boaz slid a knife across his palm then used the blood to ink the sigil on the dirt.
This time, I got a front row seat when the dirt simply vanished from in front of us and appeared in a pile beside us. I was so distracted, it took me a second to notice the problem.
“She’s not in there.” I leaned over the edge. “Cass? Can you hear me?”
The mound of dirt beside us shifted, and Cass’s neon-yellow hair poked through the dirt.
“Never,” she spat. “I am never letting you bury me again. I would rather die.” She paused. “Again.”
Rushing over, I helped dig her out and then tackled her with a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Okay would require fewer worms and beetles.” She got to her feet. “What did I miss?”
Unsure how much Serena had told her, I explained the whole sordid mess while she gazed up at the moon. Much of it, she must have already known, based on her lack of response. Or maybe she was numb from shock.
“I had no idea,” she said at last. “I thought she was dead. I mourned her. I killed him for her.”
And Serena had been punished for it, which only added to Cass’s burden of guilt.
“I’m sorry.” I touched her shoulder. “For all of it.”
“None of it’s your fault.” She wiped pink tears from her cheeks. “I can’t believe she was out there, this whole time, and I didn’t know. I could have saved her. We could have been…”
Delacorte had stolen that time from them, twisted Serena until she was a hull of her former self, until all she wanted was to make the pain, the loneliness, the memories…stop.
“You couldn’t save her, Cass.” I hoped she believed that. “It was too late when she started hunting you.”
“We’ll never know, will we?” She ruffled her hair, shaking loose dirt. “I think I’m going to go home for a few weeks.”
Home meant back to her clan, to Javier, where she could heal among her own kind in safety and privacy.
I won’t lie. It hurt. I would rather she asked to come home with me. I would have let her use Hadley’s room until she climbed out from under this cloud. But maybe that was me, forgetting she was a vampire at the core. A calm, sterile environment with minimal emotion might be the best environment in which to heal. I had to trust her to know herself, what she needed now.
“Okay.” I cleared the lump from my throat. “Bring your phone?” I handed it to her, since Serena had taken it. “In case you need me?”
Cass came to me, folded herself against me, and buried her face in my neck. “I’ll always need you.”
Touched by her affection, I didn’t notice at first that she was licking me. My carotid, actually. “Cass…”
“You told me to bite you.”
“That was last night. When you were dying. You’re fine now.”
“You’re not fun.”
“So I hear.” I shoved her back a safe distance. “Do you need a ride?”
“I’ll call Javi.” She rubbed her thumb over her phone. “He’s always fussing I don’t come home enough.”
“You’ll stay with me while you find a new place to live.” I made it an order. “I’ve got plenty of room.”
“Yes, Mom.” She cracked a smile then faced Boaz. “Take care of her, or I will rip out your throat.”
“Keep your lips to yourself,” he said, returning her threat, “or I’ll tear them off and feed them to you.”
“No one is ripping anyone’s throat out or lips off.” I waded in between them. “Y’all need to behave.”
Both of them squinted at the other, clearly waiting to see who would fall in line first.
When neither broke, I tried for diplomacy and expediency. “Do you want us to walk you to the road?”
“No.” Her gaze slid past me, and I wondered if she was searching for a pile of ash scattered across the leaves in the distance. If so, she wouldn’t find Serena. The cleaners had already collected her remains, though Cass could claim them, and the bounty, later. If she wanted. I wouldn’t pressure her either way. “I think I’ll stay here for a few more minutes.”
“All right.”
I startled