“Some animals close their ears when they go into water or to keep bugs out, like otters. They close their nose and ears when descending. You could give yourselves the power to open and close your ears, like built-in ear muffs.”
Asher and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and then he snapped. A tickling sensation grew in my ears, and I reached up in time to feel my skin stretch over the ear hole.
“Test them out. Try opening and closing them,” Asher said.
This had to be the most bizarre thing I’d ever done in my life. But if it saved me from the Collector’s grasp, then I would practice closing my ear holes for the rest of my life, if needed.
Chapter Thirty- Nine
Maddox
I blew the Collector’s doors off their hinges in a very dramatic fashion that had Asher laughing as we stepped into the luxurious mansion. We’d incapacitated the gate guards, then either slipped by the others around the premises or knocked them out. Echo snuck into the mansion as some creature and was waiting until the right time to strike.
It felt like we were walking into a viper pit. We had to play this with managed anger or the Collector could take Hazel down with her. I followed the halls to the large dining room, thanks to AJ’s blueprints on my phone, and fought the instinct to fall to my knees upon seeing Hazel.
“Welcome, Maddox and friend. Back from the dead, I see.” The Collector feigned joyous shock and I rolled my eyes. A fork clattered to the plate, and my gaze darted to Hazel again. She looked at me with wide eyes like a ghost walked toward her instead of me in the flesh.
“You’re alive?” she whispered, and the Collector patted her hand gently.
“I’m just as surprised as you are. When he said he’d leave you over joining me, I thought I killed him. Turns out he is a good little cockroach.” She smiled, but the venom in her voice appeared.
She told Hazel that I’d chosen to leave her? My blood boiled, and the air in the room whipped around.
“Easy,” Asher warned as quietly as possible.
“Well, this is going to be a fun evening, isn’t it?” The Collector set down her eating utensils and leaned over to Hazel, then pointed to me. Her eyes widened, before she stood. I wanted her to come to me, but a chill creeped up my spine from what the Collector whispered in her ear. By the way Hazel chewed on her lip nervously, her gaze darted around like she searched for an escape. I’d say it wasn’t good.
As she slowly trudged toward me, I assessed her physically and found nothing of concern. A tinge of relief touched my soul that her body hadn’t been tortured. Asher tensed beside me, feeling the unease radiating off of Hazel.
“Enough tricks. She’s leaving, and you’re going to prison,” I said, and the Collector simply grinned, not stopping the beautiful woman who finally stopped her movement one foot away from me. The scent of her hit me like a cool breeze, and my fingers twitched to touch her.
“She told me you chose to leave me,” she whispered and my chest hurt.
I opened my mouth to speak the truth but she curled back her fist and aimed right for my face. I dodged her punch, just in time, but she kept coming.
The Collector wanted her to fight me?
“Asher, you will not use your powers.” The psycho woman had used Hazel as a distraction and sleazed her way to where we were without us seeing it. She curled up to my friend and touched his chest while commanding him not to use his powers.
“Darling, you are not my type. I like crazy kittens, not psycho bitches.” Asher grinned, completely unaffected by her charm thanks to the magical earmuffs and grabbed the Collector. Her wide eyes and gaping mouth warmed my heart. However, like the viper she was, she lashed out with a small dagger, then made a run for it, leaving Hazel to fight with me.
“Asher!” Fuck, I hope she missed his vital organs.
“I’ll be all right. Fuck, that’s embarrassing.” Blood coated his hands from the wound on the side of his torso. His pride was probably wounded more, since the woman got the drop on him and he missed it.
Hazel took advantage of my distraction and swept a leg at the back of my knees, taking me down. I grabbed onto her and rolled us to the ground like I’d done when we were practicing her fighting skills in her gardens.
“Hazel! I promised I wouldn’t leave you. I’m here, goddess, I’m here.” I hoped my words would reach the heart of her, a place even the Collector couldn’t taint.
Hazel shook her head like she couldn’t bear to hear the words. I glanced at Asher to see if he’d disappeared, hopefully to find the Collector, so she could release Hazel from her power.
“Echo!” I hollered for the shifter, wherever she hid.
“I’m sorry, Hazel.” I hated to use my gift on her, but one of us would get hurt if she kept coming at me like a rabid animal. I took the air from her lungs, and she writhed on the floor in desperate need of air.
“Release her.” Asher’s voice echoed off the marble floors, and I saw him dragging the Collector to where I sat next to a struggling Hazel. A wolf snarled at the Collector with saliva dripping from her sharp canines.
“Fine,” the Collector shouted, and Asher pushed her toward Hazel and me. Immediately, I pulled my power back and Hazel gulped down air like she’d never breath again. I hated causing her distress.
“Hazel, look at me,” the Collector demanded, and Hazel peered at the woman while she coughed harshly.
“You will not fight Maddox anymore.” She leaned down and lifted her hand to touch Hazel softly on the cheek. The woman pulled back her touch. “You’ll stab him in the heart instead.” She spat at me, and I threw a gust of wind at her which knocked her back five feet.
Hazel pulled a knife out of her boot and aimed it toward my heart.
Chapter Forty
Hazel
The knife stopped inches before hitting Maddox’s chest. We looked into each other’s eyes at the same time, and I smiled. “I know you’d never leave me, Maddox.” Quicker than I’d thought I could manage, I shifted and stretched out my hand. The ferns in the pot to the Collector’s right grew and tangled around her body and muzzled her mouth.
“You aren’t under her charm?” he questioned me, eyeing the dagger still poised at his chest suspiciously. Oops. I dropped it instantly, and the clang against the marble was music to my ears.
Well, not that I could hear music. I could barely hear anything unless you were very close. “No. I put mushrooms in my ears earlier to block out her voice. It worked but I had to keep up the charade until she made her final move.” My hand reached out confidently and touched the side of his face. I missed his face and piercing blue eyes, but mostly I just missed him.
“You’re OK?” His head leaned into my touch, and a breath trembled past his lips.
“Nothing a little therapy can’t fix.” I laughed only to keep from thinking about the shit I’d seen in this mansion. Therapy would be an absolute must after this disaster.
“I’ll be with you through it all.” Maddox placed his hand over mine as his other arm pulled me into his lap.
“I love you, Maddox, and I’m never letting you go. You’re mine for the rest of your life, buddy.” I leaned my forehead against his and breathed him in. I knew he’d come for me, but in the end I didn’t need him to rescue me. The princess saved herself in this story.
“I think I need some stitches.” Asher’s voice broke through our little love bubble, and I grimaced at the blood stain on his gray shirt. Thoughts of Jarrod’s blood-soaked clothes bombarded me, and I shivered.
“Let’s go. I hear sirens. AJ has all the proof he needs to put her away for good,” Maddox commented as a whimpering wolf nuzzled her mate’s leg. I nodded, and then crawled out of Maddox’s lap.
The Collector wiggled and screamed against the leaves in her mouth. I had nothing to say to her, so I turned my head as Maddox wrapped his arm around me and we walked away from the vile mansion.
“Echo found six other captives in a small house by the edge of the property. She
tried to free them but they wouldn’t budge. The Collector has to release them.” Asher winced at the pain in his stomach as he moved. Echo became a horse once we walked out the front door and lowered herself. He climbed on top. She’d carry him to his car, then take him to the hospital.
“Shouldn’t we stay and talk to the cops?” I asked Maddox, wanting to make sure the Collector got the justice she deserved.
“Only if you want to.” We stopped walking, as I thought about my choices.
“I do.” The decision came quick. I craved to leave this place, but that could wait a few more minutes.
“Hazel . . .” Heavy emotions bombarded Maddox.
“Everything is OK, Maddox. You and me . . . we’re OK. Nothing else matters.” I leaned up to kiss him and finally felt home with the connection.
“You and me.” I memorized the way his voice vibrated against my skin. I’d spent enough time away from him to last many lifetimes, and now I’d get to be with him forever.
The police and ambulance reached the end of the driveway and were let in by a groggy guardsman. Echo stopped her horse’s ass in front of an ambulance and let Asher get off. The paramedics could look him over, and he’d be set.
After I talked with the detective and told him everything I had seen, we were released from the premises but not before watching the Collector be towed into a police cruiser with her mouth covered.
We rode together in Asher’s muscle car while Echo drove. I could not stop touching Maddox to make sure he was alive and warm. He was everything I dreamed of during our time apart.
“If you guys are thinking about having sex in the back seat, just know it’s awfully snug back there. Makes things a little tricky. Trust me,” Asher teased and I laughed. Echo shook her head, but I knew she loved his jokester side. He livened up the place.
“Thank you, guys, for coming to get me and for using your gifts to help the situation.” Maddox had told me about Echo’s idea to close their ears like otters. It seemed like we were all on the same brainwave when it came to dealing with the Collector’s charm.
“You’re one of us, and Echo wouldn’t be able to live without your music. She dances around naked at the bar to it all the time.” Asher teased his woman this time, and she smacked him on the shoulder. Oh love, makes us act nuts, and put up with our soulmates. Even when they act like idiots too.
They dropped us off by Maddox’s car. Once Maddox was settled in his seat, I climbed into his lap. He drove us home and I listened to the steady beat of his heart and to his lungs filling with air. Once home, Maddox lifted me out of the truck with him, then carried me through the garden toward the house.
“Wait . . .” I looked around.
“You took care of my plants?” I whispered in awe. Maddox was my military man that I’d assumed couldn’t keep a cactus alive if he tried. Blush coated his cheeks as he nodded, his lips gunning for mine.
“I couldn’t have you come home to wilting flowers,” he admitted as we parted for air, and I swore I fell in love with him all over again.
We’d transformed from our past and grew a new future from the ashes in our very own version of spring. My favorite season.
Two years later
Hazel
I took a deep breath, the fluttering in my belly turned into a mosh pit of butterflies.
“Hazel Kennedy!” The announcer called my name, and I walked onto the stage with the biggest smile on my face. Tonight, I’d be singing songs from my newest album that had already surpassed one million records sold. I’d never stop being grateful for my life, for how all the lost pieces came together to form the most amazing picture.
“Hello, New York!!” I yelled to the crowd, and they went wild. I soaked in their screams, eager to hear their reactions from tonight’s events. My hands raised to touch the dandelion seed necklace Maddox made for my sixteenth birthday. After surviving the Collector trauma, I’d decided time was too precious. I grabbed the jewelry from the nightstand and rarely took it off. I wanted a part of him with me forever.
The house band played the upbeat song “Skipping Stones,” a song I’d written about taking life one skip at a time. The new album had been such a hit, everyone felt the love in my heart with every lyric.
I glanced to my bodyguard who stood at the side of the stage, stoic as ever while I kicked off my first tour of the year. The last time I sang a song about him, it was about him leaving. The last time I performed it in front of him, it stripped us bare, and we had the opportunity to heal from our past.
While he broke my walls down, bit by bit, he’d inspired in me a new song for us. Tonight, I’d sing it for him, for us, and our future.
I walked to the piano on the stage and sat down gingerly, finding my bearings against the keys.
“I feel lost and all alone. But now he’s here and it feels like home. I don’t know if I can trust again. Should I walk blindly on this new terrain? What if he leaves? What if he stays? Are these feelings just a phase?”
I glanced at my inspiration and smiled. I’d been such a confused mess when he had shown up in my life again. I was bitter and angry. Now all I felt was joy. Sure he could be a pain in the ass, and I rebelled against him daily. But that was our tangled love.
“He compliments my joy, and as much as I want to deny it, he’s not the same boy. I wanna laugh and feel with him. In my heart I know it’s true. The only love I ever wanted is you.”
I sang at the top of my reach, pouring out my soul for the crowd and for Maddox. When the song came to an end, I thanked everyone and walked off the stage, straight into Maddox’s waiting arms.
“How are my girls?” He grinned sweetly, an expression very few saw.
“We are fabulous. She was just as excited as I was to perform.” I kissed his lips before he knelt down to kiss the growing bump on my belly.
The moment we found out I was pregnant, Maddox had launched into crazy bodyguard mode to take care of me. It was a wonder he hadn’t tried to surround me in bubble wrap.
“Hey there, princess. You liked being on stage with Mommy?” He kissed my belly again, and then scooped me up. I had to meet a few VIP fans before we could leave, and then I needed a strawberry smoothie. Pronto.
Maddox carried me into the VIP lounge and I let him because the heels I had on were killing my feet.
“Stop where you are!” three men holding guns yelled from the lounge, and Maddox slowly slid me down his body. I wanted to roll my eyes. Really? What did I have to steal in the VIP lounge? T-shirts? Posters?
Maddox released a sigh, and I pitied the poor fools. Thankful none of the fans had been allowed in yet. I dipped into my power at the same time Maddox did. These guys were so fucked.
Never a dull moment for a member of the Hero Society. Superheroes are always on the job to save the day.
The End
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Playlist
Someone You Loved- Lewis Capaldi
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