by Rachel Lou
“Totally.” Bryce leaned forward and kissed Everett at the same time someone knocked.
The doctors returned with Everett’s grandfather. He was healthier than Everett ever remembered.
“Do you want time alone?” Bryce asked, already standing.
Everett’s grandfather shook his head and with speed uncharacteristic of a seventy-year-old, crossed the room and hugged Everett.
Everett cried without warning. His grandfather pulled Bryce into the hug. Buzz floated over and sat on Bryce’s head.
“I’m so proud of you,” his grandfather said. “Both of you.”
“My wounds,” Everett hissed.
His grandfather and Bryce nearly flew off him.
“They’re healed,” the male doctor said, “but as I said earlier, no excessive movements.”
“Yeah, yeah. We got that the first time,” Bryce said, giving the male doctor a dark look.
“How long have I been out?” Everett asked.
“A few days,” the female doctor said. “Dozens of witches visited to offer energy to speed your healing process.”
“The poison?”
“All gone. You should be out of here today.”
“We should eat out and celebrate,” Bryce said.
“Meat house?” Buzz laughed.
Everett didn’t get the joke until Bryce laughed.
Epilogue
A month later
BRYCE CLIMBED the hood of his car to sit next to Everett as they watched the sun set over Ashville. They had found this scenic point in the woods when Everett was drunk, but it had been too dark to see the woods stretched ahead of them, teeming with paranormal life.
Bryce said, “I just got a text from my dad that the Order is trying to come up with a more creative name for the battle. They don’t like the Battle of 2015, but they don’t like the Defeat of Tyrannical Purgatory either. I thought it was pretty creative.”
“It wasn’t that epic. They’ll probably call it something as low-key as Betrayal of the Seventies.” Everett absently touched his abdomen and stroked the raised bumps of his battle scars.
“Compared to human history, it wasn’t a big deal, but in paranormal history, it’s going down.” Bryce nipped Everett’s ear. “Just like I’m going down on you tonight.”
Everett moaned and covered his face with his hands. His blush was more obvious without hair covering his neck.
“Hey, let me see your pretty blush.” Bryce covered Everett’s hands with his own and pulled them away. Everett ducked his head, and Bryce kissed his nose. “You look so boyish without your hair in the way.”
“We’re here to watch the sunset, not make perverted jokes.” Everett laid his head on Bryce’s shoulder and soaked in the purple and pink sky.
Bryce ran his hand up and down Everett’s arm. “My dad also texted that Mrs. Lars’s innocent act is working. There’s not enough evidence to charge her.”
“Bullshit. She has the mark of Zhell on her wrist. She didn’t show up to the battle either. Her dogs had a duty to report.”
“Shhh.” Bryce rubbed Everett’s hip. “The Order will keep an eye on her from now on. They know something’s fishy about her.”
“Good.”
“Sunny and her gang are technically arrested. The demons agreed to hand them over when they’re found.”
In the four weeks that had passed since the battle ended, the Order had traveled to In Between and made a pact. It wasn’t anything huge or noteworthy. The demons officially surrendered to the witches and promised to stay peaceful. There wasn’t any talk about future Wardens who may attempt to swarm Earth, but it would be decades until another was old enough to try.
Everett chuckled. “The demons are a lot nicer than we thought.”
“Oh… you know. They’re just sucking up to us until they get another Warden. Then we’ll have another group of idiots try to unleash hell.” Bryce pulled Everett onto his lap. “But I’m going to unleash hell right here. Right now.”
“Lame.” But Everett laughed.
Bryce kissed him hard—with a lot of tongue. He could be very convincing when he moved his tongue in the crazy way Everett found irresistible.
“I love kissing you,” Everett said, moving to lie on top of Bryce.
He slid his hands up Bryce’s chest, feeling Bryce’s quickened heart. It beat for both of them.
Tomorrow morning he would wake up for his first lesson with Omar, and Bryce would be on a plane headed to Hawaii for a hybrid boot camp. Bryce was still growing into his paranormal nature and had difficulty keeping his gray skin under disguise. So he was off to Hawaii where Ann—who just so happened to be a hybrid witch—would teach him control.
For now, Everett was to refrain from any spell casting that stole energy from anyone other than Buzz. Stealing energy unknowingly was one thing. Knowing he was stealing energy was a breach of the witching moral code.
“We should explore the woods sometime,” Bryce said around Everett’s kisses.
Everett pulled back and looked heavenward as he jokingly said, “Because we survived Zhell so we can survive the unknown?”
Bryce pulled Everett’s head down and dragged his lips over Everett’s closed mouth. He murmured, “We can be pioneers of a new age. What if there are paranormal creatures waiting to befriend us?”
“We have scouts for that. One of them moved into my childhood house last month.”
“Just think about it. We could start something new.”
“Wishful thinking,” Everett murmured against Bryce’s lips. “But I like it.”
They kissed until the sun was nearly past the horizon. The sun disappeared, and then they pressed their lips together once again.
RACHEL LOU discovered her love for writing when she wrote her first story on a sheet of cheap printer paper: “Once upon a time there was a boy named Bob. He lived in a tower. The End.” She posted her writing online for six years, uncertain if she could make the move to publication. When she did make the move, she had a celebratory dinner at a steakhouse and spent the rest of her night cutting through enemy mobs on Guild Wars 2. The next morning she resumed work on her research essay; in between writing fiction and playing video games, she works toward earning her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
E-mail: [email protected]
Tumblr: www.rachelmlou.tumblr.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/author.rachel.lou
Published by
HARMONY INK PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
[email protected] • http://harmonyinkpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Bridge
© 2016 Rachel Lou.
Cover Art
© 2016 Anna Sikorska.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Harmony Ink Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or [email protected].
ISBN: 978-1-63476-882-5
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-883-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916314
Published
June 2016
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Blurb
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
About the Author
Visit Harmony Ink Press
Copyright Page
