Great. Because that was what I’d always wanted. To be more adult-like.
I hoped Dastien could forgive me for this.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but Dastien was still asleep when Donovan returned.
The verdict was that I had to be on the coven’s land by nine tomorrow morning, and had to stay until the day before the next full moon. While I was there, I had to fully suppress my wolf. The witches wanted me to live as a coven member, not as a Were. It was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. Like it or not, I was a Were. Nothing was going to change that.
I’d been warned that the Internet was nearly nonexistent at the compound. Apparently, the witches thought technology was a crutch. An unnecessary distraction. I hadn’t been without my cell in years. Years.
So, probably no FaceTime. No Skype. No video chatting. I wouldn’t even get email.
Donovan had left me to break the news to Dastien. Smart guy. I’d seen Dastien pissed before—he’d nearly decimated a tree once when he punched it—but this was different. I knew he’d be angry, but he’d lost his shit. One hundred percent blown lid.
It was hours before Dastien’s eyes blinked open.
“Hey,” I said. “How’re you feeling?”
He closed his eyes, and I wondered if he’d fallen asleep again, but he finally spoke. “Terrible.” When his eyes opened again, they were golden. “What happened?”
“Dr. Gonzales knocked you out.”
He laughed softly, and I wondered if the drugs were still making him a little loopy. “I got that much.”
I swallowed. He wasn’t going to like this. Better to rip off the Band-Aid than to drag it out. “I have to stay with the coven.” He sat up and started to speak, but I put my finger over his lips. “I’m back the day before the next full moon. We’re not missing the next ceremony. I told Donovan I’d burn the coven compound to the ground before I missed it, and I wasn’t joking at all.”
Dastien pressed his lips together, and his emotions swelled. But it wasn’t anger that dominated him anymore. It was fear, which worried me. What was he so afraid of?
“It’s only a few weeks, and then we’ll get to be together. And—”
“I won’t be able to feel you through the bond. It’ll be like you died. I won’t know if you’re hurt or in danger or lonely. I won’t know when you wake up or if you’re eating enough.” He traded our positions, lifting me into his lap, and nuzzled his nose against my neck. “I’ll go crazy without you.”
I rested my head against his chest so that I could hear his steady heartbeat. “Don’t go crazy. We can do this.” I sat up straighter so I could look into his eyes. “Humans do long distance all the time. It might seem like the end of the world, but it isn’t. We have a stronger bond than humans do, and they manage.” I cupped his face in my hands. “So, we can do it, too. It’s not going to be super fun and awesome, but we’ll be okay.”
He closed his eyes and his shoulders hunched. “I don’t know that I’ll be okay.” The words were little more than a whisper, like he was confessing something that weighed heavily on his heart. It was so sweet and so sad that it made my heart ache.
I rubbed my thumb along his bottom lip. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
I gave him a soft smile. “Say it in French, please.”
That made him actually smile. No dimples yet, but it was better than the pout. “Je t’aime, cherie.”
I pressed my lips to his and stood up. “Help me pack?”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go, but I have to. We both know that la Aquelarre was never going to stop until they got at least a piece of me. So we give them this little bit. Plus, Luciana is up to something. What better way to find out than by being there? And if I learn some more stuff about my powers and being a bruja, well then, all the better.”
“I wish you didn’t have to go do all that.” He huffed. He actually huffed, and it made me want to squeeze him tight and never let go.
“Me, too. But I do need to pack. It’s getting late and I have to be there by nine.” I got up and started back toward campus, knowing Dastien wouldn’t be far behind me.
It took him a minute, but then he got up. His long stride caught up to me in a few steps. “I’ll take you there in the morning.”
“I want to have my car with me.” If shit hit the fan, I wanted to be able to get away from the coven, and fast.