Page 43 of Blade

Shaking my head had everyone turning to look at us, but Serena was better at controlling her reactions. “You use a tablet to communicate?”

“Yes.” Henley gave me a tight, quick hug around my neck before standing. “It’s got an app on it with an oversized keyboard that makes it easier for him to touch the letters.”

Her genuine smile got a softer one from Henley. “That’s a great idea. I’ve been so focused on other aspects of this I never thought about what he would need if he could process what was going on around him.”

Shrugging, Henley smiled down at me. “We figured it out. He’s smart and was patient with me while we came up with different options.”

Before Serena could respond, an older woman in a long dress spoke up. “We’re ready, Serena.”

I couldn’t place her but something about the woman’s eyes looked familiar. When she realized I was watching her, her heart rate jumped, but she calmed quickly. “You knew my great-grandmother.”

Miss Ida.

Nodding slowly, I could see the family resemblance even though Ida had always been old as far back as I could remember. I was fairly certain her hair had been gray when I’d been a small child but those memories were hazy.

Looking up at Henley, I nudged his side to prompt him to start chattering. “You must look a lot like her. How did they know each other?”

Before she could continue, Henley shrugged. “He can’t give me any stories yet and I’m dying of curiosity.”

His easy way of talking to anyone put the women at ease, completely forgetting he was actually dangerous and I was still a monster.

“She was his nanny when he was little and worked for the family most of her life.” The woman smiled as she turned back to me. “She was so angry when she realized what had happened, no one heard the end of it until she passed.

The way the woman rolled her eyes said that wasn’t the end of the story. “She’s even been haunting the old hospital where she died. She was pissed about not dying here too. Evidently your father promised her she could pass at the house to wait for you but they didn’t tell anyone else about that plan.”

She was still around?

As everything slowed, Henley knelt down in front of me again and ran his hand over my head. “Even if we don’t get the wholepackage doesn’t match the interiorthing fixed today, we’ll go see her and just explain that we’re working on the problem. I’m sure she’d love to see you even if she has to do most of the talking.”

Henley would do most of the talking.

“Stop that.” He fell back on his ass as I licked his cheek, trying to pout and huff instead of laugh like I knew he wanted to. “You’re a handful, and I hope I get to some good stories to hold over your head.”

Henley looked like he was paying no attention to anything going on around us, but my innocent-looking mate was taking everything in. His eyes even twitched as another woman shifted in what had to be his peripheral vision. “I think I’m going to need the ammo with you.”

The chuckles around us had clearly been his goal and he smelled very pleased with himself as he stood and rested his hand on my head again. “Alright, what do we need to do?”

We.

My mate was staking his claim clearly with words and deeds, and I knew everyone around us could see it as unmistakably as Icould. He might not have expected to find me on his journey, but so far, he’d thrown himself into the challenge.

I wasn’t sure if he could feel the magic binding us together or if it was just his personality, but I couldn’t wait until we could actually communicate. As much as he loved to talk, my mate couldn’t be the one to hold our relationship together forever.

Eventually he’d want to do more than cuddle and watch shows together because while that was the start of a relationship, it wasn’t what I’d always imagined having with my mate.

“We’ve walked through this once a year for as long as I can remember.” Standing straighter, Serena seemed to be doing her best to project confidence but her heartbeat and physical reactions told another story. “All he needs to do is stand in the middle of the circle. We designed the spell so it would work whether he was conscious or not, but we expected him to be resisting us.”

Because before Henley, I would’ve done more than that.

“We don’t have to worry about that any longer.” Still petting my head, Henley felt calmer than anyone else around us. “Can I sit with him or will that mess up the magic?”

That was a very good question and one that took nearly twenty minutes to answer.

It took me a while to figure out that he’d asked it deliberately, though. I wasn’t sure what he’d have done if they’d given him an easy answer, but something about their debate and how seriously they took the question had his confidence in them growing.

Eventually they decided it might actually help, so we both walked into the center with Henley plopping down on the ground. “Come here.”

Resting my head in his lap, I let the shifter part of my senses watch what was going on around us and kept the human part of my brain on my mate. It’d been so long since I’d felt the cleardivide between the two it almost felt strange. Even in the trailer there was nothing else to distract me from him and it was good to feel normal again.