Chapter 99

Erin’s POV

I sat in my car for a long while after Gavin left. I couldn’t believe what we had just done in the parking lot of my work.

My body was trembling all over and I could feel Emily’s pure excitement from within me. After I was able to recover my mind, I got out of my car and went back to work.

I used that breather as my break and when I returned, Kelsey was watching me with a worried look in her eyes.

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I just needed to breathe,” I told her, shaking my head of any and all thoughts that had surfaced.

“Who was that other girl with Gavin? I know one of them to be Judy Conrad, the multi-billionaire’s wife, but I didn’t recognize the other one.”

“That was Jill Pierce,” I told her, watching her eyes widen in shock. “Gavin’s sister.”

“Oh, my goddess! I knew she existed, but I never thought I’d ever get to see her,” Kelsey breathed. “She was kind of cruel. Don’t you think? She called you his—”

“I know what she called me,” I said, stopping her words.

I didn’t want to hear them again. Kelsey fell silent and lowered her gaze.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she said, shaking her head with dismay written all over her face. “It wasn’t fair of her to say that…”

“But she was right,” I admitted. “I did break Gavin’s heart and walked away from him in high school. I knew Gavin to be incredibly close to his sister, despite never meeting her. I wasn’t expecting her to like me. I told her a fake name when I first met her the other day because I figured she would have some words to say to me…”

“You haven’t met her up until the other day?” Kelsey asked in armament. “Why is that?”

“She was sent to a boarding school at a young age. Gavin always said that his sister was incredibly smart and very talented. She went to a school for art. She would come home on the holidays and sometimes to just visit, but I never seemed to be around the same time she was,” I said with a shrug. “But he would call and write her letters. He would talk about me to her as well. When we turned 18 and discovered that we were officially fated mates, she was the first person he called because he was so excited…”

“I see,” Kelsey breathed, furrowing her brows together. “Being that close to her brother… it must have hurt her too when you left. I imagine seeing him in that kind of pain destroyed her.”

“I can’t be upset with her for hating me… so, I understand,” I agreed.

“If you need to take the rest of the night off… I don’t mind. I can cover your shift,” Kelsey offered.

“If it’s okay with you, I’d rather stay. I need to take my mind off things and drowning in work is the only way I can do that.”

“Of course,” she said in return.

I finished with the last of the dinner rush before finishing my nightly duties. It was getting late and the restaurant was long closed. Most of my coworkers had already finished their tasks and were heading home.

I milked the clock a little longer and did my tasks a bit slower than usual.

“Just lock up when you’re done,” Kelsey said as she put her coat on.

I could tell from her tone that she was still worried about me, but she wasn’t going to say anything more about it. I thanked her and watched as she left the restaurant.

She trusted me to lock up once in a while, so this wasn’t unusual.

Once I finished, I drove home. I was dreading seeing Henry. He would be able to see on my face that something happened. I wasn’t good at hiding my emotions from Henry. Especially because we were trained to see through the strongest walls built.

Henry was making dinner by the time I returned home, and I tried to force my best smile for him. I really didn’t want him to think anything was wrong or that Gavin had anything to do with it.

“How was work?” He asked as I entered the kitchen.

“It was okay,” I said in return. “Same as usual.”

“I did a little investigating earlier and it seems that nobody saw the Beta’s killer,” Henry said, shaking his head with a frown on his face. “It was like one minute he was walking down the street and the next minute he was lying in the middle of the road with a silver dagger in his chest. It’s unusual.”

“So, you think whoever killed him has powers?” I asked. “Maybe invisibility or the ability to stop time?”

“That could be,” Henry said, glancing over at me.

“Do we know if Bane has any actual powers?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered with a shrug. “I know Susanna can manipulate fire but I’m not sure about Bane. It’s never been discussed between Gavin and me…”

As soon as I said Gavin’s name, I wished I hadn’t. My face instantly began to redden and I had to look down to keep him from seeing it.

I was praying to the Goddess that worked.

“It would make sense for the Slayers to use those with abilities as vessels. They are stronger and can prove to be more useful,” Henry said, turning back to the stove.

I let out a breath of air, he didn’t notice my reddened face.

That was good.

Though, hiding something like this from him made me feel incredibly guilty.

He plated our food and sat them down at the table. I took my seat beside him and together we began eating.

“Thank you for dinner,” I said to him as I took a bite of food.

He gave me a side smile.

“Have you talked to Gavin today?” He surprised me by asking.

I stopped mid-bite to look at him, feeling my face redden once again.

“Why do you ask?”

He rose his brows at me.

“Just wondering. I know we are going to test him to see if he can truly be trusted with a secret this big. We might need him to help us get access to the Slayer portal and we can’t do that without him knowing the full extent of it.”

“I haven’t talked to him,” I lied, resuming my eating.

Telling from his face though, I don’t think he bought it this time. He stared at me for a moment longer and then continued eating as well.

The rest of the evening was silent. I was planning on working in the morning and then spending the evening doing a little more investigation work with Henry, so I needed to get some sleep.

I cleaned the dishes, while Henry took a shower. I didn’t say anything to him as I got into bed and shut my door. He’s been sleeping in the guest room, so I didn’t have to worry about seeing him for the rest of the night.

But as I fell asleep, my heart remained heavy, and my guilt was eating me alive.

What happened with Gavin in my car earlier, was a secret I had to keep to the grave.

…

Susanna’s POV

Susanna sat in the hotel room that she purchased just outside of town. She curled up on the bed, pressing her knees to her chest and tears dripping off her eyelashes delicately.

She hadn’t heard that voice in her head since she left the jail, and she wasn’t sure what it wanted her to do beyond getting this room and remaining inside for the next unforeseen future.

“Susanna…” the voice said in her mind, causing her entire body to stiffen. “It’s time… you know what you must do.”

“Please…” Susanna pleaded. “Don’t make me do this…”

“You don’t have a choice! You are going to the restaurant and using your powers to burn the building with everybody, including Erin, inside.”