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The truth was, that after he’d left, I started to think that Jagger and I were mates.

There’d been no other explanation for the way I felt.

Why else would his scent calm me the way it did?Why else couldn’t I stop thinking about him?What other reason could there be for the way my body reacted when we’d kissed.This wasn’t just some infatuation, I felt it on a level that hadn’t existed before I’d met him.Instincts, demonic ones, had roared to life, screaming that he was mine.

I’d known who he was the moment our lips touched.I’d felt it with every part of me.If I were honest, I felt something the day he snatched me off the street and took me to treat Fern when she’d been injured several months ago.

But despite how sure I’d been, I’d still asked Agatheena what she thought when she’d come to check on my injuries the last time.The powerful, dark witch had looked at me with that piercing gaze, and said, “Of course he is, you nitwit!”Along with a few other things, but she’d definitely confirmed it.

Jagger had to feel it too.Why else had he come to say goodbye that night?Because he felt this insane connection between us as well, and the only reason he hadn’t admitted it was because there was nothing he could have done about it.I’d still been recovering, and he’d been forced by Lucifer to go back to Hell to do his lord’s dark bidding, or whatever the heck it was they did down there.

We’d both been playing it cool because neither of us wanted to make it harder on the other.Okay, maybe I hadn’t been as cool, blubbering all over the place.But I knew that’s why he always grouched and acted indifferent with me, because starting anything up before he left was impossible.I got it, and it sucked.

But I knew from Fern that it was really hard on males to stay away once they found their females, so I’d said nothing.I sent him the pictures he asked for, and I’d resigned myself to wait until he came back, when we could finally be together.

I clicked open my Nightscape messages and my heart sank.Not Jagger.Some invite to a retro house music, dance party.I tapped Jagger’s name anyway.The last message was from me, yesterday, telling him about the new healing oil I’d been working on.Above that was a picture of me in shorts and a tank top, standing in front of the bathroom mirror.My hair was crazy, and I was pulling a silly face.There was also dirt on my arms and a smudge on my cheek after working in our little cemetery’s herb garden all day.

He’d looked at it but hadn’t commented, which was standard Jagger.In a week or so, he’d ask for another picture, then vanish again.I had no idea what he was doing in Hell, something that obviously kept him very busy, and I mean,it was Hell, maybe the Wi-Fi was patchy?

I smiled.Everything would work out in the end.It was fated after all.

Shoving my phone in my bag, I got in my car and headed for home.

I’d been through some not so great things in my life, but I was still here.I’d survived.I chose to be happy every day, to push through, to soldier on.Staying positive, seeing the good in people, that was how I’d found my new coven.

Sure, there’d been another bump in the road with the attack, but now the fates were finally on my side.

I’d been through the worst.

Now it was time for the reward.

“Roll him to his side,” Jack said as he pulled the tube from the young shifter’s throat.

“What on earth is going on?”I said as I hovered my hand over his abdomen, firing up my magic.

Jack shook his head.“This is the third one tonight.”

The younger male coughed and groaned.At least he’d make it.We’d lost the overdose patient we’d treated earlier.My powers let me see anything relating to a person’s well-being, physical or mental.No, I didn’t see pictures as such, but for a moment in time, I was in a patient’s head.I could feel what they were feeling, but in an abstract way, a way that conveyed the full scope of their condition and the circumstances surrounding it without actually crippling me from the pain they were experiencing.Unfortunately, the mental sides of things—what someone suffered and how it affected them—managed to reach me, especially if it was particularly bad.“He took the same drug as the others.He thought it was safe.He just wanted a good night out.”

“Idiot,” Jack muttered.

Yep.Poor pup.

Jack Connors was a demi-demon—in other words he was half human, half demon—and had been helping demons, shifters, and others in Roxburgh for a long time.He started off working in a human hospital, intercepting cases that involved demi like him, then shifters and witches and anything not human.There’d been a desperate need for a hospital of our own.So Jack had opened a clinic and got the ambulance service up and running, and he’d been the one to hire me.Jack was awesome; no, I hadn’t felt that way when we first started working together.I may have referred to him a time or two as a giant douche-canoe.But I realized after getting to know him, he hadn’t had it out for me, he just really freaking wanted the clinic and ambulance service to work.

Jack’s phone lit up.“Another OD.”He cursed.“Dogwood Park.”

Crap.I eased our patient back, rushed to the front of the ambulance, and jumped in the driver’s seat.We’d have to drop him off afterward.

“He’s secured,” Jack called.“Go go go.”

I tore off at breakneck speed.Dogwood Park was an old industrial area that’d been purchased by a bunch of wolf shifters.They’d subdivided it into large plots, like several acres each, and had been demoing the old buildings.The plan was to turn it back into forestland and build luxury cabins for local shifters with ready cash to buy and enjoy their own piece of paradise.

And right in the middle of it all was the arena.Another new venture that had taken off.It was in an old converted warehouse and now held fights every Wednesday night.Those attending could fight or bet on their favorites and, hopefully, make a nice chunk of change at the end of the evening.

The ambulance was called there almost every Wednesday, where we patched up the idiots who went to get their asses kicked.Usually, those fighting were fast healers, but we’d had a few touch-and-go moments.There were also a lot of broken bones and dislocated joints, and those had to be set quickly or there was a risk of them healing out of alignment.

As soon as I sped into the parking lot, someone waved us over.A crowd had gathered outside the main entrance.I jumped out and rushed over to assess the situation.