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Nora

I can’t stop shaking.

My whole body is still strumming with adrenaline and my teeth are chattering, and though I can hear Elias distantly speaking to me, I can’t grasp onto any of the words he’s saying.

He gets us into a waiting car, says something to Travis where he’s sitting in the driver’s seat, and keeps me cradled against him while we take off into the Seattle night. The whole time, he murmurs to me, but the blood pounding in my ears makes it impossible to hear him.

After a while, I think he realizes that because he stops talking and just holds me. He strokes my back and runs his lips over the top of my head. His heart is beating fast and heavy where I’ve got my cheek pressed against his chest, and the steady strength of his arms around me is the only thing keeping me from falling apart completely.

We pull into an unfamiliar parking garage, and he lifts me out of the car and carries me into an elevator. In the quiet, the shaking only gets worse, accompanied by a tightness in my chest that makes me feel like the walls in the tiny space are closing in around me.

“Nora,” Elias whispers, pressing his forehead into mine. “You’re safe. Everything’s going to be alright.”

It calms me down. Not a lot, but enough that I can close my eyes and make it the rest of the elevator trip up to wherever he’s taking me.

The doors open with a soft ding and we step out into an unfamiliar apartment. Sleek, modern, with the same dark blue and gray color scheme as Elias’s house.

“My city condo,” he explains when he sees me looking warily around the space.

The memory of that conversation surfaces dimly, and I lay my head back down against his chest as he carries me through the foyer and into a vast, open living space that’s connected to the kitchen and dining areas. Flipping a switch on the wall, the space fills with warm light.

On the opposite side of the room, a full wall of windows looks out on downtown, and the city lights shining in through the droplets of rain scattered on the glass make the rest of the world seem distant and small. It’s a welcome feeling, to be so far away from it all, and I concentrate on that view as Elias carries me to one of the plush, cream-colored sofas in the living space and sits down.

He doesn’t speak, and I’m not sure if that’s because he knows I’m not quite ready, or there just simply isn’t anything to say right now, but I savor a few more moments of peace.

The adrenaline is ebbing, my heartbeat is slowing, and everything that happened over the last couple of hours starts to creep back in.

Daniel forced me to go with him at gunpoint.

Daniel was going to kidnap me.

Elias and his friends stopped him.

And now I’m safe, held by my kraken.

The last I saw of Daniel, he was being pummeled by a vampire and a freaking dragon, which… good. He deserves everything he has coming to him. But I don’t want to think about that right now. I don’t want to think about any of it.

Instead, I focus on the arms still holding me. Silent and stiff, I can feel the tension rolling off Elias in waves.

“How did you find me?” I ask, voice coming out croaky and hoarse.

Elias startles a little when I finally speak and pulls me closer to him. “I followed our bond.”

That thing in my chest. The one that doesn’t ache now, but sits like a mellow, comfortable warmth somewhere near my heart.

“I felt it too. Or at least I think I did.”

He lets out a harsh breath. “I thought you… I didn’t know if I’d be able to…”

When his words trail off, I reach up to cup his cheek. “You found me.”

“Always, Nora. I’ll always find you.”

I kiss him, and there’s no urgency in it. There’s not even much heat. Just a slow, tender caress and all the words I can’t say. Reassurance and comfort, calm and reunion. There’s nothing more I want in this moment than to remind him, and myself, that I’m here, safe and alive.

“Where did Blair and Cas come from?” I ask, pulling back a little.