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Liam sat up, putting me in his lap. He stared at the guys. “I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Randy said. “It was the familiar.”

Liam nodded, but he didn’t look as if he fully believed him. None of us would’ve been able to take that serpent familiar on. It wasn’t just a demon’s plaything. It had a mind of its own. It could’ve went to Dupre once we expelled it from Liam, but it didn’t. Instead… I looked toward the balcony. The others followed my gaze. “There was someone else here.”

Travis shook his head. “They’re not here anymore. I can’t feel anything but us.”

“Jay?”

“I don’t bloody care right now,” Gabe said, pulling himself to his feet, and then helping me up. “Let’s just get back to the house.”

I waited as Liam got up after me, and then I took his hand. I wasn’t going to be letting that go anytime soon.

Chapter Twenty-Two

We all squeezed together as close as we could in the living room. I sat on Liam’s lap while Randy was right next to us. Gabe sat next to him with Travis pulling a chair up next to Liam and me. It was a couple days after the big fight and Gabe had begged us all to watch the football/soccer games that were on TV.

The superiors had come and gone. They, along with the guys, cleaned up Dupre and the poor people at Ren’s place. Randy gave him a heads up before they got there, telling him to go stay someplace else for the time being. The Order wouldn’t approve of the kind of ‘work’ Ren did and was bound to try to do something about it if Ren was there. Plus, it worked in our favor because Ren wasn’t there to tell them anything about me. Not that the Order wasn’t skeptical.

Amazingly enough, Anna had made a full recovery. Since Dupre was dead, we couldn’t really ask him what he’d done to her even though we were positive he was involved somehow. She may have been his first attempt, so something hadn’t gone quite right with it. In any case, Murphy called Travis the day after Dupre died to tell him how much better she was doing. She was now home in their cute little house instead of in some psych ward.

Liam and I had been attached at the hip since we got him back. The other guys were getting antsy, I could tell, but I was just so scared of losing him again. Travis had told us on the way home that night that he used Liam’s own powers to stop Dupre and get the familiar off him. We knew Liam was still connected to us because of the way he drained my magic, so he figured it would work the other way as well. With the five of us working together, plus the power from the Order pentagram, we were able to expel the familiar and take care of Dupre—finally.

I was relieved to see him go. He wouldn’t be around to hurt anyone in Salem anymore. No more frazzled sorority houses, or cracked out witches, or sad people strangled to death by a Liderc. Jay was out there. He knew we’d killed off Dupre and he still hadn’t gotten me yet either. That was still one thing I couldn’t fathom. I could understand Dupre wanting revenge on me for giving him a fake voodoo doll, but Jay? As far as I knew, I didn’t know the guy at all.

In the aftermath, we’d told Liam what Gabe’s grandfather had said about me making the coven implode. He only laughed. “You think I didn’t know that already? Gabe and Norah are the worst liars in this place.”

Like the rest of us, though, it didn’t really change anything. We were together, and we were staying that way. Implosion or not, we would come to that problem if it happened. If not, we would continue to do what we were brought together to do—help save Salem from lunatics like Dupre and Jay.

The only piece of new information that startled Liam was the mention of the Reid’s. He was taking his time processing their involvement. Since we’d just gotten him back, I wasn’t going to push it.

Liam kissed my cheek, and I stared up at him and smiled. “What was that for?”

He leaned over. “For not giving up on me.”

“Never,” I said, pulling him down for a real kiss. I sat back, brushing my finger across the orange all-seeing-eye bracelet I’d finally been able to give him. No more familiars for him. Ever.

Someone cleared their throat. “Don’t tell me you guys are going upstairs again.”

It was Gabe. He gave me a smirk when I looked over at him.

“You’re too busy watching your soccer game, anyway.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

“I’d give upfootballfor you,” Gabe said, emphasizing the word. He was bound and determined to make me say football one way or the other.

“Me too,” Travis said. “Easily.”

“I don’t even like it all that much,” Randy said, his eyes intent on mine.

Shit, I’d just opened a can of worms. It was a good thing we’d beaten Dupre and weren’t currently working on a case right now. As far as I was concerned, we had all the time in the world.

The End