Jesus had to duck his head to watch Michaela’s face as she patched up his forearm. Her expression was tight with distress and her amazing blue eyes were nearly sapphire with worry. She deftly applied the butterfly bandages, but as she went to wrap his forearm, she turned her attention to Melissa as she stitched up a deep cut on Benjamin’s cheekbone. Vampire healing would then neatly finish the job.
“You may want her to put a couple of stitches in your arm, too,” Michaela said to Jesus as she turned back to him.
“This will do fine,” he said.
She nodded and finally met his gaze. He hated seeing the distant look there, and the hard-set line of her normally generous lips. “I have to go,” she said simply, and started to rise.
“Michaela.” He reached out for her.
She shook him off. “I have to finish this, J.”
He set his jaw. “Okay. Then let's go,” he said, but she laid a hand on his shoulder to keep him from standing.
“I have to do this. Alone.”
His gut tightened at the thought of her not only facing a monster like Connall on her own, but with the realization that even if she survived, she intended to keep going it alone. To a future without him in it.
“Michaela. There's no reason for you to do it by yourself,” he said.
She hesitated, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. Then she murmured, “I love you, J. But loving you makes me weak. It makes me distracted, and it'll get both of us killed.”
She loved him.
He didn't get a chance to savor her words, let alone respond. She burst out of the condo in a surge of vamp speed.
He shot out of his chair, intent on following her, but found his path blocked by Benjamin.
“Let her go, Jesus. She has to do this on her own,” the asshole said.
He got right in the other man’s face. “You call yourself her friend? And yet you're willing to let her fucking get herself killed?” He shoved at the other man, but it was like trying to move a mountain of rock.
“She's stronger than you think,” Benjamin answered calmly.
Jesus stabbed a finger into the bastard’s immovable chest. “She hasn't recovered from what your brother did to her,” he ground out, and Benjamin winced at the reminder. “And she just fed Ryder. She’s not even close to 100 percent.”
Benjamin didn’t budge. “She has to do this on her own, and when she does, she'll come back to you,” he said with the unnerving sureness of intimacy, making Jesus even more furious.
“How the hell can you know that?” he demanded ungracefully, too worried to back down.
Benjamin smiled sadly and his emerald eyes came alive with painful emotion. “Because she's never loved anyone before, much less said it out loud.”
The words practically echoed in the ensuing silence.
Jesus so wanted to believe he was right. That somehow her reluctant love for him made her stronger, not weaker as Michaela had insisted. That she really would come back to him.
But all of that did little to quell his fears. He needed to get to her. Now.
He tried to push past the other man again, but Benjamin refused to step aside. A moment later, Diana appeared at the top of the stairs and came down to them.
He hoped she of all people would understand, but she had the same grim-faced determination on her features as the giant Slayer.
“She'll be fine,” Diana said. “And she'll be back. Go home and wait for her,” she urged. Though he could tell she was as concerned as he was about Michaela.
“We both saw what Connall did to Ryder, Di. How can Michaela hope to best a fighter like him?” he asked, pleading for them to relent and help him go after her.
“I know, Jesus. Believe me, I’m afraid too,” Diana said.
Benjamin said, “I’m not. Michaela is strong and she’s smart. She’ll know how to handle Connall Burk.”
Jesus bit back from pointing out how badly Benjamin had judged his own damn brother. The low blow would accomplish nothing.
Diana said again, “Go home and wait for her. Be there for her, because she will need you when she’s done with her vengeance.”
Jesus looked away from his longtime friend and shook his head. He heaved a deep sigh, because even if he wanted to go after Michaela now, she had too much of a head start. He’d never find her. And even if he could locate and follow the blood trail that Connall was likely leaving behind, he wouldn't reach them in time to help. Or so he told himself.
And he almost believed it.
Sensing that he had caved, both Benjamin and Diana moved away from the door to let him pass, and he walked out. He took the elevator down to the ground floor and stood staring toward the park where Michaela had likely gone in search of her father.
He turned and started walking. He located the blood trail at the corner and followed it all the way to Central Park. As the sun disappeared and daylight ebbed, however, it became impossible to follow the trail in the growing darkness.
Cursing, he almost relented. Suddenly, it occurred to him that he had one other option for finding her.
Punching in the code they had agreed on in case of emergencies, he activated the GPS tracking on her smartphone.
And as a bright blip started blinking on the screen, he smiled.
No way was he leaving her to face that monster alone.