Henry, Steven, and Richard carried Anson’s lax form to the SUV while Josiah got to his feel with Molly’s help. “I can make it there under my own steam,” he growled.

“Touchy,” she muttered. She hovered beside him as he limped to the car and eased into the passenger seat. He had to lift his bad leg in with his hands. Afterward, he sagged back, and she leaned in to look at him nose-to-nose.

“I’m still pissed at you,” he told her in a tight whisper.

She nodded, eyes darkened as she stroked his face. Her fingers were icy.

He moved when she did and clenched her to him while she buried her face in his neck. He said telepathically, <God, what you’ve put me through. I aged a decade while your phone was turned off.>

<What I put you through!> Her muffled laugh shook her shoulders until suddenly he wasn’t so sure it was laughter anymore. <Let’s agree to never go through anything like this week again.>

<Never again, milaya.> His mental voice turned husky as he pressed his mouth to the side of her wet head. <That’s a promise.>

He’d had his chance to kill Grigori. He missed it, and he wouldn’t try again. Nothing was worth risking either his life or Molly’s, or their unborn child. Nothing.

Because they would always come first.

*     *     *

The next three weeks went by in a blur of activity.

After successfully getting the Volvo out of the ditch and starting it, the group went to the new safe house. The least exhausted and injured drove the Volvo back to the motel and collected bedding and supplies while the others tucked Anson into bed.

Josiah and Molly slept on a pallet on the floor beside him. The pallet was hard and uncomfortable, and they were in a basement again. But Molly settled with her head on his shoulder, and Josiah wouldn’t have traded it away for anything. He fell into a black pit and only woke again when she nudged him up so they could settle more comfortably on one of the new air beds the group had set up.

He took the opportunity to use the bathroom and drink a huge amount of water before sinking back into healing darkness with Molly’s arms around him. The next time he woke, he was alone. Her scent was still on the pillow beside him, and his phone had been plugged into a nearby wall outlet.

A quiet growl of frustration escaped him. Most of the time they had just spent together was while he’d been unconscious, and he missed lying next to her. Picking up his phone, he stared at the date and time and then surged upright. Aside from that one interruption, he had slept for over thirty-six hours.