My eyes bulged. "What the hell are you reading to my mate?"
Paul jerked straight, dropping the book. "I didn't hear you coming." He hooked his finger around his collar.
"I can see that. What are you reading to my omega, Paul?"
He rolled his eyes and bent down to pick up the book. He wasn't afraid of me anymore, if he ever had been. "You haven't heard of Ann-Katrin Byrde? When my next shift comes, swing by. You can listen too." He sauntered off.
I shook my head. Dammit, but I was liking that shifter more each day. I wouldn't let him know, though. Where was the fun in that? The moment I looked back at my mate, shame filled me. I'd allowed my mind to stray from him, and that was unacceptable. What Phin had done for me…
I should have been in his place. Actually, no, I should have been six feet under. Had nearly been there. Being hit by a firetruck was like… being hit by a firetruck. That my mate had felt any of that pain enraged me to the point of madness. The way we'd figured, the only reason why Phineas wasn't dead right now was because of his recent transformation into becoming a shifter. He hadn't just gained our sense of hearing and smell, but our healing and power as well. We had no doubt that the human version of Phineas would be absolutely dead right now, had he tried the same thing.
But Phineas wasn't dead. No. He was stuck somewhere in the middle. On some days, his heartbeat was steady, loud. On others, it dimmed. I couldn't get too upset at Paul for reading that story. I'd been contemplating other things I could say to get Phin to wake up. Anything to shock or arouse his system.
So far, nothing had worked.
He looked so peaceful laying in our bed. I'd slept on the floor between the bed and the cribs every night. When the babies woke in the middle of the night, I was there to feed and change them, rock them back to sleep. But we never left their dad. Not when there wasn't someone else there to be with him.
We kept shifts, each of us, even Mrs. Boxer and Denise—Tanya stayed for as long as her child brain would allow.
"So many people love you, Phineas." I sat at his side, leaning my elbows onto the bed. "I was wrong before. They can love you however they want. No way is wrong when it comes to you, mate."
Some days I spent this time begging Phineas, teasing and, when I was at my lowest, threatening him to wake up. Others, I just talked about us. How we met. How he'd been blind to how perfectly gorgeous I was for a shocking amount of time. How I followed him, wrapped around his pinky from the moment I'd seen my first cartoon rocket. "I'm so fucking glad for Elise Boxer and those sausages. That reminds me. Aver has been a little crazy about investigating Charles. Everyone grieves in their own way, as Nana says. But he got Charles's banking information. He sent Mrs. Boxer those free sausages. He knew she'd grill them inside and hoped she'd hurt herself in the process."
She had, but Phineas had been caught up in a way Charles had not expected. A way that had brought Phineas into my life.
Until the end, I believed Charles when he'd told Phin he'd never wanted to hurt him. Aver had looked up his daughter too, gleaning from hospital records Charles had packed with him. She'd been diagnosed with leukemia just before Phin's accident. Charles had kept some journals at his apartment. Most full of Phineas sightings, whether he'd healed anyone, new theories Charles had on how. We'd burned them, but not before reading every page. He'd been growing increasingly unhinged as the years passed. The biggest dip in mental stability had been when his daughter had died. He'd grown frantic, believing he still had time if he hurried.
We knew it never would have worked, but for years, Charles carried around the image of a little boy, being sewn back together seemingly by magic as his reason to never give up hope.
My cousins, Paul, and my mother had seen to that. Charles… Chuck, or whatever he wanted to be called wouldn't have hope or anything else. They'd been careful not to consume any of him, and what hadn't soaked into the ground we'd buried or thrown in the river. Everything else, from explaining his disappearance to explaining the destruction at the fire station had been a simple matter of either cleaning up or telling a story that was easy to believe.
I didn't want to think more about that man, though. He'd already taken so much from me. He wouldn't take this time too.
"You know, I told Wyatt when he was mad about Mom coming for dinner that you see the world differently. But I don't think you see it right. How could you if you believed there was a time when I could be happy living without you? I will be the father I need to be for Patrick and Madison, but I'm not whole without you, baby. Come back. Please." Emotion closed my throat.
Angrily wiping my tears, I tore Phin's shirt open, pressing my palm to his chest as he'd done me.
After being hit, I hadn't been all there, but I'd been aware enough to know what Phin had planned. I'd tried to push him off me. Tried to scream to Wyatt to try harder to get him to stop. But he'd pressed his palms to me, and I'd been healed. Why couldn't I do the same to him? If he depleted his life force to save mine, shouldn't I have that power?
I growled, yanking my hands back. I wasn't mad at Phin, but me. I wasn't strong enough to protect him like I'd promised. Not on my own.
The front door open, and Nana announced herself to the house.
Not on my own…
"Nana! Come back here!" I didn't have Phin's power—I would've felt it before now. Besides, I didn't have it because Phineas was alive. He had his power. And Phineas couldn't heal himself. He touched someone, and that someone received his power…
"I'll skin you alive!" Nana shouted after she ran in. "I thought Phin had woken up. Boy, why did you just make me run?"
I grinned, but it dropped when Nana bent over, grabbing her knee and wheezing. "I'm sorry, I just had an idea."
She straightened, revealing she wasn't even half as winded as she pretended. "What is your idea?"
You had to love that about Nana. She wasn't asking to argue. She was asking so we could put it into action. I explained what I thought. What I hoped. That Phin's power wasn't a one-way thing. It flowed. Until now, that flow had only been tested one way. But if Phin's power flowed to me, and I sent it to Nana, maybe Nana could return it.
It was crazy. I had no reason to believe this would work, except for that I wanted it to.
"Won't hurt to try," she said, her eyes crinkling. She didn't think this would work. She was humoring me.
That was fine. She didn't think it would work—I would think it enough for the both of us. Nana was wise. She heard things. But she didn't hear everything.
This was going to work.
It had to.
While Nana rolled up her sleeves, I sat at Phin's side, moving his arm so his hand touched the back of my forearm. "Okay, Phineas, we're going to wake up now. Just a simple circuit, from you to me, to Nana, and back to you." I looked up to Nana. She sat on Phin's other side, pressing one hand over his heart and the other arm stretched out for me to touch.
I hovered my hand over her arm. I didn't feel different with Phin's hand on me, but maybe I wouldn't feel it until it flowed out. I took a deep breath and touched Nana's arm.
Nothing happened.