Chapter 72

(**Rayne’s POV**) 

The sound of the heart rate monitors next to the bed, plus the fear that she almost lost him, is keeping her from sleeping. Parker pulled her up on the bed with him, but she moved to the other bed when he fell asleep. The orderly pushed the spare bed right next to his, allowing Parker to reach for her in his sleep.  

Which he did. 

Owen left about an hour ago to go check on Nyla and the baby. A little girl, who they named Orla. She is their little princess, according to Owen. He left with a look of concentration on his face. She knew what happened to Parker is weighing heavily on his mind.

All she wants to do now is take him home to their own bed. He agreed to stay until the blood tests results come in. Logically that is the best scenario here but there is something to be said about recovering from an injury in the comfort of your own bed. With a sigh, she gets up out of the extremely uncomfortable hospital bed after she removes her hand from his. 

Breakfast sounds like a splendid idea, if the sounds of her rumbling stomach are any indication. The hospital cafeteria is not a place to get what she wants. Rayne moves out to the hall to call her father to have him meet her at the little corner café, but he informs her he is already in the parking lot with breakfast. 

What a hero he is. He tells her to stay put since he will be up after he sneaks past the nurses with the food he brought from home. The policy for patients to have no outside food is silly. Parker needs red meat to help heal faster. Edmund knows him well enough to bring a bacon cheeseburger for him.  

When her father arrives to the room, he is red faced but smiling in triumph. “The head nurse busted me as I was getting off the elevator, but she smiled knowingly and let me pass.” 

“Why do you look embarrassed?” 

“She slapped my ass as I passed her.” His face turned an even deeper shade of red. Then he looks at the ground. 

“Is that bacon I smell?” Parker asks, his voice thick with sleep. 

Rayne laughs as she turns to face him. “You have a very serious addiction to bacon.” 

“Woman, I am already wounded. Why do you have to hurt me further?” 

Not wanting to argue with him about his bacon addiction, she climbs up onto the bed next to him. Edmund places his bag of food on the roll away table beside the bed. He pulls out burgers wrapped in parchment paper, two salads, and three small glasses of tea. Guess lunch food for breakfast it is. 

“I was going to bring waffles, bacon, sausage, and eggs, but we were out of all the ingredients except bacon. It slightly surprised me with the amount of bacon you two have in the freezer.” 

“Slightly?” Parker asks. 

“That was before I remembered whose freezer I was looking in. So, we ended up with cheeseburgers instead. Not that any of us are complaining about that turn of events. Now I have a question before you get released from this place. What are you going to do about Granger?” 

Rayne grimaces as she remembers what Parker told her about Granger. “We need to speak to him before we decide on his fate. I also want to talk to Arabella to see why Granger was able to shoot Parker through the protection spell we are all under. That should have stopped him from harming Parker.” 

“I think it is because he didn’t want to do it,” Parker tells her. “Whatever Killian offered him has a catch. There is more to what happened than we know, so I agree we need to find Granger to know what is going on.” 

“I can help with that,” Arabella’s voice came from the doorway. 

“How is it you always show up when shit goes bad? Not before preventing them from happening?” Edmund’s voice is laced with contempt for the White Witch. 

“Woah. What is your problem with Arabella?” Rayne and Parker ask in unison. 

Rayne watches the look that passes over Arabella’s face before it is gone. Something in the woman’s eyes makes her frown. Pain. It was there for a moment before her usual mask of indifference replaced it. It was also a look that she had never seen on her friend’s face before. What is going on here? 

“She is such a powerful witch with her spells, her two witch companions, and all her resources. Yet every time there is a problem, she shows up right after it happens. What good is your magic if you can’t stop the things you see from happening?” Edmund’s voice rose from quiet speculation to irate anger as he spoke. 

Arabella ignores him as she walks to the bed. She places three rings and a necklace on the table next to Parker’s meal. One ring is much smaller than the others. It looks like it will fit on an exceedingly small finger. The necklace is a fire opal on a leather corded string.  

“We imbue these rings with the same protection spell that we did in the bar's basement. They are for your family, Parker. The smallest ring is specifically for baby Orla. It will grow as she grows. The necklace is for your father. I was going to send them to you with Lynn when she comes to visit in a few days but brought them myself after I had the vison of what happened to you.” 

“This means a lot to me, thank you, Arabella.” Parker touched the jewelry with a light caress.  

“They will need protection from what is chasing them. However, being here with you with help keep their monster at bay for now. I will put up wards on their house when they are released from the hospital. Jazmine and Lynn are already preparing what is needed.” 

“What can you tell us about Granger? How was he able to shoot Parker?” 

“The man did it because they did not give him a choice. Someone he loves was threatened if he didn’t. It was the fact that you know him well, that you didn’t perceive him as a threat, and that he didn’t want to do what they forced him to do. That is an unpleasant combination of things that allowed him to get past the protection spell.”

“Did you find him?” Parker asks. He picked up his burger then takes a big bite as he waits for her response.  

“Yes. He and his mate are safe now.” 

“His mate? He told us he didn’t have one.” Rayne says in surprise as she recalls the conversation. She and Granger talked one night at the bar, not long after they opened Shadows Retreat for the first time. He was sad that he had yet to find his mate.  

“Yes, at the time he told you that, he was telling the truth. Granger found her a few weeks ago. Their bond is still new. So, with her being threatened with death, he reluctantly agreed to do what Killian asked of him.” 

That explains why he could shoot Parker. Now the next question is whether Owen will go back to Ireland like Killian wants. Now that Nyla has given birth, she can fly in a few weeks if he goes back. Will he leave her here while he goes to deal with his old boss? That sounds like something Parker would do, so it wouldn’t surprise her if Owen did just that. 

*I wouldn’t leave you alone to go face my death.* Parker growls through their link making her look down at the floor.  

She knows in her gut that if it were her life or his, he would go. Knowing how much the brothers are alike, Owen would do the same for Nyla and their daughter. Let’s just hope that it won’t come to that choice.  

“What good are you to them if all you can do is give them false hope? We all know that there is more ugliness in our world than there is good. How can you calmly stand there and tell them that everything will be fine?”  

Edmund rages at Arabella. His face is now a shade of red that makes Rayne worry for her father. Why is he so angry with Arabella? She has been nothing but kind, helpful, and genuine during all the time they have been friends. Why would her father be hateful towards her now? 

A sudden impossible thought occurs to Rayne. Her father is acting very much like Argyle has been with Jazmine. Can it be that Arabella is his second chance mate? Or is it something far more painful? She knows her father is still in the freshly grieving process as his memories have been returned to him. Time may have passed for the rest of the world, but in his mind, the past is his present. 

“I have been with them far longer than this version of you has been. I have been there for the both of them for the last four years. When you were still wandering around in the dark, singing for food, sleeping in gutters, I was here with them both. I was there with Parker when Rayne was shot by that Dark Bitch. Where were you?” Arabella’s red hair is flowing around her head like a halo. Her eyes have gone to a shade of green, so dark that they look black. The air in the room thickens as her anger spikes. The lights in the room flicker as she raises one hand to swipe at a tear that rolls down her cheek. “Oh yeah, that’s right, you were a stranger with no idea who he was.” 

With one last look at Rayne, Arabella vanishes like she was never there at all, leaving everyone in the room shocked by her outburst. Parker looks at Edmund with a look that showed his clear dissatisfaction with what just happened. There are no words to describe the feelings coming from him through their link. He is pissed at the way her father treated their friend. 

“Just what the hell was that about, Edmund?”  

“What did Arabella ever do to you to deserve that kind of treatment? She helped you regain your memories. She helped us when Wilson attacked the bar to kill me. Arabella has been nothing but kind, helpful, and a genuinely good friend. Why did you attack her?” 

Edmund looks at the floor as he swallows hard. Rayne can tell he is struggling with what he just did. When he clears his throat and shuffles from one foot to the other, she can tell whatever he has to say isn’t something he wants to talk about. 

“Does this have to do with why she seemed so familiar to you when you first met her? Is there more to your relationship with her than you like to admit?” 

This time when her father looks up at her, she knows she hit a cord of truth in his thoughts. His eyes are full of pain, then guilt, then they settle on anger. All of which she understands. If Arabella really is his second chance, it is something that he isn’t ready for right now, if he ever will be. 

“I felt it at your wedding. I asked her how long she knew, and she just gave me that look of hers. You know the one I am talking about. The look that tells you she is very aware of what you are thinking. Then she dropped a big bombshell on me when she was here for your baby shower.” 

“Wait,” Parker’s voice sounds shocked as he figures out what Edmund is referring to. “Arabella is your second chance?” 

Two tears streamed down Edmund’s cheeks as he looks over at Parker. “Yes.” 

The depth of emotions that Rayne can see all over his face makes her walk to him. She pulls him into her arms as he breaks down into sobs. A few grunts from Parker make her look up at him. He has gotten off the bed to walk to the open door. He closes it, then joins them in a group hug. 

“I am not ready for this, Rayne. I love your mother so much. She is still here in so many ways. How can I just forget all that we shared and move on with another woman?” 

“Mom would want you to be happy, Papa. I understand you are still grieving her death. I don’t think Arabella is forcing you to do anything you don’t want to. If she were, she would not be living in France still, she would be here with you. You are not giving her enough credit.” 

“You don’t understand!” Edmund pulls away from them both to pack up the remains of his lunch.  

“Then tell us.” 

“The bomb she dropped makes me hate her.” His eyes are wild when he looks back at Rayne. 

What in the world could she have told him that made him hate her like this? What secrets has she been hiding all this time? Something Arabella said when they were in France makes her frown. Not all family is blood related. When she said she chose Rayne and Parker long before she met them, there were no questions about it. Now there are questions about what she meant by that.  

“Did she see this in a vision? That you two would be mates one day?” 

“Eight years ago, she had a vison of you before you left Jade Moon. I was a ghostly figure behind you. Parker was off to the side on a motorcycle with his face turned slightly towards you. Sebastion was on the other side of you, with his face looking away from you towards someone else. She saw how all of this would go long before it ever happened. In her vision there was an aura surrounding me that told her I would be someone important to her in the future.” 

What the fuck? Arabella saw all of this in a vision years before they met. Why did she keep it all to herself? Rayne knows from what she has read that visions don’t always come true. They are often a guide or a warning for future events.  

“What bomb did she drop on you to make you hate her? Not all vision witches have come true. They are glimpses of what could be, or warnings of what will happen.” 

“Arabella has known that I am her mate since the day she came to help me get my memories back. She told me she saw my return to your life the day before I showed up at the bar. It was in that vision that she knew who I would be to her.” 

“Why would that make you hate her?” Parker asks. 

“Since I met her, I felt drawn to her. I haven’t thought about it much, but now I know why. She has known the entire time but has done nothing about it. Why?” 

“Because she knows you are not ready. She knows you are still grieving for your mate. Did it occur to you she is keeping her distance from you out of respect for the loss you have endured? She was there when you remembered what happened, Edmund. Arabella was in your mind as you relived that trauma. You and Argyle are assholes to reject what the Moon Goddess is giving you.” Parker walks back to the bed. “I am tired. I think a nap will do me good.” 

Rayne walks to him to give him a kiss, then she drags her father out of the room. Her first plan of action is to go home to call her friend. It is time Arabella tells her everything. From that first vision to the day they met, to the day she knew her destiny was with Edmund.  

Powerful emotions get the better of people at times. Makes them speak and act rashly in the heat of the moment. Regret creeps in after the dust settles, but often it comes too late. The damage done is often unrepairable.