With a loud gasp from Brody, Kipp shot out of his body and vanished from my line of sight. I closed my finger around the trigger and the gun exploded, sending vibrations roaring down my arms that were strong enough to rattle my teeth.
Brody fell to the ground.
I ran forward with the gun still straight out in front of me. I stood over the top of Brody, pulled the trigger again and his body jumped. Blood poured from his mouth as he coughed. I screamed as I never had before, closing my eyes, and I fired again and again.
“You can stop now.”
Click, click, click.
A hand closed around mine and I realized the chamber had emptied and all that remained was the click of the trigger. I opened my eyes to find Zach staring at me with concerned eyes. “Did I do it?” My voice trembled and my blood ran cold.
Zach smirked—I thought, since his face looked swollen and bloody—and he glanced at Brody. “I’d say that he’s dead.”
Brody definitely no longer moved. Blood layered his cotton white shirt and his eyes were wide open, staring at the sky above. An emotional breakdown drifted up as I realized I’d just taken a life. I gasped a shuddering breath and dropped the gun as if it burned my skin. Tears filled my eyes and I nearly fell apart, but a voice distracted me.
“Tess,” Kipp whispered.
I spun on my heels and the confused look on his face momentarily held off the breakdown. But as I stared into his wide eyes, the horror of this situation dawned on me.
Brody had been the killer, the case had been solved and Kipp’s reason to stay had left.
“No. You can’t go yet. I thought we’d have longer—at least a while to do the DNA testing. No, this can’t be happening.”
“Tess,” he said again.
I ran toward him and fell to my knees. He joined me so we were face-to-face. He cupped my cheek and the cold air created frostbite against my hot flesh. I welcomed it because it meant he hadn’t left me. “I love you, you can’t go. I need you here.”
“I love you too,” he replied, cool and collected as always. “But Tess…”
I closed my eyes tight, not wanting to see him go. I couldn’t watch him vanish. “No, no, no. I don’t what you to go. I don’t care if that makes me selfish, I’ll be self-centered then. I want to keep you forever, or at least until I’m ready to join you, which isn’t right now, by the way.”
“Tess…”
I opened my eyes and raised my head, wanting to scream at the heavens above. “He’s mine. You can’t have him. I won’t let you have him.”
“Tess.” His voice sounded much more impatient now.
“What?” I looked back at him, a little annoyed myself. “Can’t you see I’m talking to God?”
He grinned. “Yes, I can see that.”
“Well then, what is it?”
He never said anything, but simply stared at me intently. The seconds ticked by while I found myself lost in the depths of those stunning eyes that could give me a lifetime of happiness if allowed.
My panic lessened and my sense of mind slowly returned. I glanced around to see Zach had a phone to his ear with one hand, while the other pressed down onto Eddie’s wound as he rolled in pain. I looked back to Kipp and his grin became a full-blown smile.
It took a split second for me to fill in the rest. I’d misread his wide eyes. He hadn’t experienced fear—it’d been surprise. The unbelievable had happened. “You’re still here…”
“Apparently so.”
“What…” I couldn’t wrap my head around my reality. “What does that mean?”
His smile said it all. “It means we have more time—”
“Tess,” Zach interrupted. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” I said it, but realized that maybe I shouldn’t have answered so quickly. I had taken a life—killed someone. Could I even accept that now? No, I couldn’t. But as Kipp trailed his finger along my hand, I realized no matter what happened, no matter how much more there was to learn about my ability and all the shit that’d come along with that, I still had him. “I’m fine as long as you’re not going anywhere.”