Page 29 of Phantom’s Mate

Maybe she was a better way, a better mission. All his missions had been things that needed to be done to make the world a safer place. But they weighed heavy on his heart, on his soul. He’d done things just as bad as the people he’d taken out, probably.

Helping Britt would be a good thing. He would set her free, and help her move on. She deserved that. And maybe it would help him deserve that too.

With a silent promise of ‘later,’ he turned his back on his connection to Jax and headed back to the Wild Blood Crew.

When Nick got back to the compound, he made sure he stayed all the way in the spirit world. He didn’t feel like dealing with anyone in the crew, trying to explain all the things that had happened.

He felt guilty about Titan, who he knew would have worried when he never came back out of Britt’s world. Nick shouldn’t have left him hanging.

But… hell. He deserved a life—or an afterlife—of his own, right? He’d talk to Titan later, make things right. But at the moment there was an idea nagging at him. One so obvious he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before.

Up the hill in the woods beyond the house was a grave with a stone marker. This was where Brandon had buried Nick’s body, after he’d come here and found what Jax and the others had done to him.

Nick didn’t remember that. He just remembered afterwards, his ghost finding its way out of a gray formless nothing, to this place, with Brandon standing by his grave, and the ghosts of their old crew—their first crew—here with him.

Ranger, Fargo and Jeb.

The other panthers had moved on after the Wild Bloods took down Raines, but Nick hadn’t.

Later on, Titan had carved a headstone for him.

Nick Cadoulec

Not gone

Not forgotten

That first part after his name always made him smile, and the second part made him… hell. Made him feel mushy as fuck, to be honest, which he hated.

Nobody came up here much—why would they, when he was around all the time? So it made a good place for hiding secrets.

He reached his spirit hand into the dirt under the gravestone, and felt cold metal. It was an amulet—a large gold coin—of dragon make. Magical, of course, because dragons fucking breathed magic.

Like other dragon artifacts made specifically for people who walked between worlds, it was real and solid in all the worlds. So he could keep it here, hidden beneath his own gravestone, yet still reach out of the spirit world and pull it in.

Holding the amulet in his hand, he concentrated on his friend DB.

DB was a thirteen-year-old dragon shifter, and possibly the most proficient world walker in—well, in all the worlds. He could rip doors through spacetime and physically cross into the spirit world, stepping out into any world he wanted—which most full-grown dragons couldn’t even do.

He and Nick had become friends, and hung out sometimes in the spirit world, as well as here with the Wild Bloods. A while back, he’d given Nick this amulet, that he said would ‘call him forth’ from wherever he was.

Nick figured this was a good time to use it. If anyone could get Britt out of her prison—even temporarily—DB was the one.

So he held the amulet between his hands, pictured DB in his mind, and put out the call.

Chapter 14

Since DB was a good-hearted kid and liked to help people (though he’d probably eat turds rather than admit it), he agreed to go with Nick to try to transport Britt out of her self-induced prison.

And since he was addicted to Earth snack cakes—especially Twinkies and Dingdongs—it was easy for Nick to save the kid’s pride by pretending he was bribing him, instead of DB doing him a favor.

After that, once it was a decent hour for visiting, Nick went over to Titan’s to deliver his apology.

When it was over he got a mostly-deserved reaming out from Mari, highlighted by “We thought she really was a halaika and had sucked your soul out and eaten it for breakfast, and there you were eating her for breakfast the whole time. Never mind letting anyone know you were okay. Titan was worried sick! We should unfriend you!” Followed by an enormous virtual hug, followed by a slitty-eyed glare and a muttered, “Bad kitty. No catnip!”

After which Titan, with a smirk, agreed to provide DB with snacks.

Now Nick and DB were outside the barrier to Britt’s spirit world bubble, DB munching a Dingdong and walking back and forth, prodding at it.