Free Point of No Return by Tara Fox Hall

though I won’t push.”
    Relieved I hadn’t been kicked out after all,
I hugged him again. “Be safe.”
    Devlin returned to bed, propping himself up
on one arm. “Come here, if you want a last kiss, Love.”
    I sat on the bed and kissed him again. “You
drive a hard bargain.”
    “Tell me you’ll miss me,” he whispered. “Tell
me you love me.”
    I beheld him lying there on his side, his
hair shining on the pillow, his golden eyes open and watching me. A
rush of feeling enveloped me, and I longed to throw myself into his
arms, and tell him I’d never leave. Instead, I got up on uneasy
feet and walked to the door. “I love you, and I’ll miss you,” I
said hoarsely, then shut the door quickly.
    I’d only barely been able to leave. His hold
over me was that strong. It had to be the blood he’d given me. If
he’d healed that last bruise...
    “You getting out or not?” Lash hissed loudly,
breaking my thoughts.
    We were in my driveway. How long we’d been
there, I didn’t know. I got out with my bag and purse and shut the
door. Lash nodded once, parked my truck in my garage, then walked
off down the driveway. Halfway down it, Titus appeared, and then
they both vanished.
    There was no one in the house waiting, but it
was clean, the pets even brushed, a fire warmly burning.
    “Serena, I’ll have to bring you a present,” I
said aloud. “You went over and above just watching over things.” I
beckoned to Ghost and Darkness. “Let’s go, daylight’s ending.”
    * * * *
    That night, instead of dreaming of Dev or
Danial, I had the same dream of Theo dying in my arms. I woke
screaming for him, tears on my face, then lay there panting.
    Was this some kind of premonition? Was Theo
in danger? Or was this just me needing closure?
    I needed to give him the papers. I needed to
get him out of my life. Maybe then I’d get rid of the
nightmares.
    * * * *
    The next morning, Monday, I drove the
Expedition back to Danial’s house. I brought with me a bag of
belongings Theo had left behind. Maybe it would convince him to
sign the papers without a fuss. “You’d think he’d want to,” I
bitched aloud. “God, he’s a jerk.”
    Theo had parked the vehicle of Danial’s he’d
driven to my house in his spot in my garage. Whether he had done
that to make a point or to protect it from snow, I wasn’t sure.
He’d left my garage door opener resting on the hood, next to a
haphazard pile of my CDs that had been in his truck. I’d swiped
them angrily, laying them beside me on the seat. “Who should I
offer the remote to, Danial or Devlin?” I’d said aloud. “Or should
I just put it in a drawer, because no one needs it now? I’m the one
that’s going to be travelling all the time—”
    My phone let out a beep. When I stopped at a
light, I viewed a text from Cia, that said Terian had returned, but
nothing else.
    Odd he hadn’t called me. Maybe he’d been
unable to locate Keriam’s family. Depressed, I decided to take a
few minutes and pick up lunch.
    After a fattening meal of Chinese takeout in
Danial’s kitchen, I went looking for the faxed separation papers.
Danial had left them on his desk for me in a pile. I signed them,
and marked where Theo had to put his name with yellow “sign here”
stickers, the kind we used for clients. I put that on Theo’s desk,
beside the padded envelope that had come for him over Christmas and
the DVD he’d forgotten of “King Arthur”. I remembered watching that
last one with him, chiefly his comment during the sex scene that if
it had been him there with Guinevere instead of Arthur, he wouldn’t
have needed so much help from her to get into the moment. Instead
of smashing the DVD like I wanted, I put it down gently, and got to
work. Since Theo wasn’t here yet, it made sense to get some work
done while I waited.
    There were a few emails from prospective
clients. I handled them, and then came to one from Devlin from
early this morning. He’d responded to the poem I’d