"He's a vampire."
"Again. Scary."
Roane shifted some papers and piled them on a corner of his desk. "Vampires can't hurt you anymore. You can get that chip off your shoulder you have against us."
I shuddered in my chair. "And yet, they keep coming after me."
"Because some of us are dumb." Then he smirked. "We're like humans in that way."
"Was that a joke?" I arched an eyebrow. "Where's this new Roane come from? I thought everything was serious, the world is ending, and the Immortal needs to be protected."
"Maybe this is the real me? Maybe I'm a funny vampire underneath everything?" His hands paused as they shifted some papers into a folder. Then they continued and a smile flittered over his face. It was gone in the next instant.
I narrowed my eyes as I watched him. He might be joking about being funny, but I'd felt inside of him. He was all resolve, determination, and death bended beneath him. Then I smiled. "You've missed me."
His hands paused again and gripped the folder before he closed it and lifted his head. His eyes sparkled.
I was across the desk in an instant and in his arms. He gripped me tight as I settled on his lap, straddling him in the leather chair. I clasped behind his shoulders and breathed him in. His neck trembled slightly and then I pressed a kiss against it. He groaned and stood up with his hands underneath my legs. He held me tight against him and lifted to carry me to a nearby couch. As he laid me down, he held himself above me and studied me. His eyes were intense. Something shifted in them when he traced my face with a finger, down my cheek, around my lips, and back up the other cheek to brush some hair from my forehead. It was a loving touch and my eyes started to water as I felt the tenderness.
"What's wrong?" he asked in a gentle voice.
I tugged him down on top of me and hugged him with all my might.
"You missed me too." His voice was muffled against my neck. It teased my skin and shivers broke out over my body. I felt him smile as he added, "A lot."
It was more than that. Something in me would always yearn for Roane. When I saw him again, that something woke up. It was as if I'd been asleep till he got back and now he was back, everything else woke up too. Did he feel the same? The old question burned in the back of my head…or did he feel it for Talia?
Roane pulled away and sat up. "What's wrong?"
"Talia." I didn't hesitate. I didn't see why I should.
Roane shut down. His eyes had been open and alive. "What about her?"
"You loved her. She held the Immortal thread bef
ore me. I can't help but feel that there's a part of her inside of me and that's who you want." Most girls wouldn't have managed the first words, but I was more now.
Roane stood and crossed to a bar. After he poured himself a drink, he offered me one. I shook my head, suddenly cold. Roane moved back to lean against his desk as he regarded me. His eyes were dark. "I loved Talia. I won't deny that."
There it was. I didn't flinch.
Roane added, "I've never lied about that. I did love Talia, but I don't love her anymore."
My eyes shot to his.
"I don't know what you're really asking me, but I can guess. It's not the right time for that, but what I can tell you is that what's between us is between us. You may think Talia is a part of you, but she's not. There's nothing in you from her. She held the Immortal thread inside of her and gave it to you. You've taken the thread and you've become the Immortal. If anything, it should've been that Talia held something of you inside her when I loved her." He studied me when he was finished and then sipped his drink. His throat swallowed in a slow motion.
I gulped. When those eyes were focused on me and intense. When he said words like that, I had to grip the couch to keep myself from launching at him. I wanted to beg him to take me then and there, but I didn't. Then I fought to calm my trembling voice. "Okay."
Roane flashed a smile. "Okay? That's it?"
Someone knocked on the door at that moment. Roane turned his back to me when it opened and I expelled a ragged breath. I tried moving off the couch, but my legs were jelly.
Then Gregory spoke from the doorway, "We have an impending."
Roane didn't move at all, but everything changed; danger emanated from him. An alarm bell went off in my stomach and my jelly legs were suddenly as sturdy as stone. I stood, but stayed by the couch. I wanted to go to his side, but Roane wasn't a vampire who enjoyed the comforting damsel. When he nodded with his jaw clenched, Gregory looked at me and then closed the door behind him. He said it all in that one glance. Something was wrong and Roane wasn't telling me any of it.
"What's going on?"