“Yeah.” The sounds haunted me. I heard them all the time, even when they weren’t blaring. When I closed my eyes at night, they’d cut through my dreams—pulling me from sleep—when they weren’t even sounding.
“The vampires are new, though,” I said.
“What do you think drew them here? The portal or something else?”
If only I could figure it out, then maybe we could go a night without
the sirens. “I don’t know. If I could get up, I’d go after Mr. Dawson. He gave me a look right before he ran off…but I can’t.” Dastien was quiet in the cabin. He’d stopped moving around, but I knew he was still there. Listening. Feeling what I was feeling through our bond. But giving me the illusion of space at the same time.
But the truth was that I didn’t need the space.
With all the time he spent hovering in my thoughts, I would think he’d understand that by now.
I do, he said through the bond. But you haven’t had a chance to spend time with her and…I know you’re tired. We both are. I just thought maybe you needed space to confide in her.
And you think I’d tell her something I wouldn’t tell you?
No. He said the word, but it sounded like a question because we hadn’t been talking about how close to burnout I was.
I turned to look over my shoulder at him. He was in his usual pre-fight plain T-shirt, a pair of dark gray sweatpants, and no shoes. He was leaning against the door frame and watching me. His eyes had a hint of glowing amber, which told me that his wolf was still close, ready to take over if needed. He didn’t believe the fight was over yet.
“What time is it?” I hoped it was almost sunrise. If all we had to worry about were vampires, then once the sun was up, we could go to bed. His wolf was just overreacting. But if not…
“Nearly three-thirty.” He gave me a half-smile, showing me one of his dimples—as if that would take some of the sting out of it—and it kind of did.
But three-thirty meant we couldn’t go back to bed. At least not for three more hours or whenever it was that the sun rose today. “You think there will be more.” It wasn’t a question. He wasn’t wearing shoes. His eyes were amber. I didn’t need to poke around in his head to know that he thought we’d be back out there again tonight.
“I don’t know anything for certain, but there’s still a lot of night left. That wasn’t just a few vampires that got separated from their clan. There might be more.” He gave me one of his small shrugs. “But maybe we’ll get lucky, and that’s all the excitement for tonight.”
“Well, now that you’ve said it like that, there will definitely be more.”
“Chérie.” He drew the word out as if I was being silly, but he knew how my luck worked. It was shit.
“We make our own luck, prima.” Claudia gave my shoulder a quick squeeze before standing. “Lucas is coming back.” She walked down to meet him in the woods.
Dastien took her spot, sitting beside me. “You can go back to sleep if you want. I’m sure whatever Claudia wants can wait. No vampires can get inside our cabin unless we invite them in.”
“Right. But they could set it on fire or bomb it or shoot us through—”
He leaned over and kissed me, cutting off whatever ridiculous thing I was going to say next. And for a second, I leaned into his warmth. I forgot about the vampires or the scent of their burned bodies or the fact that I hadn’t slept without interruption in months.
For that moment, it was just him and me. The bond opened and I felt his happiness and love and I moved before I thought about it. I was in his lap with my hands in his short hair, and all I could think was how fucking lucky I was to have him. And how all I wanted was more time with him.
Maybe I did have some luck in this life. Maybe Dastien was my luck.
Chapter Two
Tessa
Dastien stood, and I stayed attached to him. Kissing him. Feeling thankful and warm and like I needed more.
A soft buzzing cut through my happy place. Buzz. Buzz. Buz-buz-buz. Buzzzzz. I’d tapped out that rhythm specifically for my brother’s contact. It made me pause for a second, but I shoved the worry away.
Axel was probably out at a club, having fun and drunk and wanting me to join him. He did that all the time these days. I was glad he’d made friends at college, but I was happily busy right now.
I had everything I needed right here.
More. Dastien’s voice came through our bond, and he moved to go back inside our cabin, but someone cleared their throat, and Dastien stopped.