Thirteen
There wasa huge amount of fuss over getting me out of the hospital, but it resolved pretty quickly after Rowan started barking orders at the nurses. He wasn’t a vampire yet, but you wouldn’t know it from how they behaved around him. My hand was bandaged, instructions on my care given—although I felt remarkably fine—and I was sent home, this time in Caesar’s car.
A thought dawned on me. “Ace’s car? It was…”
“We got it. Don’t give it a second thought. A vampire got the douchebag who went after you. He was drained. I meanreallydrained. No blood left in his body. From what I understand, that’s hard to do. Every last drop takes more energy than most of them want to apply to any given feed. That’s personal.”
I didn’t have an explanation for him. “Maybe I’m not the only one he’s hurt. Maybe there’s a vampire with a grudge, and I just got lucky.”
Caesar reached over to take my hand in his. “Wegot lucky. If he had killed you, I might have begged for the change tonight.”
“Seems we might both be dying.” I meant to say it lightheartedly, like it would be funny, since we both knew now that the death was coming, but my voice cracked, thus ending the idea that I was at all lighthearted about the situation.
He squeezed my hand. “Absolutely not. You’renotdying. We worked out what to do about that. Can’t let the whack job who wants to be a vampire, Doc Archie, accidentally get in the way, but no, you’re not dying. The less you know, the better, but trust me. Okay? Trust me.”
I did. I completely, absolutely believed every word he said, like I always had. “I do.”
“Good.” He brought my hand to his lips. “You look so much better.”
“Like nothing happened. That can’t be normal.”
He frowned. “No, it’s not. But what is normal anymore? It’s like… It’s like everything that should be both is and isn’t. I don’t know. I don’t get it. And on top of that, I don’t care.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I’m still tired. That’s pretty much it.”
“Well, it probably doesn’t help that you were out cold in a healing sleep. We barged in because we were sort of annoyed Tanner took off to see you and didn’t take us with him. You needed to sleep longer. Well, maybe we were also really anxious to see you again, since we were unceremoniously kicked out of your presence when you most needed us.” He frowned. “And maybe I’m annoyed at myself because I didn’t have the same idea as Tanner when it came to sneaking in.”
I shook my head. “We all have things we’re good at. Sounds like Tanner knows how to be sneaky. I think you’d probably be more likely to kick down the door.”
His body shook as he laughed. “For you? Yes, I’d kick down the door.”
I liked that image. “Maybe we could keep driving? The others could come in their cars too. We’d all just keep driving. To a place where there is sunlight almost all day and no vampires. We’ll just drive and drive. Surely there must be such a place.”
“I looked it up once. Would you believe it’s in Arizona? Anyway, there are vampires there too. They battle on our side, so it’s not even someplace we could go to escape.” He shook his head. “Good thought, though.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “The Betrayer? That’s what Rowan’s father called the guy on the other side. What’s he about?”
“He and his people are the enemy. That’s all I know too. I’ll get to know more when I’ve got fangs to use against people. There are more of us than them, but they just continue to survive. My father runs the war. That’s why he’s not here most of the time. He’s their general. I think they intend for me to take on the role when I change. I don’t know. They call the other side cockroaches.”
The Betrayer. The name banged around in my head, and I wasn’t sure why. “The title would indicate he somehow betrayed someone or something.”
“Yes. How, who, and why? No idea. Big giant secret. How does one betray a vampire?” He shrugged, which moved my head and made me giggle. “I could listen to that sound all day long. Hate to tell you what it does to me.”
I lifted my head, all thoughts of the Betrayer fleeing. “Whatdoesit do to you?”
He visibly swallowed. “The same thing that happened the other morning, when you were pressed up against me, alone in my bed. I mean…I know your boundaries. You were clear about them from the start. There is no pressure from me. I shouldn’t have even brought it up. But, yeah, you have to know what you do to me. The only person really to get me so worked up. I used to think it was because I’m a vampire that I was sort of blasé and uninterested in things guys my age are supposed to be really into. I know now, I just needed you. Just you, Maci. Now I know how the rest of those guys are always feeling—the ones in school who can’t talk about anything else.”
His words heated me up inside. Yes, I’d set a limit with them. Kissing, yes; sex, no. But they were essentially vanishing from my life in a week. I couldn’t be left more of a mess than I was already going to be, if I lived at all. God forbid something went askew and I was left with a baby. I didn’t want to even consider what choices had to be made then.
No, it was better if we just didn’t do that. That didn’t mean, however, that I wasn’t really, really interested in what he was saying to me. “I have…the same reaction to you. It’s not a good idea. Maybe if we had more time? I just thought you should know.”
The tension in the car had upped considerably. I breathed heavily, so did he. Finally, and too soon, we reached Rowan’s house.
He grabbed me by the shirt, pulling me to him to kiss me, hard. Over and over again. It was only Rowan knocking on the window that finally broke us apart. Rowan lifted an eyebrow and grinned at us before he walked away. His point had been made. We were taking too long to get in the house.
“If vampires dream of their human lives, if they hold onto memories of any kind that matter, you can be sure what just happened in the car will be all I’ll ever be dreaming about.” He kissed my cheek, lingering there. “Sweet Maci, who for just a few short days, was all that crossed my mind all the time.”
I loved that. It was so meaningful to me, touched my soul so deep and profoundly, that I couldn’t even find something to say in response. It was too much to speak about. And I was sure that Caesar understood.