“Maci.” A low voice interrupted my rest. “Okay if I stay here next to you?”
It took me a second to recognize Tanner. My mind was shut off, already drifting back to dreamland. I was in my bed but had no memory of getting there. Morning must be coming soon if he was getting in next to me. “Of course.”
I think I said that. It must have been something close, because the bed dipped. “If you get out of bed, try to be careful with the sunlight. I don’t know what you know about it. The sun won’t kill or scald me, but it burns like hell.”
I rolled toward him. “I won’t.”
His next words were whispers. “Sleep well and long. Have good dreams. And if I can never speak again, thank you for this miracle of my voice for even a little while. You have three protectors now.”
That thought followed me into my dreams.
* * *
“How did it go?” I watched Tanner from across the room as he stared at the crystal lake in front of us. He jumped and I tried not to smile. When he got lost in his thoughts, he really got lost in them. Swept away like he wasn’t there at all.
He held out his hand, and I walked toward him, taking it. “How do you think it went? Badly. No one wants war. I think they might just give Fredrick what he wants to avoid it. I can’t even blame them. They have children to protect. It’s bad enough the humans could one day find out about us. They don’t want to put them at risk fighting other vampires. He’s being more aggressive. I spoke to them, assured them that we had no intention of putting anyone’s children in danger, but… you can imagine.”
I wrapped my arms around him, drawing him close. “Thank you for trying. My fear is that with Fredrick, there will be almost no children born. He’ll only be converting people he can control. Over and over again. Killing the women. Using human women to birth vampire babies because they’re easier to get rid of afterward.”
“I fear the same thing.” He drew back to look at me. “The first person he’ll want to kill is you. He hates you.”
Well, I did publicly humiliate him once, when he’d been advocating to eliminate the rules that kept humans safe from us and us away from the humans. In retrospect, not well done on my part, but the man was a jackass and I never had tolerance for selfish ignorance. It wasn’t that we disagreed—he was cruel for the point of being cruel, power hungry, and too young to be such a megalomaniac.
Or maybe there was no age limit on that.
“Don’t worry about me. You have enough to do with this happening.” I sighed. I didn’t want any of them killed. “I love you, Tanner.”
He tipped up my chin until I looked him in the eye. “I’d destroy the world for you. Any vampires who tried to hurt you would be dead in a second. Any human, too. The entire world will get out of your way, because you are the most important person in the universe.”
It wasn’t actually in his nature to be violent, but when it happened, he proved the most lethal of all of us. I wrapped my arms around his neck. “If anything were to happen to me, I need to know that you’re going to be okay. That you’re all going to be okay.”
He shook his head. “My darling, there is nowhere you could go that I won’t follow you. That includes death. If anything happens to you, I absolutely willnotbe okay. Not until I’m with you again.”
I kissed his bottom lip, biting down on it lightly. “I need to feed. Is it a good time for you?”
He twirled me around until my back pressed against a nearby tree. “It’s always a good time. It always will be.”
* * *
I was having such strange dreams lately, casting the guys in fantasy vampire roles when they were clearly not the same men. I didn’t know who I was in the dreams, either. Couldn’t I just dream about flying or something, like normal people? Or be on a boat? Or any number of things?
I contemplated the weird dreams as I drank orange juice and ate eggs at three in the afternoon. I stared at my phone, which really was on its last legs. The screen sort of wiggled sometimes, but I had a text that I got the job. It made me smile, even though I had no one to share the news with currently. It would be hours, and even then, we might not get around to discussing it. I hadn’t gotten to tell them a thing the night before.
It didn’t really matter, since vampires were incredibly self-centered. I knew it firsthand and better than most. Mine wanted to protect me, and they were taking care of me. If we couldn’t have daily round-up conversations, it was going to have to somehow be okay. I sighed. There were a lot of things I would need to learn to be fine about.That word again.I was thinking it all the time.Fine.
I stared at my wrists. They were a good reminder of the full situation.Finewas a lot better than my life just over a week ago.Who knows where I’ll be this time next week?I needed to get out of my funk.Somehow. Everything was so much better with Tanner there. Since he’d arrived, it was as if a hole I didn’t realize I had filled in a bit. Not entirely, but a little bit—significant enough that I could feel it.
With the hours remaining until they woke up, I studied for my GED. I also responded to the email offering me the part time job telling them I would take it and be there the next day. I’d already filled out the forms they needed online. My phone made replying and working online challenging—maybe I’d also purchase a laptop after I got paid.
I was grateful the vampires were taking care of my necessities, but I wouldn’t be using them to buy frivolous things for myself, even if I requested a television. Speaking of which, the new one likely filled the large box in the middle of the living room, but it was too big for me to handle, so I had to leave it.They must have brought it in after I conked out on Tanner as though I’ve never slept before.
Forcing my mind into the zone where I could actually study proved challenging, as though doing so was a muscle I needed to flex but hadn’t used in too long. I shivered and rubbed my arms. It wasn’t cold, so I wasn’t sure why I felt chilled. Still, I rose, leaving the book and all thoughts of anything else as I turned and walked from the house. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. My mind went blank.
I blinked. I found myself in the woods and staring at a man—no, a vampire, because his eyes are red—who regarded me quietly. “This is going very well. Things are finally moving in the right direction. Although I wouldn’t have planned the detour that the last year was on you, daughter, I will say that we may finally get where we need to go.”
The sun blazed down, the trees offering some shade, but it was still absolutely daylight out.Did he say daughter?“Daughter?”
“We do this every time. It’s unfortunate. If I could let you remember, I would. There is very little I would enjoy more.”