27. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aiden
“ C alder,” a slight whimper escapes me that I refuse to be embarrassed over, “I’m not going into that cave. There’s no way in hell.” Fear curls through my stomach and I have a terrible feeling. Like my feet do not want to step into that pitch-dark area. It’s worse than the feeling I got when we walked into the castle. It reminds me too much of the casket that I managed to get buried in.
My hand tightens on his as I try to take a step back from the mouth of the creepy as fuck looking cave. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Matty nodding in agreement. It does nothing to make my vampire move which only has me growling under my breath.
“Maybe we should come back when it's light out,” I explain and Matty nods again.
“Are you scared, little bat,” Calder asks looking down at me with just a hint of amusement shining in his eyes. I let out a frustrated breath because I didn’t find any of this amusing. In fact, I would very much like to go back home and curl up in his ridiculously large bed next to him. Maybe binge-watch some Supernatural right about now instead of being here in New York in front of this extra creepy ass cave.
“Of course, I’m fucking scared,” I grit out as I glare between him, Matty, and the opening of the cave. I swear, I didn’t sign up for this shit.
“Come on, Aiden. We’ll just go in, find the tomb, grab the blood, and then we’ll leave. Simple as pie,” he murmurs getting in front of me and officially blocking out the sight of the cave, “we’ll be back on our way home before you know it.”
“Let’s hope so,” Matty mutters, and Calder gives him a sharp look over my shoulder as if to tell him to shut the hell up. I swallow hard before giving him a little hesitant nod as I begrudgingly drop my shoulders in defeat.
“This is the worst,” I grumble crossing my arms over my chest.
“Don’t worry, Aiden, I promise I’ll keep you safe no matter what.”
“Famous last words,” I grumble out of the corner of my mouth. He either didn’t hear me or he’s currently choosing to ignore me.
I don’t know which one I prefer as we step into the darkness of the slimy wet cave. Both Calder and Matty sticking close to me, and I’m not sure if I should be offended.
This feels like such a bad idea, and what if we don’t find what we’re looking for here? What if we get trapped inside? I feel like I’m on the verge of hyperventilating as I start to already feel claustrophobic, and I’m not even inside the cave yet. I bite down hard on the inside of my cheek breathing through my nose to try and regain some control over their overwhelming feelings.
Every instinct in me is screaming to run and never look back. I’m half tempted to listen, but then what would happen to me? Would I just end up getting worse? I don’t even care if that makes me seem like a wuss. I’m fine with being a wuss. A very safe and still alive-ish wuss. Yep, that’s me. We can figure out a different way to fix me, right?
“You’re doing so good for me, little bat. I’m so proud of you,” Calder murmurs and I can’t help the warmth spreading through me from his praise. Stop that, I tell myself, it’s not the time to get the warm fuzzies while walking into a dark scary cave. I give him another little glare because he knows exactly what that shit does to me. He gives me a wink over his broad shoulders.
“Maybe when we get home, I’ll give you a treat,” he murmurs and the look he gives me has me shifting awkwardly as my cock twitches in anticipation. Asshole. Very sexy asshole, but still.
“Man, I do not need to know what goes on between you two,” Matty grouses out.
“We’re all adults here, Matty,” Calder grumbles, “start acting like one.”
“Stop that, Calder,” I grumble.
“Stop what?” He cocks an eyebrow at me.
“Stop trying to turn me on in this fucking cave,” I blurt out and then worry about my life feeling embarrassed that I just said that in front of Matty.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, little bat,” I hate that I can still hear his amusement crystal clear.
“I swear, you’re insatiable,” I grumble under my breath, but of course, he hears that as he lets out a rough chuckle. I shiver from pleasure at the sound, and Matty snorts beside me. His little distraction did work even though I would never admit it out loud. No need to inflate his already huge ego even more.
After what seems like forever but realistically was maybe fifteen minutes of walking I find myself standing at the foot of a stone tomb that looks all but forgotten. Stange engravings are etched into the stone which has my already nervous ass starting to truly freak out. The same kind of markings that were at the front of the cave.
“Calder,” I whine tugging on his sleeve, not liking this one bit, “maybe we should go back, and come up with another plan. You know, a safer one. One that doesn’t have to do with the original vampire.” I mean, this was a farfetched plan at the best of times. What if Matty was right about the rumors? What if the fucker decides to eat our faces off?
Calder turns toward me and places his hands on my cheeks forcing me to look at him. His finger curling in my hair has me letting out a little sigh.
“Aiden, we need to do this,” he says softly but sternly, leaving no room for arguing, “I refuse to lose you. I need to do this. I need you.”
My next breath gets stuck in my throat as I take in how truly serious he is. My eyes shut with my worry, and I can feel him lean forward pressing a soft kiss against my lips. I slowly open my eyes and give him a curt nod. He releases me to go around to the side of the stone coffin and slowly begins to push the lid off.
When he slides it back enough and peers inside his face morphs into one of pure shock and dismay.
“What? What’s wrong,” I blurt out as my chest tightens with anxiety.
“He’s not here-”
To be continued.
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