Chapter 34
BERNADETTE CRENSHAW
Why is this room so small? The silly question pops in my head as I square off against my attacker, really wishing I weren’t wearing heels right now.
My arm smarts where he grabbed me, and nausea rolls my stomach so hard I want to puke. Why am I feeling this way?
“Just a few details about the wedding and I’ll get out of your hair, I promise. Pelican Group is paying top dollar to anyone who has the details, and I could even pay you for your time if you’re interested,” the greasy-haired reporter replies.
“No, I don’t think so,” I tell him, knowing if Frank ever does bring himself to propose, he wouldn’t want anyone knowing when it was.
Outrageous bridal things have never been my style, and I’ve always thought I’d like a small, quiet wedding, if I ever found a man I could put up with me for that long.
Who can blame a girl when men like this exist.
I try to skirt around the guy, only for him to edge closer. I narrow my gaze at the intruder as my blood begins to boil. A surge of anger snaps up my spine as my heartbeat pounds in my chest. “If you don’t get out of my way, I’m going to headbutt you,” I tell him calmly.
“Can you at least tell me when you two met? Everyone is dying to know,” the man says, blocking me again when I try to move around him as he thrusts the recorder in my face.
“I’m not telling you shit. Now get out of my way,” I snarl. An orange haze falls over my vision as I shove him with all my strength.
His back touches the wall just as a gigantic hand bursts through it and grabs the reporter by the nape of his neck.
Gasping, my jaw drops to the floor when in one smooth motion, the man is jerked through the wall, sending debris flying into the small room. I gape through the broken hole left from his body and meet Frank’s gaze, who bends low to see me through the hole left from the smaller man’s body.
He just Kool-Aid manned the wall. My heart melts as pleasure pulses in my middle. Dammit Bernie, this is no time for a lady boner.
“Did you touch her?” Frank growls, and reality catches up with me.
“He didn't touch me,” I say, trying to put him at ease.
“Are you alright?” he asks, as I blink at the reporter’s limp form in his grasp.
I'm shaking and my feet hurt, but other than that, “I’m okay,” I assure him.
Anger spreads from whatever spider senses I now have of Frank’s emotions, and I watch as Frank’s big hand squeezes the guy’s neck, before my brain catches up to stop him.
“No killing anyone! Drop the creep,” I hiss, upset at the thought of anyone showing up and seeing the new renovation. The last thing we need is to add a homicide to the situation.
“Lucky bastard,” Frank says, but does as I ask and the guy moans as he hits the floor hard.
“That wasn’t subtle, Frank,” I gripe, rushing to open the door and entering the hallway.
Wide-eyed, I glance down the hall toward the ballroom, relaxing when I hear the mayor still talking.
“How has no one noticed you're missing?” I ask him when I reach his side, warmth flooding me the closer I get.
“Where is Bruno?” Frank asks, his gaze blazing orange and his tone ten kinds of pissed off.
I reach for his hands to check for injury and find him completely unharmed, not a mark on him, while the guy moans on the floor. “He’s after the other bad guys, now come on. You’ve got your speech.”
“Did he hurt you?” he asks, ignoring what I said, his gaze brightening.
His arms come around me as he pulls me to him, as if unable to keep from touching me.
Relief courses through me because I feel much the same, needing to touch him as I run my hands up his chest. “No, he didn’t hurt me. He wanted to know when the wedding was,” I reply.
“I’d like to know that as well,” a familiar female voice calls out.
I turn around in his arms and barely withhold a squeal at the sight of Aubrey coming down the hallway toward us, wearing a beautiful blue gown with jewels the same color at her throat.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, awkwardly running toward her in my heels before I grab her in a tight hug and pick her up off the floor.
She squeezes back and I wince, putting her back down. “Ouch Vamperella, not so hard.” I wheeze when her hold turns painful fast.
“Oh my gosh, did I hurt you?” she asks, her hold gentling immediately as she pushes me away and searches over me.
I meet her gaze, and my jaw unhinges. “Dude. Your eyes are red.”
Aubrey nods, her red lips pulling into a huge smile as excitement effuses her face, making her look ethereally beautiful. “I know. It’s so cool. Check it out, I’m turning into a vampire, but like I can totally go in the sun,” she says, flashing her nails at me.
I gasp when they elongate like claws. “Just like that one Wolverine movie,” I say, touching one lightly before removing my hand.
“Right? So far this is the coolest thing I can do, but Vlad says I could get more superpowers later,” she says, and flexes her fingers so her nails retract.
“I guess you really are Vamperella now, huh?” I tell her, happiness coursing through me at how ecstatic I can tell she is.
“Where’s Vlad?” Frank says, suddenly reminding me of his presence.
“He’s around here somewhere. He wouldn’t stop talking about something weird he smelled once we got here,” Aubrey mutters.
“How did you even get here?” I ask, knowing I just told her about this last night.
I figured if Frank had an issue with me telling her, then he’d just have to have an issue.
One thing I’ll never do is keep things from her, even if she didn’t tell me about what Frank had done.
Knowing her, she was probably just scared and wanted to keep me safe.
“We took a jet and flew in early this morning because I wouldn’t shut up about it and Vlad wanted to make me happy. Oh my gosh! look at you guys,” my best friend says, her brows wrinkling as she looks me over, and her jaw dropping.
She takes me by the shoulders, and her red gaze turns back to her normal shade of blue before tears flood. Her arms go around me as she hugs me again, this time in a much lighter hold thankfully.
“Thank god, you don’t have bloody tears. Okay, why are you crying? What is it?” I ask, shifting my weight in my heels as she hugs me.
“Well, you’re his mate, aren’t you? This is the coolest ever Bernie, oh my god I’ll finally have someone to talk to about this. Oh my gosh, we really will be friends forever,” she says laughing, but then she starts sobbing again.
My eyes go wide as I pat her back awkwardly, consoling her as shock rolls through me. Mate?
“Mates?” I glare up at Frank and shake my head, signaling that we will be discussing this later.
“I’ve been so worried. Vlad is so old you know, and he says basically I’ll be immortal soon. Oh my god, Bernie. I didn’t want to be immortal without you, and now I won’t have to,” she sobs.
Superpowers and not dying does sound cool, I won't lie, but he should’ve said something sooner.
A wave of determination crests through me, and I recognize it’s not mine.
As Aubrey continues to have her little breakdown, I press a hand to my stomach.
As wonderment flows through me, I can feel Frank’s emotions inside of me somehow, and a sense of peace and comfort is there too, folded all up tightly, but the most resounding of all is resolve. It feels kind of nice, actually.
My gaze clashes with Frank’s, and a hint of vulnerability flashes across his expression before he turns to my friend.
“Aubrey, nice to see you looking well,” Frank says, raising a brow at her new changes as I peel her off me.
I take her hands in mine and smile at how she looks like herself but shinier, her hair brighter and her skin almost glowing. She looks fabulous.
“If you ever hurt her, I’ll end you,” she snarls at Frank in response, going from beautiful to ferocious in point zero two seconds.
I blink, my jaw unhinging a bit, but I don’t have time to react to her vampiric display before she wraps an arm around me and tugs me to her again.
“Did he hurt you?” she asks, out of the corner of her mouth breathing into my ear.
“No,” I snort laugh.
“Aubrey?” a distinct Romanian accent calls out from down the hall.
I tilt my head while still in Aubrey’s embrace and see Vlad coming down the hallway in a black suit and tie, his gaze locked on her with an entourage of people walking behind him.
“Look what I found,” he says, gesturing behind him as he gives her a grin.
Aubrey lets me go to meet him and my nose wrinkles as I take a look at the people following him, noticing how their skin looks obviously sallow in their evening clothes, their gazes sunken. “Hey, isn’t that Mr. Jackman?” I ask, recognizing him at the back of the group.
“It is,” Rebecca calls out from behind them, followed by Bruno and a scowling Nero.
I watch as Nero moves toward the prone reporter on the floor and picks up the guy, who moans as he’s taken away.
“They smell funny, and their heartbeats are all wrong,” Vlad announces, sliding his arm around Aubrey’s waist the second he reaches her side.
“Tepesh has rounded up the infected humans. Good job team,” Mikael says in the earpiece, reminding me it’s still in my ear.
Mikael said before we arrived that once we collect everyone who’s taken the formula, it can be extracted and they won't remember a thing. Luckily, Talbot now have much better infrastructure that would make it hard for me to hack, meaning the formula truly is safe.
I tilt my head and dig the earpiece from the side of my head before handing it to Frank, wringing my hands out as I try to let go of all the adrenaline still coursing through me. What a freaking day this has been.
“Oh wow, they do smell funny,” Aubrey mutters, covering her nose with a hand.
“Can you lead them out the back? Mikael has a van ready at the back entrance,” Frank says to Vlad, who nods.
The sounds of voices in the next room can still be heard, reminding me what we’re doing here. “You’re going to miss your speech,” I remind him.