Chapter Thirty-Three
Grant
Vlad stirs when I’m putting on my shoes. I’m sitting on one of the stools, and I watch as he reaches out, then frowns, eyes still closed, when I’m not next to him.
My heart flutters. I’m already grinning when he opens his eyes.
“What are you doing?” he asks, voice rough. I know he didn’t fall asleep when I did. He still needs a few hours, but it’s only midday. He’s got plenty of time to rest.
“Asked Rachel to meet me, didn’t I? She texted about an hour ago.”
“Will you be gone long?” He drops his head back down onto the pillow, hair spilling behind him in an inky wave. My mouth waters. I woke earlier with no aches at all, though I’m sure the sun will do wonders for the quiet thrum of my magic, and I’m excited to remedy that.
Later, though. Later.
“I don’t know. Depends on how long a conversation she wants to have.”
And with that, anxiety overtakes everything else I’m feeling. Vlad frowns and sits up, the duvet dropping to his waist. Not playing fair, though I suppose he’s not really playing.
“I could come with you. She could come here.”
“No and no,” I say, but gently. Shoes on, I cross to the bed and perch on the edge of it. “It’ll be fine. Whatever happens.”
“I do not want you hurt.”
“Why would you?”
“Grant.”
“I know.” I sigh and reach for his hand.
“I know, but I need to do this. I asked her, remember? It’s more for me than anything else.
” Selfish of me, sure, but at least if she says she hates me and that she never wants to see me again, I’ll have an ending.
I left everything in limbo and it’s been weighing on me the entire time.
“We have to return tonight,” Vlad says. He shifts a little closer and pushes my hair back from my forehead before he trails his fingers over my scalp. “The Huntsman has returned. Jeremiah said it was important.”
“Jeremiah? Figured Asher would have told you that.”
“No, I—” Vlad hesitates. “I called him.”
“Why?”
“I also had some complicated feelings to own up to,” he says and gives me the smallest smile. “I apologised for not telling him about the bonds.”
“And what did he say?”
“He thanked me. He is more forgiving than I deserve. I know how much Paxton means to him.”
“They still have each other, with or without it.”
“I would have reacted far less favourably had he kept such a secret from me.” The way Vlad looks at me then makes my heart skip a beat. “I should not have kept it from you, either. I should have told you how I felt earlier and trusted you to tell me the truth.”
“You should have, yeah.” But then, so should I.
“I am sorry.”
Silly man. I tip his chin up and kiss him and only then do his shoulders relax. He faintly hums when I pull back.
“This isn’t going to be an ongoing issue, is it? You do believe what I tell you?”
“Of course I do.” Vlad looks almost offended, and I tug at his beard, smiling when he scowls. “I have a better understanding of who we are together. Of you.”
“I should come on jobs with you more often.”
He shudders. “I did not say that.”
I laugh and kiss him again but slip out of his grip before either of us gets carried away. I already have a text from Quinn saying that he and Asher headed back to London with Maurice, so I suppose we’ll see them again later tonight.
“Be careful,” Vlad says when I head for the door.
“I will. If I’m not back by nightfall, I’ll be on the beach, okay?”
“I will find you.”
I don’t do anything about the grin I’m wearing as I leave the room. I know he will.
I have to stop to buy sunglasses on my way down to the beach. It’s overcast today, which is somehow worse than if the sun were shining. Squinting so much has caused a nice little ache behind my eyes.
By the time I make it there, though, that’s all healed, and I kick off my shoes and let my toes sink into the sand.
Again, I can’t fight my smile. I never thought I’d have this again.
I shove my hands into my pockets and breathe in the sea-salt air.
I’d have made it to a beach at some point, sure.
But daylight? Should have been impossible.
“Never thought I’d see a vampire out enjoying the beach.”
I jump at the sound of Rachel’s voice. She’s much better dressed for the cooler weather, though when she looks down and sees my bare feet, she kicks off her trainers and stuffs her socks inside them.
“I missed it,” I admit.
Her expression doesn’t shutter the way I expect it to. She studies me instead, wind whipping her hair up around her face.
“Wanna walk?”
“Sure.”
The tide is fairly high, so we walk along its edge, and I enjoy the cool kiss of the water on my skin. It’s kind of busy, but that’s nice, too. Not like you get so many crowds at night.
“I thought about not coming,” Rachel says.
“I didn’t know if you would.”
She sighs. “It’s not—I don’t know what to do with you.”
“You don’t have to do anything with me.”
“No, I know.” She pauses and turns to face the sea, back to the sands. I stop, too, holding my shoes limply in one hand. “I don’t know how to feel about this. Any of it, not just you.”
“At least you already knew about vampires.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s that.”
I don’t really know what to say to her. An apology, sure, because I am sorry that I haven’t been in touch, but I don’t know if I’d change that if given a second chance.
I assumed she didn’t know. Why would she know?
It wasn’t just Vlad who laid out the rules of being a vampire after I was turned.
Jeremiah said the same thing. Even Paxton and Asher were certain I shouldn’t contact anyone from my human life.
“I didn’t mean to leave without warning,” I say. “Obviously. And then—I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t try anything at all.”
Rachel gives me a sardonic look. “You mean Vlad didn’t tell you to stay away.”
“Hey, don’t. It’s not his fault.”
She blows out a breath, turning her gaze to the horizon again. “I know. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, he seems like a trade up from Ben.”
Ben? Ben. I let out a startled laugh. “Fuck. I don’t think about him at all.”
Not even in the abstract, really. I think about when Vlad turned me, but that’s all about Vlad, not even the crash itself. If anyone asked me, I’d be able to tell them, but Ben never crosses my mind.
“Good. Fucker. You know he came to your funeral with his new boyfriend?”
I laugh again. I can’t help it. It’s insulting, yes, but fucking hell, it’s funny, and Rachel meets my gaze and then a second later, she’s laughing, too.
It takes us a minute to stop, and when we do, we’re standing closer, shoulders brushing.
“I’m sorry you had to do all that,” I say.
“Me and Margot talked about it. I get why you wouldn’t come back. And I mean, obviously, I’m glad you’re not actually dead. Dead dead.”
“Dead dead,” I echo and grin when she rolls her eyes.
“It all makes sense. It all hurts.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
She wraps an arm around my shoulders, even though I’m taller than she is, but I lean against her all the same. I don’t know how long we stand there, the tides slowly receding. It doesn’t matter. I thought I’d never have this again.
“Tell me about Margot.”
“Margot?” Rachel squeezes my shoulders. “You’d have hated her at first. So bossy, the pair of you.”
“Excuse you. I’m not bossy.”
“You’re telling me you don’t boss that vampire of yours around?”
“No. Don’t have to.”
She laughs. “Yeah, Margot’s like that, too. She’s… determined. Protective.”
“You found a good one.”
“I know.” Rachel pauses for long enough that I lift my head. The expression on her face is complicated, but then she nods. “So did you.”
“He found me. He saved me.”
“I didn’t see the car. Did you really—”
“Yeah.”
“Ben said you walked in on them. He was always honest about that.”
“Sounds like it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.” My voice quavers. “Mum? Dad?”
“They’re fine. They left the city. My mum did, too. Don’t know if they’ll come back.”
“Left?”
Rachel shrugs. “We’re not the only ones who know about vampires. Your mum got scared. Can’t blame her.”
“She won’t want to see me, will she?”
“I—”
I take a step away and suck in a breath, trying to stop the tears stinging my eyes. When I take the sunglasses off and swipe at them, Rachel catches my hands.
“Whatever you want to do, I’ll help you,” she says, and that earnest expression calms something in me. She means it. She’ll help, no matter what. “I will.”
“I-I don’t know,” I say. “Do I have to decide right now?”
“No. They’re healthy, still. Young-ish.” She gives me a tremulous smile. “You have time.”
God, it might kill them to see me again. Vlad might only be a few minutes away, but I miss him with a sudden intensity that hurts. I reach for our bond, feeling an echo from him travel along it.
He’s with me. He’s always with me. I’m okay.
“Come on,” Rachel says. “When do you have to be back?”
“Uh… Whenever. We’re leaving tonight, but I told Vlad to come get me when it gets dark.”
“Tonight?” She shakes her head. “No, I know. You said earlier, but…”
“I’m only in London, you know.”
She shoves my shoulder and starts to walk up the beach. I trot after her. “Let’s go and have some fun, then.”
Rachel drags me straight into an arcade, where we play the 2p machines until I finally win a sparkly keyring and we’re both out of coins.
Margot joins us later in the afternoon, happy to snatch up a half dozen piping-hot doughnuts, and we retreat back to the sands.
My hands are gritty and sticky with sugar, and my cheeks hurt from smiling.
“We’ll come visit you,” Margot says, “but maybe when this mess with the fae has smoothed over.”
“Hopefully, that won’t take years,” I mutter. Who knows, after all. The fae live impossibly long lives.
“Fine, within the year if the fae aren’t sorted,” Rachel says. “But if you want to come here in the meantime, we’ve got room for you.”
Even Margot seems surprised at that, brows drawing together, but she smiles at me encouragingly all the same.
“Thanks.”