Chapter 32
Finn
The club had a basement that looked like a torture chamber. Who knew?
I shuddered, my stomach turning as I eyed the lone fledgling currently tied to a chair by heavy chains.
I’d expected him to look far scarier.
But he was just… a young guy. Maybe even younger than me. And he was crying and shaking and not looking very scary at all.
“Please. Please let me go.”
Eric growled, and the guy’s mouth snapped shut, his eyes widening even further, his skin taking on a grayish hue.
He was fucking terrified of Eric.
And I got it.
I turned my head toward my boyfriend and smiled.
Oh, he looked truly unhinged. Eyes glowing red, fangs flashing white, blood spray all over him. And his mouth?
Ugh.
Even my stomach revolted at the sight of all the blood surrounding his mouth—and I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
Eric had come for me. He’d saved me.
A dizzy spell made me sway on my feet, but before I could take a step back, Eric was there, gently taking my arm and holding me up.
“You need to go to the hospital,” he said. “You could have a severe concussion.”
I shook my head, then flinched.
Fuck.
That hurt.
Oh, fuck, it hurt so much.
And made me want to puke.
I slapped a hand in front of my mouth and tried willing my stomach to cooperate.
“I’m fine,” I said when the worst of the pain had ebbed away, but Eric gave me a stern look.
“No. You need to go to the hospital.”
Maybe.
But I really wanted to know what was gonna happen to the surviving fledgling.
Dammit, I didn’t want to miss the resolution.
“I hate to agree with your mate, young human, but you need medical attention. However, I don’t think the hospital is the correct environment for you.
It might be hard to explain your injuries.
So I called a… friend of mine. She’s a doctor and set to arrive any minute to check up on you.
Youngling, would you like to accompany your mate to my office? ”
Eric growled.
“If you don’t, maybe I should…”
“No, I’m going.”
Eric gave the fledgling one last, withering look. “I hope you make it hurt.”
Then he turned to me, and his face softened.
“May I carry you?”
He hadn’t asked when he’d gotten me out of that place. He’d just stormed in, picked me up, and carried me out.
But now he was asking.
And no matter how much I wanted to prove that I was fine, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it up two flights of stairs. Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d manage to stay awake long enough to even talk to the doctor.
I gave a quick nod, then flinched as lightning bolts of white-hot pain sliced through my head, momentarily blinding me.
“Fuuck,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
I felt Eric lifting me off my feet, carefully holding me against his chest.
He smelled like blood, like death, but beneath it all were hints of Eric. My Eric. The one who’d come for me.
I leaned my head against his chest and inhaled deeply. I’d rest my eyes… just… for… a while…
I was back where it started.
Back where I’d first found proof that my boyfriend was not human.
If I’d needed more proof than seeing his red eyes, his fangs, or him drinking blood, I’d gotten it tonight.
I shuddered involuntarily as I remembered the scene Eric had carried me through. Decapitated bodies. Pieces of flesh covering the wall.
My own boyfriend looking like a monster straight out of a horror movie.
“Are you cold?” Eric asked, concern written all over his face. His clean face. Gone was the spray of blood, the pieces of flesh. He looked completely normal. Human. Looking at me through his blue eyes, not the red ones. His teeth looked human, too. No fangs in sight.
Still… I couldn’t get that picture out of my mind.
The glowing eyes, the fangs, everything covered in blood and… I really didn’t want to think about what else, as he came barreling into the room and picked me up like I weighed nothing.
Which, to him, I probably didn’t.
I’d heard what’d happened before.
The gurgling.
The crunching.
The cruel, violent sounds didn’t fit the man I was seeing now. Didn’t fit the worry on his face, the way his eyes were still shiny with unshed tears. The way he hesitantly reached for me but let his hand drop halfway to my face.
“I can get you another blanket,” Eric said, his head already turning, eyes searching for a throw blanket. “Or I can get Bennie…”
“It’s okay,” I said. My voice was thin and weak, and I fucking hated that.
I didn’t want to sound weak. Didn’t want to feel weak.
I’d pushed back.
I’d attacked those two vampires. I’d held my own fucking ground long enough for Eric and the others to reach me.
“I don’t want you okay, though,” he said, his eyes boring into me with an intensity that had me shuddering again. “I want you fine. Comfortable. Taken care of. I still think you should go to the ER. Get your head looked at.”
I rolled my eyes, then winced.
Fuck.
Tiny daggers sliced through my head.
Rolling my eyes fucking hurt, even though I’d taken as many pain meds as the doctor had said were safe.
“It’s just a concussion.”
And a head wound, a couple of scratches, and a sprained wrist. Not that I’d mention that. I was concussed, not stupid.
“Just a…”
“I’m gonna be fine. Did you listen to what Aries’s doctor said?”
“Yes. But I’d prefer it if you’d go in for imaging…”
I let out a yawn.
Maybe I could get a bit of sleep before we started arguing again?
My eyes definitely didn’t want to stay open anymore.
Though closing them brought back the images.
A head lying next to a body. Blood everywhere.
Aries kneeling on top of a person, tearing at their head.
A loud snap.
The person’s neck lengthening, the head lying at an unnatural angle.
Us, standing outside that garage as the fire started licking at the windows.
The heat.
The fumes.
Bennie retching violently.
Sirens in the distance.
“Finn…”
I held up a hand and opened my eyes again.
Why was this so hard?
“Later,” I said, not knowing what exactly I was promising.
“Okay. You can sleep. I’ll be watching over you.”
After everything, that probably shouldn’t sound comforting. But when my eyes fell closed again, I didn’t see blood or gore. I saw Eric’s face, his hard features softened by his gentle smile and the warmth radiating from his eyes.
I sat up with a start, my world turning as a sharp pain echoed through my skull.
“Did you call my work?” I asked, the thought suddenly in my head. “I have the opening shift on Friday. Wait… what day is it?”
I turned my head, careful not to move too fast.
“It’s Friday afternoon.”
That was not Eric.
Wait… where was Eric?
I shifted until my back was resting against the couch cushions and had a look around the room. Bennie was sitting on the far side of the couch, his phone in hand, an easy smile on his lips, but there was no sign of Eric.
“He’s in the shower,” Bennie told me. “He hasn’t left your side at all, you know? I don’t think he even slept a wink. Whenever I came in here, he was looking at you and glaring at me, as if I might attack you.”
I nodded, hating the pang in my chest.
Because really? I didn’t want to feel bad for Eric. He’d fucking stalked me for months. He’d left all those creepy-as-shit notes on my door. He’d… he’d fucking betrayed me.
I shouldn’t feel bad because my having been abducted worried him. It didn’t make anything that happened before okay.
But he’d come for me. He’d saved me. Even though I’d screamed at him, accused him of following me, when he’d actually respected my wishes, he’d dropped everything and found me, and that counted for something, right?
“Are you still mad?” Bennie asked, putting his phone aside. “I’m getting very conflicting signals.”
“Hell if I know,” I muttered, pulling the blanket over my legs.
“I told him that stalking you wasn’t okay,” Bennie said quietly. “And for what it’s worth, part of him knew it was wrong. He just didn’t know how to handle his feelings.”
I barked out a laugh, but it was too loud and fucking hurt.
Concussions sucked.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? He didn’t know how to handle his attraction to me, so he stalked me?”
Bennie grimaced, casting a long glance at the stairwell.
“It’s not his attraction to you that he didn’t know how to handle. It’s… ugh. I should let him explain everything.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “You started the conversation. So out with it. Explain what you meant.”
Maybe it was best if Bennie was the one telling me. Hell, before I’d been taken, I’d contemplated talking to Aries to get a neutral explanation. Bennie definitely wasn’t as neutral as Aries, but still less involved than Eric.
Someone came running down the stairs, the footsteps quickly getting louder until Eric came into view, dressed in nothing but sweatpants, droplets of water still clinging to his body.
“No,” he said, giving Bennie a long look before turning his attention to me. “Please. Please let me be the one to explain. I want to.”
Fuck.
His eyes were killing me.
He looked so… sad. Hopeless. Pained.
I averted my eyes.
This was such a bad idea.
I already wanted to forgive him.
My stupid fucking brain was basically waiting for any kind of explanation it could turn into something reasonable that’d make it okay for me to stay with him.
I needed therapy.
Desperately.
“Please?” he asked again, going to his knees in front of the couch.
I shouldn’t.
“Okay.”
Fuck.
Here went nothing.
“Thank you.” Eric smiled, then turned his head to Bennie. “Would you mind?”
Bennie gave Eric a huge grin. “What? And miss you groveling? Dude. I’ve been waiting for this moment for months. And now you want me to go?”
“Yes.”
Bennie rolled his eyes, smirk still firmly in place. “You owe me.”
Eric didn’t even look at him, just showed him the finger.
When we were finally alone, Eric sat on the couch next to me, his hands in his lap, fiddling with the strings of his sweatpants, eyes darting around the room, looking anywhere, just not at me.