Chapter 2 #2
“I can hear your mind spinnin’ from here,” he said in amusement as he pulled various items from the fridge. “Sit down. She’ll be a while.”
I walked further into the kitchen and sat down while he gathered things for what looked like a sandwich. When he’d piled everything he needed onto his lap, he brought it all over and set it out on the table.
“First things first, I’ve heard of you,” he said conversationally.
“You have?” I asked flatly.
Gary nodded and pulled out a pair of reading glasses. He put them on the end of his nose and got to work on the sandwich.
“I wasn’t aware that humans talked about us,” I countered.
He let out a rough chuckle. “Well, you’ve got me there.” He pushed up the sleeve of his flannel and flexed his wiry forearm. “You know what that is?”
In the center of his arm was a faded tattoo.
Even with the lines blurred by age, it was instantly recognizable.
The outline of the United States was innocuous unless you looked closer and realized that Florida was too pointed at the bottom, and there was a mirror image on the opposite side. As if the United States had fangs.
“You worked with Command?” I asked in surprise.
There had always been humans who worked alongside Vampire Command, but the list was small and highly guarded.
Only the highest levels of security clearance were given the opportunity, and not all of those humans passed the psychological tests that our Command required.
“For thirty-four years,” he confirmed. “Not so long as you”—he glanced at me over his glasses—“but for a fair bit.”
“How did you end up here?” I asked, glancing around the room before I realized what I was saying.
Gary chuckled as I internally kicked myself for insulting the man.
Humans who worked for Command were paid very well, both because the work was highly dangerous and because it inspired loyalty.
There wasn’t anything wrong with his house, but if he’d worked for them for thirty-four years, he could’ve bought himself a private island somewhere.
“I own a thousand acres,” he said after a moment. “And this house suited me and my wife just fine.”
“I apologize—”
He waved me off.
“My wife was sick,” he said, carefully assembling the sandwich. “Experimental treatments don’t come cheap.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. He’d said was.
“So am I,” he agreed. “But we’ve done all right, me and Rosemary.”
My stomach twisted, and I glanced toward where I could hear the water running deeper in the house. How long did it take for my mate to shower? The longer she was gone, the more uncomfortable it became.
“She’ll be out in a minute,” he said sympathetically as he cut the sandwich in half and started packing up the supplies again. “I’m guessin’ your skin’s crawlin’ already.”
He shook his head as he backed up from the table.
He knew about the physical symptoms of the mating bond. Interesting.
“Were you hurt on a mission?” I asked, changing the subject in an attempt to distract myself. My muscles flexed and tightened as I fought the urge to go find my mate.
“Oh, the chair?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“Nah, there wasn’t one big event. My discs are fucked from too many of them.
” He rose to his feet and took a couple of lumbering steps toward the fridge.
Bending slightly at the waist, he set the ingredients back inside, then stepped back and lowered himself into the chair again.
He met my eyes once he’d spun back around.
“I can walk. It just hurts like a motherfucker, especially this time of night.”
I nodded in understanding just as the shower shut off.
“So…mates,” Gary said, leaning back in his chair as he pulled off his glasses again and tucked them into his shirt pocket. “How did that come about?”
“I found Rosemary tied up in an abandoned garage when I was looking for my brother-in-law,” I replied, watching his expression for any kind of tell. “I knew right away that she was my mate.”
“Well, that’s how it happens, isn’t it?” he asked, reaching up to scratch the scruff on his cheek. “Like a lightnin’ bolt, or so I’ve heard.”
“That’s as good a description as any.” I tilted my head, just a fraction. He hadn’t even flinched when I’d described how I’d found Rosemary. “And I can see why you’d understand that with your background, but what I don’t understand is why it didn’t seem to shock your daughter.”
The side of Gary’s mouth lifted in a small smile. “Rosemary’s godparents are Vampires.”
I sat up straighter. “Who?”
“Dalton and Halle Cavendish.”
I let out a long breath and stared at him in surprise.
I’d known Dalton for longer than Gary had been alive.
He’d retired from Vampire Command around twenty-five years before, when he’d met his mate—that was how things worked—and we’d lost touch.
I hadn’t seen him in years, but I knew my parents had.
“Halle was my wife’s best friend,” Gary said with a nod. “They met at our wedding.”
“What a small world,” I replied as a bead of sweat rolled down my back.
Footsteps came down the hall, and I waited impatiently as Rosemary made her way to the kitchen.
“I’ve been giving Daniel the family history,” Gary told her as he nodded at the sandwich he’d made. “Feel better?”
“Much,” she said with a sigh.
“You want to tell me where you’ve been?” he asked as she strode to the table.
Rosemary shot her father a look before glancing at me. Her gaze moved down my body before jerking away again.
Gods, her hair was longer than I’d realized. The damp strands reached the small of her back. She smelled like something spicy. Cinnamon. Lemongrass.
“Last week the militia picked me up,” she started as she reached for her food.
I straightened in my chair at the assurance in her tone. What in the absolute fuck?
“We knew they would at some point,” she said with a shrug. “Didn’t you get my message?”
“I was givin’ it two more days,” Gary replied darkly.
“What message?” I asked.
“If I told ya that, I’d have to kill ya,” he replied. “Sorry, son.”
The irony of a man half my age calling me son was overwhelming.
“Who’s we?”
“About that,” Rosemary said with a grimace as she took a bite of her sandwich. “Shit, this is good. Thanks, Pop.”
He motioned with his hand for her to get to the point.
“I’ve been working with a team to find out what exactly it is that they’re doing—”
“The human militia?” I asked.
“Yeah, I mean, we call them that, but are they really? They seem like a bunch of lowlifes to me.”
“Rosemary Halle Whitlock, that vein in your mate’s neck is about to explode. Get on with it,” Gary ordered.
“So…yeah. I’ve been working with a team to try to figure out what exactly their objectives are.
Uncle Dalton reported that his son had found his mate.
” She lifted her hands and wiggled her fingers.
“The idea was to get some information from the inside, but you saw those losers who took me. They didn’t know shit, so it wasn’t like they could spill any secrets. ”
My mind was reeling, and I felt like I was going to come out of my skin.
What the fuck had she been thinking? Those humans had dismembered my brother, one of the strongest Vampires I’d ever met.
She’d thought she was going to infiltrate their organization by posing as a mate?
They’d had her for a week. She was lucky she hadn’t been tortured to death before we’d even gotten there.
The thought made bile rise hot in my throat.
I had so many fucking questions I didn’t know where to start.
“You reported that you were mated?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice even.
“Well, I didn’t.”
“To one of Dalton’s sons,” I continued.
A flush rose up my mate’s neck until her cheeks and ears were beet red. “Uh, yeah?”
Gary chuckled.
“It’s not like it’s true,” she said, picking at her sandwich as she wrinkled her nose. “But I had to get on their radar somehow.”
My heart pounded in my ears as Gary’s chuckles turned into snickers. The idea of another Vampire claiming my mate made a red film flicker at the edges of my vision.
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Rosemary asked in horror, leaning in to get a closer look.
“Which son?” I asked through lips that had gone numb.
Rosemary mumbled something unintelligible and took a huge bite of her sandwich.
“I need you to repeat that,” I ordered quietly.
“I don’t think that’s important right now,” she replied nervously, still staring.
Letting my eyes fall shut, I searched in the recesses of my mind for a shred of patience. She hadn’t known who I was. She hadn’t known we were mates. There was no way she could’ve anticipated that she actually had a mate. She couldn’t have realized what she was doing.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I asked, my words barely a whisper of sound. I was afraid that if I raised my voice any higher, I’d start yelling.
She was the other half of my soul. I would be by her side until the end of time. I could not start our journey by screaming at her or spanking her ass, no matter how tempting those images were.
“Hey, man,” she said with a shrug. “It worked. I mean, sort of. They picked me up, but they left me with their idiotic foot soldiers.”
“Thank the Gods they did,” I barked, trying to shove down the anger that was boiling up inside me. “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened to you?”
“I’ve read the reports,” she confirmed, her expression growing serious. “I knew what I was doing.”
“You have no clue,” I replied. My mouth snapped shut when the sound of a car moving toward us on the gravel driveway filtered in the window.
Fuck. What had I been thinking, bringing her back to the place she’d been abducted? I’d been so concerned with making sure she felt safe that I’d fucked up.
Rising from my chair, I looked at Gary. “Do you have weapons accessible?”
“Of course,” he replied.
“Daniel—” Rosemary interrupted, jumping to her feet.
“Get them,” I ordered, glancing toward the window. “We’re about to have company.”