Chapter 7
Rosemary
Carefully lifting the heavy arm off my waist, I scooted off the side of the bed. The floor was freezing against the soles of my feet, and if I could feel the discomfort of it, that meant my body temperature must be somewhere close to normal.
The heat had dissipated.
I’d known that it could happen, and I also knew that it wouldn’t last long.
I tiptoed across the floor and grabbed some clothes out of my dresser, inwardly cursing at every sound. Daniel never stirred, and I barely breathed until I was out of my room and making my way down the hallway in my socks.
It wasn’t as if I was sneaking away, not really. I just needed a little time to myself. After the upheaval of the day before, culminating with the completion of the mating bond, I needed a breather. I needed a moment when everyone wasn’t looking at me.
Their looks had run the gamut the day before. The eyes on me had ranged from shock to love to sympathy to possession. And while I didn’t normally pay attention to the opinions of other people, it was hard to ignore those opinions when they matched your own.
Confirmation bias or whatever.
Aunt Halle was confused? Felt bad for me? Was pissed for me? Yeah, I knew exactly how she felt.
The fact that Daniel had taken off without even looking back had been like getting a bucket of cold water thrown in my face.
Mates weren’t supposed to do that. Mates weren’t supposed to leave each other’s sides.
In all honesty, he shouldn’t have been able to leave me.
It should’ve been so painful for him that he rethought his actions.
The knowledge that I would be in pain should’ve had his instincts screaming to go back and fix it.
But he’d still left.
I knew I sounded like some whiny codependent teenager.
I knew that. But if a Vampire could leave their mate like that, without a single glance backward, then everything that had ever felt true and real and constant in my life seemed suspect.
Uncle Dalton and Aunt Halle’s bond was the center of their family.
It was the North Star, and by necessity, it had become mine after my mom died.
Knowing that they would never leave, and I would always have them because of that mating bond? Well, it had given the whole thing an almost mythical level of importance in my head, and I hadn’t even realized it.
So when Daniel left, and I felt that tether in my chest pull so tight that I thought it might snap?
I may have lost it a little.
I’d followed him. Barefoot. In the gravel. Sobbing.
It had felt like something was being torn from me. I couldn’t breathe. I’d vomited twice. My muscles had flexed so tight that it felt like they were going to tear away from my bones.
And while I logically knew that he was coming back, I hadn’t been able to stop myself. It didn’t matter that he’d be back in a few hours. In that moment, I’d been inconsolable. Out of my mind with grief and panic.
Thankfully, I’d eventually gotten a handle on it enough that I’d turned around before I reached the main road. When I got back to the house, Pop had been waiting on the porch with a joint to share.
I was high as a kite when Uncle Dalton and Aunt Halle showed up.
I was pretty sure Pop had called them. He would’ve noticed when I took off down the driveway. I don’t think I was quiet about the whole thing.
Pulling on my gloves, I looked at the huge tractor tire that I hadn’t touched since last summer.
Dad had brought it home when I was a kid, and I loved to climb.
It had been many different things over the years.
A mountain I shoved Ian off. A makeshift tent when we convinced our parents we were old enough to sleep outside by ourselves.
A small refuge where I could read in peace.
The perfect hiding spot. A pirate ship. Thunder’s pen when he was a baby, and we were afraid he’d get lost in the woods.
The place I’d gone, tucking myself safely inside, with Ian at my head and Grant at my feet on the night they’d burned my mother’s body in Vampire tradition.
Now that I was grown, I made use of it in a different way. My massive emotional support tire.
Bracing my feet carefully, I crouched and tucked my fingertips under the edge of the tire.
Nearly every muscle burned as I raised it, first an inch, then six, then a foot off the ground. By the time I’d reached my waist, I was trembling. Then, it was standing straight up. I shoved it over with a small grunt.
Then I did it again.
My breath seesawed in and out of my lungs. My fingers ached.
The sweat that beaded on my forehead felt natural for the first time in days. Clean. Straightforward. I was pushing my body to do hard things, and that’s why I was hot. It wasn’t out of my control. I could stop at any time.
I flipped it again. And again.
Eventually, I ran out of room and had to flip it in the opposite direction.
I’d just gotten it back to the place I’d started when I noticed Daniel standing on the back patio, watching me.
Straightening, I put my hands on my hips and squinted at him. I’d been so focused on what I was doing that I hadn’t even realized when he’d come outside. At some point, the sun had come up, and the way it filtered through the trees made him look like he was illuminated.
“Holy fuck, Rosie,” he said, starting toward me. “How long have you been out here?”
“Um.” I looked around me. I wasn’t sure when I’d climbed out of bed, unable to sleep. Had it been late enough that I could potentially act like I was just an early riser? “Not sure.”
“I woke up, and you were gone,” he said softly, reaching out to brush a stray hair away from my cheek when he reached me. “I nearly tore the house apart before I realized I could hear you out here.”
Oh, he’d been worried that I’d left? Well, wasn’t that just too bad. I held every what’s-good-for-the-goose-is-good-for-the-gander comment tightly behind my teeth.
“I’ve been sitting on my ass for too long,” I replied instead of what I really wanted to say. “I needed to use my muscles a little.”
“You used them pretty well last night,” he joked, sliding his arms around my waist.
“Maybe if I were on top, I could use sex as cardio,” I mused, tilting my head. “But missionary? Nah.”
Daniel laughed and let me go as I moved around him.
“Your dad’s making breakfast.”
I nodded. “He likes to cook.”
“Are all those cookbooks his?” He fell in step beside me as we headed for the house.
“Some were my mom’s,” I replied. I knew exactly which ones.
“The rest are his. I started buying them as birthday and Christmas gifts, but now that I can afford better presents, I usually try to grab him a local one when I’m traveling.
The trick is finding them in English. They’re a pain in the ass to translate. ”
“Do you travel a lot?” he asked curiously.
“Once I started working with Uncle Dalton, yeah. People contact us from all over. We go where we’re needed.”
“Morning,” Pop greeted as we let ourselves inside. “Made a scramble. It’s on the table.”
“Thanks, Gary,” Daniel replied as he sat down.
“Mm-hmm,” Pop replied, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Dig in.”
I glanced at Daniel before bumping Pop out of the way with my hip and pouring my own mug. Did my mate realize how furious Pop was?
My father had spent more years than I’d been alive controlling every micro-expression on his face.
His life and the lives of his teammates had depended upon it.
Most of the Vampires I’d met were like bulls in a china shop.
They didn’t need to hide their feelings or opinions—that’s what came from being born at the top of the food chain.
Their human counterparts were different.
I didn’t know most of what Pop had done while he was working with Vampire Command—I’d never know—but I’d picked up enough over the years to know that he’d spent a lot of time undercover.
He’d infiltrated places that would give me nightmares.
Cozied up to madmen so well that when they were finally taken down, they’d looked to him for help.
He’d listened in on conversations that would still, to this day, get him killed if anyone ever found out.
So when he’d greeted Daniel the day before like everything was just fine, I hadn’t even been surprised.
Pop watched and he waited and he listened, and if there ever came a time when he needed the information that he’d burrowed away like a squirrel getting ready for winter, he’d use it.
His body may be failing him, he might not move like he used to, but my father was the most wily and intelligent person I’d ever known—human or Vampire.
“Coffee?” I asked Daniel.
“Please,” he said, half rising from his seat. “I’m sorry, I should’ve gotten it.”
I waved him off. “No worries. You’re the guest.”
The words stung, even though I hadn’t meant them to. I could see it in the small way he’d flinched as soon as they were out of my mouth.
What did he expect? He didn’t live here.
Hell, I didn’t even live here. I’d built my own home in a little townhouse fifteen minutes away.
Sure, I kept plenty of things at Pop’s house, because when I wasn’t traveling, I liked spending most of my time up here.
But I had my own place. It was girly and feminine and smelled like spiced apples year-round because I stocked up on the candles in the fall and carefully burned them through the other seasons.
God, I missed my house.
After handing him his coffee, I sat down and unzipped my sweatshirt, peeling it down my clammy arms. I nearly lifted my arm to check my pits, which I would’ve done if my mate wasn’t watching me across the table.
Instead, I just pressed my arms unobtrusively to my sides and hoped that I didn’t reek.
As soon as I could escape, I was taking a long shower.
“Saw you out with the tire,” Pop said with a little grin. “Get all your feelings out?”