Chapter 9 #3
Thoughts raced through my mind like lightning, the last one barely fading away before another one took its place.
Daniel getting into a horrific car accident, being ambushed on the drive to his parents’ house, stopping for gas and getting ambushed there, fighting off the militia on the front porch I remembered from the night we met, stepping in front of a faceless woman that I knew was his sister-in-law and being taken down in the process—the scenarios felt endless and devastatingly specific.
They weren’t premonitions. I didn’t have some magical connection with him that would tell me he was in danger.
No, these were my own worst fears slapping me in the face.
And while I knew that they weren’t real, and I was terrified for no reason, my body didn’t get the memo.
I was frozen on the bed, shaking and gasping for breath as I struggled to snap myself out of it.
Eventually, my body was so exhausted from the tense muscles and irregular breathing that I fell asleep. It was the best possible scenario.
When I woke up hours later, expecting the symptoms to be lighter, even manageable, they weren’t.
I was still on fire. My stomach still roiled with nausea. My ribcage still felt too small for my lungs. My muscles still ached from prolonged contractions.
I scrambled out of bed and stumbled into the living room in shock as I realized that the sun was going down.
“Where is he?” I asked, finding only Pop in the living room.
I hurried to the front door and swung it open.
Daniel’s car wasn’t there.
“Still not back,” Pop replied, his tone grim.
“What?” I looked at the clock on the wall, even though I knew it hadn’t worked since my mom died. “What time is it? Why isn’t he back?”
“It’s five o’clock.”
The urge to scream burned at the back of my throat. We’d passed the three-hour mark hours ago. I’d been asleep all day.
Where was he?
Where was he?
Where was he?
“He’s not answerin’ his phone,” Pop said as he pushed himself carefully out of his seat and took a shuffling step toward his wheelchair. “So I called Dalton, and he was going to get a hold of Daniel’s parents, see if he could get in touch with him that way.”
“He wouldn’t stay longer than three hours, Pop,” I said, my voice rising with hysteria. “It’s always three hours or less. He always says he’ll be back in three hours, but it’s always a few minutes less than that.”
“I know that, Flower,” Pop soothed, wheeling toward me. “But he must’ve gotten held up. There’s no need to panic when we don’t know anything.”
“Call Uncle Dalton back,” I ordered. “Give me your phone. I’ll call him.”
“He said he’d call me back, and he will.”
Visions of Daniel’s brother-in-law Charlie flashed through my mind.
He’d seemed so normal. Sure, kind of twitchy, but anyone would be after they were kidnapped.
He hadn’t seemed like a mate without their Vampire, at least not the way Aunt Halle had always described them—people who were so mired in grief that they wasted away or made the decision to end their lives.
Was Daniel dead?
My heartbeat pounded like a drum in my brain, the pressure so intense that, for a minute, I was afraid I was going to black out.
Would I be one of those mates that lie in bed all day, wasting away because I’d lost the other half of my soul?
Just the idea of Daniel being dead made my skin burn like fire rippling across the surface.
I looked down at my arm dumbly, expecting to see that I’d actually been set alight.
“I need you to calm down,” Pop said, moving closer. “Calm down, Rosemary.”
“I can’t.” I looked to the door again.
My mate was out there somewhere. He should’ve been home already. He should’ve climbed into bed with me so I’d woken up to strong arms wrapped around my waist and the pleasant heat of his body instead of this horrific burning sensation.
He could be hurt. He could be in danger. He could be dead.
Without conscious thought, I was out the door and jogging down the front steps.
When I hit the gravel, I picked up speed, ignoring the sound of my father yelling for me to get back in the house.
Rocks dug into the soles of my feet, but I found the pain to be a welcome distraction to the way the rest of my body burned.
It took less than a minute before the house disappeared behind me.
It took ten minutes to get to the road.
It would’ve taken nine, but I’d had to stop because I was dry heaving so hard that I’d begun to stumble.
I wasn’t sure where I was going. The route we’d taken when Daniel brought me home that first night was a bit of a blur, but I had to assume that I was at least moving in the right direction.
I was ten minutes closer to the highway when a familiar truck came into view and swerved into the opposite lane, stopping on the side of the road less than a foot from where I was.
“Going for a run?” Uncle Dalton asked calmly as he climbed out of the truck.
“Did you get ahold of Daniel’s parents?” I demanded, shaking my arms out at my sides.
It felt like I had bugs crawling all over me.
“I did. They weren’t sure where he was, but said that he and Chance had gone somewhere together.”
I wouldn’t have been more surprised if Uncle Dalton had slapped me across the face.
“What?” I asked hoarsely, swaying on my feet.
“I called Chance because I knew you’d want to know,” Uncle Dalton said, taking a few steps toward me. “He said things are all good. They’re just getting a few things done, and he’d fill me in later.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that,” I argued. “He said he’d be back in three hours. He wouldn’t just not come back. He wouldn’t do that.”
“I didn’t speak to Danny,” Uncle Dalton replied quietly. “But I’ve known Chance a long time. I don’t think he’d lie to me.”
“But he—” I gagged and shook my head. No, that wasn’t right.
Daniel didn’t like leaving me behind. He was just in a tight spot.
Even my pop said so. He was being pulled in two different directions, so he was doing the best he could.
That was all. He wouldn’t leave me longer than was necessary.
Three hours. That was the limit he’d set.
“Why don’t you climb in, and I’ll drive you home,” Uncle Dalton said soothingly. “You made it a hell of a lot further than I thought you would before I got here.”
“No,” I replied, shaking my head as I sidestepped closer to the road. “No, something is wrong. I know something’s wrong.”
“It’s the bond,” Uncle Dalton argued. “I know it’s confusing, Flower, but you need to trust me on this. Your body doesn’t like the separation, and it’s making the situation feel like life and death. It isn’t. Danny is fine.”
“No, he’s not,” I barked, lifting my hands to my hair. I wrapped it around my fingers and clenched my hands into fists, trying to make the sting in my scalp focus my thoughts.
“I’ll call him,” Uncle Dalton said, lifting the phone to his ear. “How about that?”
I nodded silently, watching the phone like a hawk.
“Chance,” Uncle Dalton greeted. “Any way I can talk to Danny?” He paused. “I’ve got a very concerned mate on my hands, and I’m not sure she’ll listen to anything I say unless she speaks to him first.” He waited for a moment and then nodded, extending the phone to me.
I felt like my body wasn’t my own as I put the phone to my ear.
“Rosemary?” Daniel called. “What’s going on, baby?”
I felt like I was being strangled.
“You there? I’m sorry it’s taking longer than I thought, but I’ll be back within the hour, okay?” He waited for me to respond. “Rosie? Where are you?”
A car pulled up slowly beside us, but Uncle Dalton waved them on, assuring them we were fine.
“Did you leave the house?” Daniel asked, his voice rougher than before. “Please tell me you didn’t fucking leave the house.”
My hand felt numb as I dropped it back down to my side, the phone dangling precariously from my fingertips.
What had I become? Who was this person? Because I no longer felt like me.
I felt like a shell of myself. The strong, independent, capable woman I’d always been had been replaced by this whimpering mess, my body too weak to do anything of note, my mind no longer logical but filled with anxiety and fear.
I was standing on the side of the road—on the verge of collapse—and I’d run there myself, with bare feet and no bra, because I’d been in so much relentless pain and in such a panic that my mate was in trouble that I hadn’t even taken the time to realize I could’ve driven my pop’s truck.
And the whole time, my mate had been perfectly fine.
He’d just lost track of time.
Something inside me splintered.
“I’m sorry,” Uncle Dalton said, catching me as my legs buckled. “I’m sorry. I’ll hurry.”
I knew he was worried that the touch hurt, but honestly? I couldn’t feel it beyond everything else.
I already felt like I’d been run over.
It took only a few minutes to drive me back to Pop’s. It would’ve been funny, considering how long it had taken to run there, if it hadn’t been so fucking sad. As soon as he put the truck in park, I tiredly opened my door and slid out.
Pop was waiting for me on the porch.
“You scared the shit outta me,” he chastised as I made my way toward him. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“She wasn’t,” Uncle Dalton answered for me. “It was instinct. You remember what it’s like at the beginning of a bond—”
The last of his words were cut off as I walked inside. They could talk about me all they wanted. I didn’t really care.
Oh, I looked crazy?
Funny thing. I felt crazy.
I didn’t know who I was anymore.