Chapter 20
Rook
She doesn’t stay in my arms long. Not because she pulls away in fear, but because she needs space to process and think and try to wrap her mind around things that contradict the foundation and reality that her entire life has been built on.
Of course, I let her have it. She deserves to fucking have it.
I watch her slide out from under the sheets, wrap herself in the hotel robe, and cross the room with careful steps, like the floor might shift under her if she moves too fast.
She sits on the chair with her hands folded in her lap, eyes wide and glassy, not crying but not steady either. Just…processing.
I stay where I am, on the edge of the bed, giving her room without putting distance between us. Every instinct in me wants to close that gap, to pull her back and remind her she’s safe—but I don’t.
She needs this moment to be hers.
She’s not so much upset anymore as she is overwhelmed, and for that, I can’t blame her. The whirlwind she’s been dragged into would challenge anyone, but to be put in this position without any prior knowledge is akin to something like taking a bar exam without having ever cracked a law textbook.
But I know where I stand.
Whatever this thing is between us—whatever lit up the second she came into my life—I’ve stopped pretending it’s temporary. She’s mine. I’m hers. I don’t question that anymore.
What I question is what I’ve set in motion by choosing her first and taking her before they could.
The danger I’ve now put us in. Put my brothers in. Put her in.
“I’m supposed to be at my grandmother’s tonight,” she says quietly. “Dinner. Staying over. But I don’t even have my phone to call her. I don’t know if she’s tried to call me. I…” She pauses, and worry creases her brow.
“I know.”
Her head snaps up. “You do?”
“Yes,” I admit. “And she’s going to hear from you. Your phone—everything you left behind—we’ll get it for you. Nothing about this ends with her worrying where you are.”
“Okay.” She nods and stares down at her hands in her lap again.
And I let the silence linger for a little bit, giving her more time to wrap her mind around it all.
“I know this is a lot,” I eventually say.
“It’s been…a lot for me too. And I know I haven’t handled it well or set you up to feel comfortable now in any way, but I…
Well, I’m willing to answer anything you want to ask, unfiltered, of course, and now that you’re safe, I’m also willing to give you space.
Not a lot of space,” I hedge. “Like…the next room, but it’s better than—”
“I don’t want space,” she says suddenly, her eyes snapping to mine and cutting me right to the quick. There’s so much fire there—so much feeling. If it weren’t an exact mirror of my own emotions, I’d probably struggle to understand the depth of it.
But the kisses between us…they broke something. Or, I don’t know, built it, I guess, depending on how you look at it.
Our bond, as it were, is fully formed.
She’s still confused and hurting—but she trusts me. Her body demands it.
“Okay. Then I’ll be close. Ask me whatever you want, and I promise I’ll do my best to answer it. I’m afraid if I try to explain it all myself, I’ll just overwhelm you.”
“I…well, I don’t really know what to ask, so I guess I’ll start the only place I can.”
I nod encouragingly.
“Where…where are we right now?” she asks. “I mean, I know we’re in a hotel room,” she says through a self-deprecating snort as she glances down at the robe she’s wearing. “But what hotel?”
“The Westin. Worcester, Massachusetts.” My smile is soft, and her eyes widen at the sight of it. I know it must be a shock after months of angry looks and monosyllabic grunts, but it’s amazing how much more peaceful I feel now that I’ve given in to the universe’s pull.
“Right. And…why are we here?”
“Because it’s safe right now. Distant enough Holland and the others won’t be able to sense us.”
She giggles, and for far from the first time, I try to insert myself into her level of na?veté.
It’s hard, to say the least, but I was there once.
As a young boy, I had no idea why I craved the smell of blood or moved so much faster than those around me.
As a young boy, I often thought of myself as a freak show.
“Hah. Right. Sense us. So, when you say that, you mean…”
“Smell, visions. Just overall intuition. We’re—our kind—is gifted in all sorts of ways.”
“Right, right.” She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth for a long moment before quietly asking, “And by your kind, you mean…?”
The word is a whisper and a bomb all at once. “Vampires.”
Her giggle turns chaotic as she jumps from the chair and starts to pace, turning back to me for confirmation every so often. I hold myself still and steady, waiting for her to be ready for more before continuing.
When she sits back down, she does it right next to me, pushing the heat of her thigh into the heat of my own for comfort.
My throat thickens instantly with want, but I shove it down.
“Vampires,” she whispers, testing the word on her tongue.
I nod. “Vampires.”
“Like…vampires in the way I’m imagining them? With bloodsucking tendencies and bats and glittery skin…”
“Minus the bats,” I say. “And closer to Dracula than anything sparkly. But the basics are relatively the same.”
“So, you need…blood…to survive?”
“Some vampires do, but they’re becoming an extinct breed.”
“What does that mean?”
“There are vampires who have been turned from humans, and there are vampires who are born into this world. I was born into this world, as are most of the vampires you’ve come into contact with in your daily life. It’s seen as a highly taboo practice for a vampire to turn a human now.”
A shocked laugh bubbles up from her lungs. “Well, I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know vampires existed until exactly one minute ago, so…yeah.”
“We blend in,” I tell her. “On purpose.”
“So…you and your brothers were born…like humans are born?”
“Yes.”
Her jaw drops. “That’s…how?”
“Vampires can mate with humans, Kylie. But they have to be the right humans with the right bloodline.”
“Can you…turn me into a vampire?”
“Sure.” I shrug. “If I wanted to.”
“But you don’t want to do that?”
“Fuck no.” I shake my head. “I’d rather off myself than do that.”
For a moment, her mouth turns down at the corners, and I furrow my brow as I take in her reaction.
“Are you disappointed?”
“I…” She blows out a breath. “Don’t know what I am right now.”
“The idea of changing anything about you is abhorrent to me,” I tell her and mean every single fucking word. I just want her. In all of her perfect humanness.
She nods and digs her teeth into her bottom lip. “So…vampires like you don’t need blood to survive?”
“No. And we don’t need human food either. Think of us as kind of self-contained battery packs, I guess.”
“Well, if you don’t need blood to survive, what do you need it for?”
I shrug. “Power. Pleasure. Longevity. And in some cases, healing. It’s an enhancer. And blood like yours…is the best.”
“So, I have good blood?”
I nod, and my mouth waters at the mere thought of her perfect, tempting blood. “Good isn’t a strong enough word for your blood, Kylie.”
“Human blood can heal?”
I nod.
“But I thought vampires couldn’t die…?”
“Once we turn twenty-eight, we age at a much slower rate than humans, but we can die. Not easily and only at the hands of another vamp, but we can.”
“How slow are you talking about?”
“We can live centuries. There are vampires out there who are five hundred years old.”
She pauses for a long moment. “And you said pleasure?” she asks, and her cheeks flush red. “In regard to…uh…drinking human blood.”
I smile. I can’t help it. Everything about the word rolling off her tongue is exciting. “Yes. Sucking blood from your mate during intercourse can be very pleasurable. For both the human and the vampire.”
She studies me for a beat, then stands and crosses the room. She walks slowly, like she’s deciding something with every step.
When she stops in front of me, I don’t move.
She lifts her hands and cups my face, searching my eyes like she’s looking for something final. Something concrete. “I think…I think I need to experience it to really understand.”
I lean down, lips brushing her ear. “Are you asking me to make love to you, Kylie?”
She nods. She’s not sheepish, not even unsure, but her breath hitches in her lungs.
“You have no idea how badly I want to,” I murmur. “I want to put myself inside you and never fucking leave.”
She shivers.
“But once I do,” I say, my voice growing rougher, “there’s no going back. Not ever.”
Her brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
“It means the first time won’t just be sex.” I trace her delicate jaw with my thumb. “And, well, I can smell that you’re still untouched. Still a virgin.” I lean down to brush my lips against her ear again, whispering, “Our first union binds, Kylie. It seals us. Permanently.”
She blushes. “You know I’m a virgin?”
“That and about a thousand other things, Ky.” I search her eyes and watch as her mind calculates everything I just told her.
“We’re fated mates,” I add quietly, but there’s no lack of power or conviction in my voice.
“Our first union would be as binding as an inked and sealed contract. It would bond us forever. It’ll make you mine, and me yours, until the end of the mortal world and won’t be broken even a second before.
And because of the power of the bond, the aging process will slow inside you too.
You’ll live much longer than an average human. ”
“And if we don’t?” she asks earnestly.
“We’d feel this anyway.” I reach out to run my fingers through the silky locks of her pretty hair. “Every day. Every second. The pull would just get stronger. And we’d just be fighting against it until the day we die.”
“I already feel bound to you,” she whispers. “Like I’ll die if you leave this room.”
Fuck. Me too.
“Option number one sounds like a whole lot more fun,” she adds softly.