CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO || THIERRY #2
I recognized his scent and steady breathing at once.
Most of our regulars adored him and would defend him violently if needed, despite the fact that he wasn’t a donor or anyone’s mate.
Nearly unflappable, yes—but he still drank too much, ending up here more often than not.
He never told anyone why he’d moved across the country to a place where he knew no one.
If pressed—even by Nathaniel—he shut down and changed the subject.
My guess? He was outrunning something ugly.
I could see the pain in his eyes sometimes, when he was drunk enough.
Normally, I would have checked on him and made sure there was water, aspirin, and a bucket ready. But if he was already asleep, someone had probably handled it. Besides, we had a murderous vampire to chain up.
Or rather, Jeremy did.
I needed my hands free to open the warded doors, which were keyed to me. Quinn hung over Jeremy’s shoulder in a fireman’s carry—no small feat for a mortal man, though Jeremy wasn’t human. Still, he wasn’t as strong as a vampire. And his healing… it was far too limited.
If something bad enough happened in daylight, or on a dark moon, or during an eclipse, he wouldn’t survive. He wouldn’t live forever. He’d die someday. And maybe soon, if I let him go back to the mountains to fight to the death in order to give up being his pack’s alpha.
Jeremy glanced at me over the shoulder not occupied by an unconscious predator, so he’d probably caught that thought. Wisely, he said nothing.
I led the way to the basement door.
This time, we’d bind Quinn with spelled chain. Or ward the room itself.
I touched the door. It swung inward—
Quinn’s eyes opened.
He launched himself off Jeremy’s shoulder in a blur, slamming my wolf into the wall.
“Not again!” Quinn hissed, backing away, eyes locked on me like I might bite him.
Imagine.
Then he sniffed delicately, hunger sliding over his face.
Ice coiled in my gut. Derek was defenseless in the break room.
Quinn vanished in a blur.
“Go!” Jeremy snarled. “I’m right behind you!”
I bolted after him, arriving seconds later. Still an eternity when a hungry vampire was involved.
I skidded into the break room and stopped dead.
Quinn stood over Derek’s sleeping form, his lips parted and his eyes widening in surprise.
“He smells good ,” Quinn whispered, awestruck. “Why does he smell so good?”
Jeremy appeared in the doorway, clearly surprised not to be leaping into a fight.
“If you lay a hand on him, I won’t hold back this time,” I warned. “I have my limits, and Derek is one of them.”
“Derek,” Quinn repeated, still staring. “That’s a good name. I like that name.”
Jeremy shot me a confused look.
“Step away from the human,” I told Quinn. “Before we’re forced to use violence. Again.”
“I don’t want to hurt him,” Quinn said, brow furrowed. “He smells amazing. But not like food.”
I stared. Impossible. Absolutely not bloody likely.
Derek stirred, stretched, opened his eyes—and smiled at Quinn. “Dude, you’re a fucking mess.”
Quinn blinked, then grinned. No fangs. “Yeah, I am, aren’t I?”
“Um,” Jeremy said, looking between them. “What’s going on?”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “It’s entirely possible he’s just discovered his fated mate.”
Jeremy hesitated. “That’s… good. But are we still hauling him into the dungeon?”
For the first time, I realized I had no idea what to do next.
“Why do they want to take you into the dungeon?” Derek asked, sitting up. He looked more awake now. He stretched and yawned. Quinn all but melted watching him.
“I’ve hurt people,” Quinn said quietly. “I’m guessing that’s why.”
“That’s rough,” Derek said with a grimace. “Did you mean to?”
“I thought I did,” Quinn admitted. “Now… I’m not so sure.”
“Are you planning to hurt me?” Derek asked, curious rather than afraid.
“Definitely not!” Quinn hissed, eyes wide, as though offended Derek could possibly think such a thing. Softer, he added, “I wouldn’t.”
I rolled my eyes again.
It hadn’t occurred to me how annoying watching a murderous vampire meet their fated mate could be. Was this what I’d signed up for—an eternity of this?
The sudden stinging in my eyes had to be dust, not emotion. The relief was purely because Quinn wasn’t trying to kill Derek. Not because Jeremy was right, and I might actually be able to do some good with my eternity.
“It’s okay to let yourself be happy sometimes,” Jeremy murmured, watching me. “You know that, right?”
“Stay out of my head,” I said automatically, still staring at the pair.
“You can’t change anything you’ve done in the past,” Derek told Quinn, their focus locked entirely on each other, as if they were the only ones in the room.
“No matter how much you might wish you could. Trust me, I know I would do a lot differently, too. But you can choose to do better next time. That’s about all you can do now. ”
Quinn’s brows knit at Derek’s words, as if he was genuinely hanging on them. For the first time since meeting him, his eyes looked halfway human. He studied Derek a moment longer, and then his expression shifted. Resolve settled in. He looked at us and said, “I’ll come with you.”
“No!” Derek lurched to his feet and swayed, still half-drunk. Quinn caught him by the shoulders without hesitation.
Derek didn’t flinch. He looked right at me over Quinn’s shoulder. “What the hell do you intend to do with him?” His voice hardened. “You’re not going to hurt him. I know you won’t.”
Which served me right for tucking him in one too many times. He didn’t have nearly enough healthy fear of me or what I might do.
“No,” Jeremy replied before I could, in that gentle, placating tone I was starting to recognize—the one you’d use on a frightened, cornered animal to coax it into not tearing you to pieces when you tried to help.
“I promise, we’re not going to do him any harm.
Quinn just isn’t safe around most other people yet.
We need to make sure he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. ”
Derek looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded. He relaxed visibly, certain I wouldn’t lie to him.
“Quinn,” Derek said with a smile, holding the vampire’s gaze. “It’s nice to meet you.”
The vampire returned his smile, his eyes shining.
Derek looked back at me. “You’re not going to keep him forever, right? I’ll be able to see him?”
Quinn all but melted at the idea that Derek wanted to see him again.
I rolled my eyes for what felt like the millionth time.
The feelings I was apparently determined to keep having began to ebb, replaced by a whole pack of problems I had no idea how to contend with.
The biggest question was: what now? Did we assume Quinn would suddenly behave?
How did we proceed? I’d never really imagined we’d get this far, and now that we were here, I honestly had no idea what came next.
“We’ll get the logistics sorted in the morning,” Jeremy told me firmly. Then, to Derek: “Hey, when did you get here?”
Derek seemed as baffled by his question as I was. “About three hours ago, maybe?”
“Quinn escaped four hours ago,” Jeremy said meaningfully. He glanced at the human. “And Derek, I’m betting you got here, had a few too many, and crashed out back here. You probably passed out about a half hour ago.”
Derek shrugged but didn’t deny it.
At the blank look almost certainly etched on my face, Jeremy grinned triumphantly.
“That’s why Quinn didn’t hurt anyone after he escaped.
Poppy’s magic led him straight to the shipping yard, stalling him until he and Derek were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to meet.
All this happened because it was meant to. ”
I felt my annoyance spark at his smug tone. But when I met Jeremy’s gaze fully, ready to tell him off, I saw that his eyes were shining.
And then I might’ve melted a bit, too.
* * *
Quinn came down to the dungeon with us willingly after that, strangely quiet. The only time he spoke was to ask Jeremy and me for some water and a rag to clean his face. Naturally, I sent Jeremy to get them. I wasn’t anywhere near ready to trust Quinn not to harm the wolf when I wasn’t looking.
When I called Nathaniel to explain, he sent Sadie to watch Quinn. Apparently, all the vampires in Rookwood had been holed up at the local high school gymnasium, and the witches had contained them with a simple barrier spell. Rendered more or less unnecessary, Sadie had driven back to Seattle.
She wouldn’t have been my first choice for babysitting, but she didn’t seem to mind.
Sadie was, under normal circumstances, a cuttingly abrasive vampire—a woman after my own heart, truly.
The only exception I’d ever seen was when we’d focused our community on philanthropic works—making our city better for those with so little.
The other exception, apparently, was when miracles happened in front of her.
“This will change everything. You are aware of this, are you not?” Sadie said, pulling me aside.
From across the room, she eyed Quinn like she couldn’t quite believe it.
There was a note of accusation in her voice, but she couldn’t seem to look away.
“Everyone in that awful little town will be restored. Many others will be as well.”
I understood the awe in her voice. Any vampire could see the difference in him.
For one thing, his eyes weren’t flat and empty anymore.
They were human now, filled to the brim with emotion.
Granted, he kept glancing toward the stairs like he was halfway ready to break into a rousing chorus of Someday My Prince Will Come , but it was still a vast improvement over the murderous, feral version I’d nearly killed an hour ago.
“Let’s deal with one vampire at a time,” I said airily. “And Quinn is your problem for tonight. Please try not to murder him, no matter how tempting he makes it. Derek would be upset.”
“Quinn’s humanity has returned, and so he is an innocent once more,” she said flatly, as if I’d just insulted her. “My justice is meted out only to those who richly deserve it.”
“How nice for you.”
“And what do you intend to do with him now?” she demanded. “Surely you cannot mean to keep him locked away in this dungeon forever.”
It was a good point, and one I had no answers for except to wait and see.
Apparently, that wasn’t good enough, because she scowled, finally tearing her eyes from Quinn long enough to glare daggers at me.
“You have rewritten the rules of our entire species, and you were entirely unprepared for the consequences of your actions. This is not acceptable.” Then, after studying me for a long moment, she grudgingly added, “But you have done a selfless thing as well. A good thing.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I respect this, even if I would not have believed you capable of it. I will speak with Nathaniel tomorrow, and we will create a plan to reintegrate Quinn into the outside world.”
So that was delightful and charming. Though if Sadie were helping us drive the bus, we would absolutely reach our destination. Very likely with acts of emotional violence along the way, but who was being picky?
Not that I’m letting on fully how much she’d spun my head around. Sadie, just by being herself, had made me look at this situation properly. And I absolutely could not do that level of processing here. Not without unseemly theatrics. I had a reputation to uphold, after all.
Because with this all neatly sorted, I could finally realize this was really happening. And the relief—crashing and total—was almost overwhelming. I felt halfway ready to bawl like I was an over-emotional human.
Again.
I hadn’t saved my brother from his fate, and maybe I couldn’t save the world either, but I had done this .
I’d created a situation where Quinn could maybe be a person again.
And I hadn’t done it alone: Poppy had done most of the heavy lifting.
Michael had helped me understand that this was even possible.
Everyone around me had helped, in fact. Hell, even Sadie was willing to assist, in her own no-nonsense way.
I understood it right then. I couldn’t do this alone.
And I didn’t have to, did I? This didn’t have to just be my dream. It could be bigger than me. If other people wanted to help me, I could let them in. I probably had no other choice, anyhow. Not if I wanted to do this the way it needed to be done.
I knew I couldn’t save everyone—I wasn’t na?ve enough to think I could—but maybe I could do this again, for others. Maybe there were other Quinns out there who needed me, even if they didn’t know it yet.
I had Jeremy to thank for every moment of this, and for everything that came after. And so did Quinn. And Derek, too. And all the other vampires—victims themselves—that I might someday help.
It was all because Jeremy had stopped me.
Because if I had killed Quinn, if I’d torn out his heart in the shipping yard, I would have given up on this whole plan.
I know I would have. I would have taken it as proof I was wrong, that this would never work, and that I was a silly goose for believing—even for a moment—that it could.
Trusting Quinn to Sadie for the rest of the evening, I took Jeremy by the hand and led him up the stairs and through the back door. Jeremy didn’t protest, even though I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going at first.
He was oddly silent beside me, his heart beating louder when I didn’t drop his hand immediately.
“I want to show you something,” I told him.
“Okay,” he said solemnly, letting me guide him into the stillness of the night.