Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EVEREST
I knocked on the door and waited.
A moment later it swung open into the room to reveal a distraught Royce, his eyes were bloodshot and his skin splotchy.
He took one look at me then threw himself at me.
I caught him in a hug then patted his back.
When he stepped back, he nodded once then gestured for me to enter the room and hurried down the hall.
“Thiago?” I asked into the darkness of the room.
“Come in,” he answered softly.
I strolled inside, trying to not spook him. The transition often hit humans hard emotionally and mentally. The lights were off and the curtains to the balcony were closed so there was barely a hint of light coming in. Luckily, I saw better in the dark than the light could ever show me.
Thiago sat barefoot on his bed with his back to the wall and his legs pulled up to his chest. He held his head in his hands and gently rocked back and forth.
I knew the moment the sire bond clicked on for him because his head snapped up.
A scowl deepened the crinkle between his brows.
He looked down at his body in confusion.
“It’s the sire bond,” I walked to the edge of the bed and stopped. “Explaining the details of it right now would…overwhelm you. But that sensation you feel will not hurt you.”
He sighed with relief and leaned his head against the wall behind him. “I appreciate both of those things.”
I nodded to the bed. “May I sit?”
“Yeah.” His voice was cold and stiff.
Sitting on the bed was only my way of trying to appease his human nature. I’d been told a few times it could be creepy when I just stood there. So I sat a few feet over and at the edge of the bed with my feet on the ground. I rubbed my hands together. “Are you angry?”
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
I cringed and my chest tightened. “I am sorry—”
“Not with you, sorry.” He groaned and banged his head on the wall gently. “I don’t quite know what I’m mad about but I am mad…though I know I am only grateful for you.”
“I wish there had been another way for you, genuinely, I do.” I glanced over my shoulder at him but didn’t hold my stare. “Which part is hardest right now?”
“I am struggling with the whole…mortality of it all, or lack there of.” He cracked his knuckles. “The idea that unless someone kills me I will never die…that’s…I can’t wrap my head around that.”
I smiled, though he couldn’t see it with me facing the other way.
“I was not blessed with the gift of mortality. I was born to live forever so I can’t empathize with this change for you but I have lived a very long time…
I’ve experienced it with those around me. But I can promise you it gets easier.”
“How long does it take?”
I pursed my lips. “Do you have family, Thiago?”
The silence thickened. “Not anymore…they…I lost them two years ago.”
“Then, for good or bad, I can tell you this will be easier and faster for you than it will be for Braison or Malik.”
He let out a sigh. “Why do you say that?”
“I’ve known since birth I was immortal so I knew to not get close to mortals…
but you, you lived a whole life already.
Your human lifespan would be nearly halfway spent.
Everyone you care about is a mortal.” I took a breath then exhaled.
“For Braison and Malik, they have family and friends who mean the world to them. People they love. It will break their hearts to watch them get old and die…”
“At least they’ll get to grow old,” he grumbled.
I smirked. “Exactly. You already know loss. You’ve already lost the most important people to you and in a horrific way—”
“Wait, you know that?”
At that, I chuckled. “Knowing what causes pain gives you something to weaponize. I was undercover for a very long time. So yes, I know what happened to your parents. It was not your fault. There was nothing you could have done…and yet it eats away at you day after day.”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“You’ve been given the worst of all first starts.” I shrugged. “But you’ve also been given a community.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was this human whose girlfriend turned him into a vampire in his sleep without getting consent, and without ever having told him she was a vampire—”
“The fuck?”
I nodded. “Pierce was thrown into the deep end and then Sweyn found him. He had the unlucky fortune of being good looking and he had to decide between waiting to die and surviving to live another day. He’s been this sad little lost puppy walking those halls, desperate for warm connection in a castle full of ice.
Before I left, he’d been clinging to me and my little crew… he’s been…devastated. Lost. Alone.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yes, it is. I promised him I would get him out of there and I do not break promises—”
“Is he on our side?”
I half turned and arched one eyebrow.
Thiago chuckled. “Touche.”
“But that won’t be your situation, Thiago.
You were given a choice.” I held both hands up.
“I understand when one of your options is imminent death that it doesn’t feel like a choice, and that is fair.
But it was a choice. You chose to live another day.
Pierce, and half of Avolire, can’t say the same. ”
He nodded.
“And more than that, you already have immortal friends.” When he flinched and looked up at me, I smiled.
“You have me, my entire bloodline, Celina, Braison, Malik, Saffie, and all the angels. Not to mention there’s a few other immortals you’ll like.
So you are not alone in this potential eternity, you have friends and we will not abandon you. ”
He nodded and cleared his throat. I saw the shimmer of emotion in his eyes. “Braison and Malik told me what you offered them…”
“That offer extends to you now as well.” I pushed to my feet. “Look, may I give you some advice?”
“Yes, please.”
“Don’t burden your soul with the hypothesis of tomorrow. We are in a war that very well might kill us all. Live your life now. You are still you, especially since you can still withstand sunlight. So just take it slow and easy, let your immortality settle in. Okay?”
He smiled. “That’s good advice, thank you.”
“Hayareshi?” Celina called from the hallway.
I grinned. “In here, Gali.”
When the bedroom door opened and the light from the hall made her entire body almost glow with gold glitter I let out a sigh. She was beautiful. And she was mine. My heart was a cinderblock of emotion in my chest.
Her answering smile took my breath away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s okay, Frankie.” Thiago gave her two thumbs up. “Everything okay?”
“Well I’ve got good news and bad news.” She grimaced. “Good news is Aunt Val sent us the next step of ingredients.”
I frowned. “And the bad news?”
“We’re pretty sure it means Sam.”
My stomach turned. “Okay, I’m coming.” I nodded to Thiago then followed my wife into the hall. “Why do you think it’s Sam?”
“Seek the blood unwillingly taken, from a twisted, blessed soul forsaken.”
I stopped in the middle of the stairs and groaned. Fuck.
“More blood?” Thiago asked from a few steps up.
That made me chuckle. “That part you’re probably going to want to get used to fast.”
“—assuming we’re right, and it is Sam…” Cooper drawled. “How do we find her?”
I rounded the corner into the living room with Celina’s hand gripped tight in mine.
“What about you, trouble?” Tim tossed a napkin at her. “Tegan?”
She cringed and closed her eyes. “You want blatant truth or hopeful honesty?”
Tenn spun around so fast his hair whipped him in the face. “The truth, Tegan.”
She nodded. “I’m going to need a little more time to recover from Asmodeus. Like, I’m fine but whatever he did it fucked with my magic.”
Tenn scrubbed his face with his hands and started pacing.
“Babe, I’m okay, I just need a minute. I’m perfectly capable of providing us with a portal but the part of my magic that allows me to track people down is a little…dusty.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better, Tegan.”
“I’m sure we can find another method to track her location—”
“Right. That’s the part that worries me.” Tenn shook his head and groaned.
Tegan chuckled. She looked up at him with an outpouring of love in her eyes. “Babe, what’s happening in your head right now?”
“I almost had to become a vampire, Tegan, and no offense to any immortal in the room but I don’t wanna live forever.”
Half the room chuckled.
The other half stared in confusion.
Tegan was somewhere in the middle. “Babe—”
“Right, as if I’m not gonna do it if you do it,” he mumbled.
“What a sight that would be.” I said as we walked into the living room.
Everyone jumped and turned to face me and Celina, and Thiago coming in behind us.
Devon pointed to Bentley. “We got a new stop on the quest that we think means Sam but we’re struggling to locate her.”
“Oh, that’s not a problem.” I stretched my neck. “I am Sam’s sire, I can always track her location—”
“Let’s go. Right now.” Tenn waved his arm and a gust of wind lifted everyone off their seats. “And remember, if you gotta snatch-and grab then be ready but don’t hurt her.”
I nodded. “All right, but Tegan you’re going to stick to Auryn and Rae, got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Celina,” I turned to her and my heart fluttered when she smiled up at me. “You and I are going to keep your cousin alive. Is that clear, Tenn?”
He grumbled. “Just don’t vanish me again without warning, please?”
“Deal.” I looked to my grandson’s soulmate. “Missy, may I request you stay here? I do not like leaving them without one of us—”
“I was going to suggest it anyway.”
“Hey, Tenn…may I stay?” Thiago asked softly behind me. When we turned to look at him he just shrugged one shoulder. “I fear I’m not at my most focused right now.”
“Thiago, you’re a vampire now…” Tenn’s voice was soft and kind. “I don’t like to pull that rank, so you’ll want to ask your new leader that question.”