Chapter 14 Simon
SIMON
Reno was glad I didn’t hate him. It had come through loud and clear. My bonded mate was glad I didn’t hate him.
I’d never been one to wallow in self-pity, but the only reason I wanted to get rid of this bond with Reno was so I could feel sorry for myself without him knowing.
He was glad his mate didn’t hate him, and I wished my mate would love me.
Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes and examined the bond.
It looked slightly better than it had right after we’d mated.
Some of the magical tendrils tying the cores together were going through them instead of around them.
The disparity between the speeds at which our cores were spinning seemed to be smaller too.
It appeared that our magics wanted this bond to take, which didn’t bode well for me undoing it right now.
Tentatively I tugged at one of the tendrils of my magic tied around Reno’s core. My core threw out a new tendril to effectively slap me back. “Shit!”
I opened my eyes and gave Reno a rueful look that I hoped didn’t convey any of the relief I felt. “It’s fighting me. Our magics want to stay bonded.”
His eyebrows went up. “Huh.” Then he frowned. “I guess that makes sense. Our cores sent out the original mating connection after all.” He squeezed my hand. “Thanks for trying.”
“Of course.” Anything for you.
He stared at me for a beat, his cheeks turning pink.
Shit, did he hear that thought through our connection?
“Um.” He glanced around the room. “I must’ve left my phone in the kitchen.
I’d like to research that Emiliano guy some more while we wait to hear from Cal.
Are you ready to tell the others what happened? Or didn’t happen?”
I squeezed his hand back. “I’m ready.”
When we went downstairs, Jackson was in the kitchen getting snacks out of the pantry, and Tucker was helping Nicky get settled on a chair at the kitchen table.
“Whoa.” Reno, who’d been walking ahead of me, stopped in his tracks.
“What is it?” I could see over his shoulder, and I didn’t note anything concerning.
He pointed at Tucker. “His connections. I can tell which ones are friends and which ones are family.”
“You can? Fantastic. The bond is sharing some of my abilities with you.”
He turned slowly to blink at me. “That’s not the way it works.”
“What do you mean?” How else would it work?
Reno made an impatient gesture. “Bonding enhances the abilities people already have. Like once he got bonded, Cal could call visions and his geographic range is bigger. That’s what should be happening to me. I’ve never heard of anyone gaining their partner’s abilities.”
Vaguely I remembered reading about that in the compendium Cal had written. “For vampires, each partner’s abilities get combined with the other’s skills. Like, if one of the partners has more experience at manipulating connection magic, on bonding the other partner realizes the same level of skill.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, and I got a combination of astonishment and worry through our bond. “Does this mean you’ll start getting visions now?”
Well, shit. I hadn’t considered that. “I don’t know.
As far as I’m aware, I’m the only vampire who’s ever mated outside our species.
” Wait a minute. I sucked in a breath. “That’s why!
” I grabbed Reno’s shoulders. “When we were fighting Marcas and Roibeart at the park, I was faster than usual, and I healed my wound when I misted. I’d never been able to do that before.
I’m getting my abilities enhanced, like any other magic carrier’s mate would, and you’re getting some of my abilities, like a vampire’s mate would. ”
That means I’ll never be able to call a vision. Reno’s realization echoed between us like a death knell. Our bond delivered the thought he hadn't voluntarily sent to me: What use am I? and then a horrified, I made Simon mate me for nothing!
I hugged him, drawing him as close as I could. Your calling a vision might have been why we decided to bond today, but it was never any part of why I want you to be my mate.
He didn't respond, but I got a swirl of gratefulness, guilt, and a feeling of inadequacy. Working through Reno’s feelings would take longer than we had right now.
We held each other for a beat until Tucker interrupted. “So, you’re mated? Is that typical for how a vampire mating bond looks?” He pointed at us.
Sighing, Reno broke away from our hug and tugged me to the table.
“Yes, we’re mated. No, it didn’t take completely, because I’m an asshole and subconsciously I wasn’t all in.
And the whole thing was for nothing because I can’t call a vision.
” He gestured at me. “And it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be able to. ”
My knee-jerk reaction was to object to him calling himself an asshole, but he squeezed my hand so I let it be.
Tucker cocked his head. “Your scents have mingled, and you’re holding hands, so it can’t be all bad.”
Reno shook his head and pulled out one of the chairs. “No, we have to stay touching each other.”
Jackson and Nicky hadn’t commented. They were both too busy staring at the ramshackle bond Reno and I had created.
I saw Reno’s phone on the kitchen counter, so I grabbed it.
His aunt had messaged him, but otherwise he only had a few new texts from Wonders.
They’d all reacted positively to my responses, and many of them had started contacting me instead of Reno.
I handed him the phone as I sat down next to him.
He was explaining Cal’s plan to get closer if he couldn’t call a vision now.
Speaking of Cal, my phone rang. I answered. “Hey, Cal. You’re on speaker with me, Reno, Jackson, Nicky, and Tucker.
“Hi, everybody. So, same result. No vision. I’m in the car on the way to get closer to you. It’ll take me about two hours. I have a good success rate with calling visions within a smaller range, so I’m hopeful this will work. If it doesn’t, I’ll contact Delphia and get them to come home.”
But we all knew Roibeart and Marcas wouldn’t wait that long to feed again.
After wishing him good luck, we hung up. Tucker glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to be at work in a bit, so I need to get goin’. Do you want me to see if my mom can come over this afternoon, in case Cal finds out where the vamps are?”
Reno gave me a questioning look, and I shook my head. “If you can have her on standby, we’ll call if we find out anything.”
“Okay. Good luck with the, uh, bond. Reno, I’ll text for an update when I’m on break.”
He left, and Jackson filled the table with chips, crackers, cheese, deli meats, and fruit. We didn’t get plates, but we got napkins. I’d had worse lunches.
After we ate, I loaded the photos from Reno’s camera onto my laptop and tried to use image search to figure out who Emiliano’s girlfriend was.
Using a photo of another photo, especially one behind glass, made it challenging, and I had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning up the pictures before I could get any search results at all.
Reno worked next to me, going through his messages while we maintained physical contact by pressing our knees together under the table.
“Hey.” I nudged him. “Here, let me add your fingerprint so you can access my computer.” I turned my laptop toward him and pointed at the power button.
He held his hands up and leaned back. “What? Why? That’s your private stuff.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “At this point I don’t think we have any secrets from each other. Besides, this way you can get to my Discord account and texts in case you need to find a message from a Wonder.”
He considered this for a minute, then he made a huffing noise and put his finger on the button on my laptop.
I got him added to the facial recognition on my phone as well, and I felt a little thrill that my mate was even more integrated into my life.
Reno eyed me a little curiously at that point, so he must’ve felt something through the bond, but I pretended not to notice.
He hadn’t tried to block the bond yet, or at least not that I was aware of. The magic might not even let him do it right now, but either way I hoped he didn’t try.
We worked together well into mid-afternoon.
I finally identified Emiliano’s girlfriend—or at least her Instagram username.
She didn’t have any personally identifying information in her bio, but the face was the same as the one in Emiliano’s photos.
I started a list of the accounts she’d tagged so I could investigate those.
I knew Reno didn’t love his job as a private investigator, but other than the low-key tension he’d had since he hadn’t been able to call the vision this morning, he seemed content enough. Maybe he’d just needed a partner. I loved that I could do that for him.
That thought definitely made it through the bond to Reno. He didn’t look at me, but his cheeks flushed, and he stopped typing the email he’d been composing, his fingers poised above the keyboard for a few seconds before he carried on.
I refused to be ashamed of my feelings. Besides, how could he make an informed decision about whether to keep the bond after all this was over if he didn’t know how I felt?
Reno cleared his throat. “I think it’s time we alert the local gargoyle family about Emiliano Duran. I meant to do it yesterday, but....” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“We got distracted.”
“Yeah.” He took his reading glasses off and fiddled with them.
“Sure. Do you want to call them, or—” My phone rang. “Hold that thought. It’s Cal.” Nicky and Jackson were watching TV, but they paused it as I put the phone on speaker. “Hey, Cal, how did it go?”
His voice was urgent. “Get Nicky, and all of you stay together. I think they’re in the house.
” Reno and I jumped to our feet as Cal kept talking.
“The Hunters in the backyard are dead. The rest of the Hunter team will know, but I don’t have any idea how long it will take them to get there.
My vision was for right now, I’m sure of it. ”
Reno and I both looked out the window to the backyard, but nothing was visible except the grass and shrubs.
He took hold of my arm, and I grabbed the phone.
“Cal, can you call Tucker? No, he’s at work.
Shirley then. She might be able to get here faster than the Hunters.
” We ran over to the sofa and stood next to the outside corner of the sectional.
Nicky was wide-eyed with fear, and Jackson crouched over him on the cushions in their panther form.
I cast around. My mek’leth was in the guest bedroom. Too far, especially if Reno had to come with me. “Weapons?”
“Here.” Reno pulled me over to the side table nearest the front door. I held onto him while he opened the cabinet and took out a gun case. He unlocked it and proceeded to load the handgun. “This is all I’ve got.”
“No.” From beneath Jackson’s stomach, Nicky stretched out his hand so he could reach over the back of the couch. The baseball bat Tucker had left by the back door flew into it, and he held it out to me.
“Thank you, but your magic is still weak. Don’t waste it.” But I accepted the bat as Reno and I took position again at the corner of the sectional. “Reno, I’m going to do the thing with the bond.”
A pause, then he nodded. “Do it.”
I didn’t dare close my eyes, but I reached inside and did the best I could to twist the bond so it didn’t flare between me and Reno like a beacon. Tentatively I took a step away from him, sighing with relief when there was no pain.
“Should we take this outside?” Reno answered his own question. “No, we’re more defensible here. Alright! Let’s take these fuckers down.” Reno kept the gun down at his side as he swept the room with his gaze.
We didn’t have to wait long before Roibeart and Marcas misted into the living room from the guest bedroom hallway.
My claws came out and I could feel my fangs elongating.
I stood between the intruders and Nicky and Jackson, holding the baseball bat at the ready.
“You won’t win here. The Hunters are on their way. ”
They reformed, Marcas coming at me with a sword, and Roibeart darting around us to get to Reno.
I blocked Marcas’ blade, trying to shove him away from the sofa and into the open space next to the kitchen table.
The gun fired, and Roibeart grunted. I laughed into Marcas’ face.
Vampires should be too fast for a magic carrier to shoot, but the mate bond must have gifted Reno with some of my speed.
I deflected Marcas’ swing again and reached under him to swipe at his belly with my claws just as Reno shouted, “No!”
My head filled with a roaring pain, and I fell.