Chapter Twenty-Six
Leonora
“If you’re going to vanish off the face of the earth, then at least answer your fucking phone.” I hung up and knew my face must still be twisted in a scowl by the way Emerson winced as she and Novalie sat down opposite me on my bed.
“Cal?”
“Hayes,” I corrected and then sighed. “I don’t know… It’s only been a day, but I got a weird feeling through the bond yesterday and then today something just feels off.”
“Speaking of Cal,” Novalie said and I raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried asking him if he heard from Hayes?”
I shrugged, it was worth a try. I scrolled down my contacts until I found his name and hit call. It went straight to voicemail. “Why doesn't anyone answer their bloody phones? What is the point in having one if they don’t answer it?”
“Yeah, it’s frustrating when somebody just up and leaves and doesn’t tell you why.”
I raised my hands, palms out. “Hey, I apologised for that.” The two girls snickered and I sighed. “I’ll try Cal again. I’ve already left Hayes about four voicemails threatening various parts of his anatomy.”
“Oh yeah, I bet he can’t wait to call you back after listening to those.”
I threw a pillow at Novalie’s head as I stood up to pace while I called Cal again. This time, he answered.
“What?”
“Good. You’re not dead. I was starting to worry. Have you heard from Hayes?” I bit my thumb lightly as I waited for his response, stomach dropping when he waited a moment too long to reply,
“He’s not with you?”
Fuck. “Why would I be calling you if he was with me?” More magick than brains , it was the only time I’d been glad to take after Elowen.
Cal mumbled something on the other end of the line before speaking up, “He texted to tell me he was going to Ashvale.”
So he’d gone to Ashvale and then not come back? Given my history there, it didn't bode well. “Take me there. Now.”
“I’m busy. I’m sure he’s fine, otherwise the blood bond would be messing you up by now.”
Rage, barely leashed, kept my voice a deathly calm. “Cal. I swear to fucking god. I’m going to mess you up if you don’t?—”
The phone beeped in my ear and my mouth dropped open as I spun to look at Em and Novalie. “Motherfucker hung up on me,” I whispered and Novalie winced.
“It’s almost like violence doesn’t solve everything.”
Em hushed her and I snarled, launching my phone at the wall so hard the stone cracked and dust flew.
“What do you want to do?” Em stood and placed a soothing hand on my arm so I’d stop pacing.
“I don’t know,” I muttered before repeating myself. “I don't know. I feel strange.” Magick sparked at my fingertips and Emerson took a step back. “Shit, sorry.”
I sat down on the floor abruptly, focusing on my breaths and willing my magick to settle. I didn't know that anything was wrong, not yet. But I couldn't help the shivery feeling coasting along my skin like I was standing in the shadow of the sun without realising it.
When my eyes opened the room was blurry, pinpricks behind my eyes made me gasp and I gripped Em’s hand in mine, squeezing tightly. “What should I do?”
I held my breath so they wouldn't hear it hitch and when the room started spinning I barely noticed Novalie moving until I felt her arms wrap around me from behind.
“Let go,” she murmured. “We’ve got you.”
My body shuddered and Em scooted forward, pushing my head down onto her shoulder as she stroked my hair.
“What’s happening to me?”
“Shhh,” Em said softly. “You need this. It’s time, Leah.”
I couldn't have breathed even if I’d wanted to, sobs pushed out of me with such force that they were noiseless and the girls just squeezed me tighter, like they could hold me together even when I couldn't.
It was like a dam had burst, one I hadn't realised was building until I couldn't hold back the wave any longer.
Slowly, my shaking eased and when Novalie pulled away to grab me a tissue, my back felt cold from her absence.
“Here.” She passed it to me and I wiped my eyes and nose before blinking thickly at them.
“What the hell just happened?” My voice was scratchy, soft, and Em stood and helped me to my feet with one hand.
“Catharsis.”
“What?”
“We’ve been waiting for it.” Novalie shrugged and they shared a glance. “You might be a vampire, but you’re still only human Nora,” she said, bemused.
“It would be stranger if you hadn’t had a breakdown at some point,” Em said, matter of fact. “I mean you died?—”
“Murdered, actually,” Novalie interjected.
“Right. You were murdered, found your birth parents, betrayed by your friend, nearly killed by your mother?—”
“And that doesn’t even include whatever is going on with you and Hayes.” Novalie smirked and I looked back and forth between them, bemused.
“I guess when you say it all like that…”
“The way it happened?” Emerson quipped and I laughed but it faded quickly.
“Thank you. For being here.”
“That’s what family are for, right?” There was a slight undercurrent of uncertainty in Novalie’s voice and I reached for her at the same time as Emerson.
“Absolutely.”
Nobody knew how to party quite like vampires.
The shivery feeling I’d had all day hasn't faded, but crying my heart out for a few minutes had left me feeling surprisingly light.
I’d half-hoped to see Rath at the evening’s gathering but he’d been absent—notably, if his group of forlorn misfits were anything to go by.
Emerson and Novalie had opted to stay at the party, but I’d decided to leave instead of being a third wheel. Plus, who knew crying could be so physically exhausting?
The corridors were quiet, the air still, and I opened my door without hesitation. The door shut with a small click that suddenly felt too loud and I stopped just inside the doorway, senses alert. Something wasn’t right.
A hand shot out of the darkness and suddenly, my back was against the wall. His scent hit me a moment later and my body froze, a wave of emotions rolling through me so fast all I could do was gasp.
“Rowan.”
The hand at my throat didn’t ease and I found his face in the darkness. He looked the same. Untouched. But when our eyes met, there was something lurking there that hadn't been there before—a predator.
The dip in my stomach felt like despair and joy at the same time. He was alive! But he was alive. And suddenly the fears I’d had simmering about Hayes going AWOL didn't seem so unfounded.
“Leah.” Even his voice was the same. Smooth, deep. But the fangs in his mouth, gleaming in the dark, were larger than I was used to seeing on him.
I pushed the emotions down. I could deal with their messy tangle later. For now, I need to keep my head… and heart. “What did you do to him?”
“Hayes is fine.”
I scoffed. I didn't buy that for a minute. If Hayes was okay, he would already be here.
The arm at my throat fell away and my body tensed all over again when Rowan moved faster than I anticipated, grabbing my arms and… pulling me to his chest?
“What are you doing?” My voice was muffled by the fabric of his jumper and I jumped when he chuckled.
“It's called a hug.”
“I killed you.”
“I didn’t notice,” he said dryly and I pulled away from him, my brain moving in slow motion as I tried to process that he was really here. Really alive. “But you were only returning the favour.”
“Is that why you’re here? To re-return the favour?”
The bed creaked and I turned on the lamp on top of the dresser, closing the distance in half a blink. Rowan looked at me steadily, his face fully visible in the low-light.
“I came here because you’re my friend and I missed you.”
“I missed you.” The words slipped out, quiet enough that he might not have heard them as a living vampire but now that he was undead…
A beat of silence passed between us, static igniting the air as our eyes caught. It lasted only a moment before I looked away. “What do you want from me, Rowan? Things can’t go back to how they were before. I just—I can’t.”
“I know.” The light caught on his hair and I was entranced, drinking in every movement because I’d thought I might not ever see them again. “But the way we left things, Leah…”
The way we’d left things included his heart in my fist, but I got the feeling that wasn’t quite what he was referring to.
He shook his head. “I wanted to tell you so badly. But half the time I couldn’t remember exactly what I’d been doing, I’d wake up in strange places covered in blood and Elowen would always be there.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t excuse what I did, but I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you. That was the last thing I wanted. Ever.”
My feet carried me closer without me making the conscious decision, until I found myself perched next to him on the bed. “Why didn’t you just tell me? I know that what you did when you were on the drug wasn’t you. Not the real you, anyway. But why make me care? Why befriend me and make me love you? That’s the part I can’t—” I clenched my jaw, screwing my eyes shut so I didn’t have to see the pain in his eyes. “The lies, Rowan. That’s what hurt me the most.”
“She had me in thrall.” The words were a whisper and my reaction was instant, rage flooding me and shame stealing my breath—because how could I not have considered that before? “I tried to tell you, to hint at it when you interrogated the living vampire who’d given the drug to Novalie and Emerson, but her instructions were very precise.”
“Oh god, Rowan, I?—”
He pressed a finger to my mouth, the smile on his face surprising me. “Don’t. If you hadn’t killed me, I would still be under her control and dependent on the drug. Now that I’m undead, its hold on me has gone. This was the only way I’d get peace, Leah.”
“We’ll make her pay,” I promised and the fangs in his smile was still startling when he grinned.
“I’m already on it. That’s why I can’t stay, I just needed to see you.”
There was something in his voice that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “What are you planning?”
He didn’t bother denying that he was up to something. “I’m going to find her.”
“Elowen.”
“Yes.”
“And what are you going to do if you find her?”
He shot me a look as he stood up, halting a few paces away from me, a distance he could have crossed in less time than it took to blink. “When I find her, I’m going to kiss her arse.”
Not what I was expecting. “Diabolical.”
He grinned and I swallowed hard. “Keep your enemies close, Leah.”
“Noted.”
“How are Novalie and Emerson? Are they…?”
“Both undead,” I said with a grimace, but then shrugged. “But otherwise fine. I’m pretty sure they’re together now.”
“About time,” he said, rolling his eyes and I laughed. “I missed this.”
“You were dead. Can you really miss things when you don’t know you’re missing them?”
He snorted. “I was healing, not dead. I was semi-conscious most of the time.”
“Well, I’m glad we’re okay?” It came out as a question and his eyes softened as he cupped my jaw.
“Yes. We’re okay.” He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead and then his head snapped up, the smile on his face growing. “That’s my cue. But I’ll see you soon, okay? And if you need me…”
I coughed slightly, nodding to the wall to my right. “I, ah, need to get a new phone.”
The laugh that left him warmed me in a way I hadn’t realised I’d missed since he’d been gone. With my next breath he was by my side, pressing a kiss to my cheek before flashing to my door. “It’s good to be back.”
The door opened and shut so quickly there was barely a breeze and, mere seconds later, Hayes burst in, panting and smeared with mud, naked. “Fuck.” He ran a hand through his silver hair, only making it stand up at stranger angles. “Rowan’s back.”
Why was he always naked? I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“You’re okay?”
“Never better.”