CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When I woke up, Alexius was already awake, and he showed me his phone. Maria had also gotten up before sunset to text him, letting him know to call the moment he and I were both ready.
“Obviously, you can’t wake up early like her and me. Let’s get you blood and call. She’s ready to—”
I reached out and hit the little phone next to her name, calling her from bed. I wasn’t particularly hungry. A meal could wait until after the call.
“Good evening,” Maria said before I could say anything. “This was a faster call than I was expecting. Did you wait for her to open her eyes and hit the call button before she could think straight?”
“She hit the button,” Alexius answered right as I spoke.
“Good evening,” my voice a little hoarse.
“Clean up has been finished. I looked over the body and the footage. The kill was opportunistic. The vampire must have been hungry, and she was alone, getting home by herself. Bad luck for her.”
“Where was the vampire before the kill?”
“We don’t know. Even reviewing all the cameras, he doesn’t show up in the footage before the incident anywhere around the building or inside it.
He caught his prey’s heartbeat and hunted her down.
He certainly panicked when Everly walked in.
He wasn’t expecting anyone to catch him feeding.
And we were also right about his experience level.
He did nothing to pacify the victim. He covered her mouth to stop the scream and bit. ”
As we listened, Alexius pulled me closer, one of his legs getting between mine and an arm going around my waist. He was literally insatiable, and we were discussing a vampire killing a human in my brother’s parking garage.
“Stop it,” I hissed.
“Stop?” Maria was only confused for a beat. “Oh—”
“Not you,” Alexius answered quickly.
“I got that,” she said, chuckling. “There’s really not much else. We have clear footage of his face. That will help us track him down better. Everyone in my nest will know what he looks like by midnight. Now on to a second thing.”
“A second thing?” Alexius asked, growling softly.
“Everly told Declan that he needs to stay inside or with a supernatural for protection. Fair, considering where this kill happened and how it happened only adds to the danger. He must have told his werewolf during the day what you passed along to him, Everly. She must have told other werewolves. It reached Callahan. He reached out to me. I confirmed that my people investigated something unrelated to Declan in his area, but that’s all. ”
“Oh…” I groaned.
“He’s invited both of you to a pack event that is currently happening.
That will give you a chance to discuss with him Declan’s safety, considering Declan works for one of the pack’s businesses.
You should both go. The party ends at one a.m. or something…
” She looked for something, probably a note.
“Yes. Two a.m. is last call, and everyone is expected to leave by three. Plenty of time for you both to make an appearance. I’m not saying you have to go, but you were invited, and it skips the need for an official appointment.
Stopping by for a party is not unheard of. ”
“Random night to have a party,” I said, shaking my head.
“The pack has a party at least once a week,” Maria said, laughing.
“It would be stranger if there wasn’t one on any given week.
They are a pack animal. They need bonding.
They like eating together. They enjoy any reason to get together.
I believe this is the weekly pack birthday celebration for anyone who had a birthday, but that could be tomorrow.
Who knows? If you intend to go, he said you have his number and to give him a call to declare that so he can whisper it to the guarding werewolves to allow you in without trouble. ”
“We’ll go, but not for long. I want to see if I can pick up that vampire’s trail from last night,” Alexius said.
“You can drop me off,” I said, looking up at him. We were still in bed, and he was hovering over me, the phone resting on my chest.
“And leave you with a large portion of the pack by yourself?” His face hardened. “Absolutely not. I need to at least make an appearance with you so they understand.” He looked at the phone. “Is that all, Maria?”
“That’s everything in front of me right now—”
Alexius hung up on her, then tossed his phone away from us.
Before I thought to react, he snatched my jaw, tilting my head back enough for him to give a deeply possessive kiss.
He pulled away as he let go of my jaw and ran his hand around the back of my neck.
I reached up, and he grabbed that hand with his free one. My other was pinned between us.
“We should get moving if we’re going to make our appearance and talk to Callahan,” I reminded.
“I wish I was also on vacation,” he murmured, leaning down to nip my collarbone.
“So I could just enjoy this all night. I shouldn’t have taken any work for Maria.
I thought keeping busy with that would help me with you…
” His eyes met mine again. “And now all I want is time to be right here. To enjoy what’s mine. ”
“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. He was very good at seducing me, whether he was doing it intentionally or not. Then I really processed what he said. “Yours?” We hadn’t really discussed labels or anything.
“Is that a problem?” he asked softly. “Because I intend to make sure the werewolves know it. They should know that if they bother you, they are bothering my lover.”
“Lover?” My heart was struggling, both from the lack of my nightly feeding and thanks to Alexius.
“I don’t like modern terms. Boyfriend, girlfriend. They feel immature on my tongue.” He frowned. “Is it the title or the presumption this is something… not casual that is bothering you?”
“Not bothered. Surprised. I didn’t think… I didn’t think you would want to consider us anything but physical.”
“Lover is the best term for what I believe we have. Are you okay with people thinking you’re mine?” He moved back up, his lips grazing mine as he spoke. “Or knowing it’s the truth?”
“As long as it works the other way, too,” I replied, having to be true to myself. I wasn’t a plaything. If I was his, he was mine. No touching by other people.
“Then we have an agreement. I have zero need for other people. In fact, normally that sort of attention annoys me.”
He proceeded not to let me out of the bed for an hour.
It took us another hour to call Callahan and get out of the house.
“You’re not going to have time to do the tracking you want thanks to that,” I told him as he drove too fast to the party.
“I was already going to be hours behind the schedule I wanted. Taking an extra hour doesn’t change anything at this point.
” He reached out and took my hand from my lap, rubbing my palm with his thumb.
“And I probably won’t be back by sunrise.
I’ll make sure to tell you I’ve found a secure place.
I probably won’t sleep just for safety, and I know I can reach out to Maria’s people if I need assistance. ”
“They could take the chance to betray you,” I said, not liking the idea of him alone like that.
“You are being paranoid, thanks to the ancients at Isaiah’s. And in that scenario, it was a good place to be paranoid. However, the daytime humans of Maria’s nest will just provide assistance if I need it. I’ve been working with them lightly this entire time.”
Jealousy rose up in me.
“I wish you would let me help,” I said, huffing.
“You are on vacation,” he reminded me. “We are doing this to make your vacation more secure. Then I will get back to work and try to keep it away from you and your brother.”
“Fine.”
“Let me make something very clear. If I ask for your help on this, it’s because I either think you are in danger and keeping you close will keep you safe, or things have turned desperate for me, and I trust you to be my backup.
” Alexius looked at me in the dark car. “Do you understand? I think you need to enjoy time with your brother. Take it from someone who didn’t spend enough time with the only person he cared about and lost.”
“Okay.” I leaned in and put my cheek to his hand as he continued to rub my palm with a thumb. “I’ll stop bothering you about it. Please be safe.”
“Easy. Not many things out there that can kill me.”
“But they have gotten close before,” I reminded him.
“I have survived many years of this, Everly. I will be okay. That is my promise to you, the same I have for Rupert. The same one I had for Jacob. I keep that promise. I am not ready to die.”
I nodded, accepting that promise now.
We arrived at a beach house, expensive and packed with people, nearly all of them werewolves. A contracted valet person took our car and went to park it somewhere.
“I wish I knew where our vehicle was going,” he muttered.
“Maybe you could ask?”
“No. It’s not that important.” He wrapped an arm around me, his hand on my hip as we walked in. It wasn’t a casual touch. When someone told Callahan we walked in, he turned and noticed. He tilted his head slightly, curiously, as Alexius and I walked up.
“Greetings. Let’s go upstairs.” He led us away from the werewolves staring.
He pointed somewhere and made a gesture for others to move or come closer.
I saw Declan and Lexi come out of the crowd, then Lucas.
He had a beautiful woman with him who I could only assume was Yiva, his wife and Lexi’s mother.
We all went upstairs together, where Callahan closed us into an office that looked out on the ocean.
“What is going on? Why was Declan warned, and why did he give the most obscure warning to my werewolves he could have possibly given?”
“Oh…” I should have mentioned more.
“Everly didn’t want to tell her brother that a vampire I’ve been looking for killed someone in his parking garage,” Alexius said, sitting down without an invitation. Everyone else kept standing as Callahan watched Alexius, then looked at me.
“What?” Declan said, exhaling in a surprised and fearful laugh.