12. Rina
TWELVE
rina
Gods, this trip was going to be harder than I’d ever thought it would be. Especially if we had another repeat of this morning. Sharing a bed, waking up next to him; all intimacies I wanted to save for someone I actually cared about, not for a man I was actively trying to get rid of.
It had been hard enough to pry my eyes away when he’d taken his shirt off this morning, let alone when he’d turned around, back muscles flexing under my gaze, like he knew exactly how attractive he was.
Ezra was temptation and sin, all wrapped up in one perfect, chiseled body. I’d always thought my type was the bad boy—tall, dark, and handsome. A few tattoos couldn’t hurt either. Suddenly, though, I realized that wasn’t my type at all. Not if the way my body responded to his was any indication.
I might not have liked him… but that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate his body, right? Though I didn’t know what to do with this strange tightness in my chest, or the ache in my core that begged to be released.
There was no way. I definitely wouldn’t relieve it with him. I ran my fingers over the mark on my wrist that seemed to throb, sensitive to touch.
A shudder ran through me, like it was connected to that spot deep inside of me.
Shit. I needed to think about anything other than Ezra and his body while sitting next to him in the car.
Looking over, I watched as he slid the sunglasses over his eyes, flipping down the visor to block the rays of the sun. We’d gotten started later today than I’d thought we would, especially considering how long a drive we still had to the middle of nowhere, North Dakota.
Pulling out my phone in an effort to ignore the vampire, I navigated to my best friend’s contact, shooting off a text.
Rina
SOS.
Wendy
What’s happening?
I saw Ezra shirtless.
And???
And… he’s hot.
Duh.
Don’t you have eyes? Or do we need to get them checked?
Yes. And I am currently rolling them at you.
Are we forgetting the part where he is an arrogant, egotistical asshole who has done nothing but make me feel inferior since he showed up in Pleasant Grove?
Uh-huh. Right…
Don’t you remember what you told Eryne?
What part?
It’s your turn, now. You need to get laid, Reens.
The sexual tension between you two is insane.
With him? Hell no. No way. Absolutely not.
Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.
You’re supposed to be on my side here.
I am on your side. The Rina gets dicked down by the hot vampire side.
You keep going on about this, and I’m going to force you to talk about Cassius.
…
Class is starting, gotta go, bye!
That’s what I thought.
I let out a sigh as I locked my phone, setting it on my lap as I watched the roads pass by.
It was going to be a long day.
I didn’t think I’d ever been in a car this long before.
“Aren’t you exhausted?” I asked Ezra, watching another hotel pass us by on the highway. “Don’t you want to stop?” It was dark out once again, and I was seriously wishing I’d brought some reading material along with me.
He let out a grumble. “I want this over with.”
“Alright,” I murmured. I’d never been this far from New England before, and I’d spent most of the day watching the changing landscapes as we’d driven through the Midwest. Unfortunately, it had been pretty boring, and after the sun had gone down, I’d had to rely almost entirely on my phone to occupy my time.
Ezra had barely said a handful of words to me all day; the vampire communicating almost entirely in grunts and huffs. I knew he was eager to be rid of me, but I hadn’t realized just how much until he shut me out. I honestly preferred when we were arguing.
At some point, I fell back asleep, waking up to the sun rising over fields.
“We’re less than an hour away.”
“You drove all through the night?” I yawned as a blanket fell off me, and I wasn’t sure when exactly it had ended up spread over my lap, but I was grateful for it.
“Yeah. I just…” He turned to look at me with bloodshot eyes, which were even more alarming with those red irises of his.
No matter how much I despised him, even I had to admit he didn’t look his best right now.
Muscles or not, he looked… pallid. He’d promised to protect me, but right now, could he even protect himself?
“Right.” I looked away, scanning the roadside signs for some indicator of civilization nearby. There were a few places at the next exit. “Can we stop for coffee? I could use some.”
He rapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Of course. You probably need food, huh?”
I nodded. “What about you? Do you need anything?”
Of course, we both knew I meant blood.
And I really didn’t know how to feel about the fact that I’d just asked him that.
Ezra shook his head. “No. I’ll be fine.” He gave me a tight smile.
He didn’t look fine, though, and I had no idea what to do about that.
Haven Falls was a quaint, small town that looked like it belonged on the set of a movie.
It was a dichotomy: pristine, and yet looked like it belonged to the heyday of the eighteen hundreds.
I felt like a cowboy was about to walk out in front of us, mounted on his horse, just like in the old western movies my Nana loved to watch.
“This is strange.” Something just felt… wrong. Where were all the people? The streets were empty; not a person in sight. A shiver ran down my back.
Ezra pulled over into a parking spot on Main Street, both of us getting out of the car and stepping onto the sidewalk.
“Now what?” I asked, frowning. The storefronts were empty, but looked like people had been here recently.
No dust, not an item out of place. “What the hell is going on here? Are we in the scene of a horror movie or something?”
The vampire at my side crossed his arms over his chest. “Relax.”
“Usually, telling a woman to relax tends to have the opposite effect.” I glared at him. Ezra’s nonchalance was really getting on my last nerve.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “None of this is real.”
Freezing, I turned to look at him. “What?”
“All of this? It’s an illusion.”
I frowned, not understanding. “What do you mean? How is that even possible?” I could press my hand against the brick wall of the building. Everything was real, tangible. How could a town this big—a town I could touch and feel—be fake?
“He’s right.” A golden-haired man stepped out. The sun lit him from behind, making it appear like he was glowing. He looked human, yet I could not deny the otherworldly presence of this man. He was enormous—even taller than Ezra. Goosebumps. I had literal fucking goosebumps.
“Welcome, Ezra.” His voice was deep and warm; his eyes the color of pure gold.
The man’s aura, radiating around him, was the brightest yellow I’d ever seen, so happy and inviting.
He smiled at me—beamed, really, as he glanced between the two of us—not an ounce of confusion or hesitation. “And Rina.”
Like he’d known we were coming. Maybe Ezra was right when he’d said that his friend would find us.
“Hello, Archer,” the vampire at my side said. The two of them couldn’t have been more different if they tried. Dark versus light. Two of the most handsome men I’d ever seen. Otherworldly, as if neither belonged to this place.
I frowned. Had I told him my name? I didn’t think so. “I—Who are you?” I blurted out. “What is this place?”
“He’s an angel,” Ezra explained—though that hadn’t been my question at all.
I looked up into his red eyes, only blinking in surprise. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.” Ezra popped the p, shoving his hands into his pants.
Archer unfurled a pair of large, white feathered wings from his back. There was no halo above his brow, and yet, the way the sun shone seemed to give the effect of one.
I let out a gasp as I took in his full form; the explanation indisputable. The shock wore off fast as everything that had happened in the last year of my life washed over me. “At this point, I shouldn’t even be surprised that angels are real.” The words were a mutter.
The angel chuckled. He looked between us, his aura dimming slightly. “Why are you here, Ezra?”
“Don’t you already know?”
Archer shrugged. “I’m an angel; I’m not omniscient.”
I held back a snort watching the two of them.
A sigh came from the vampire at my side. “We better sit down for this one, Arch.”
Arch? I mouthed to him as we followed the angel inside an abandoned café. Ezra just brushed me off—typical of him.
“How come there’s no one here?” I asked again.
“Haven Falls is a real place,” Archer explained.
“But it’s also… not. The humans who live here aren’t aware of who walks beside them.
” He waved his hand, revealing the truth of the illusion.
There were humans walking the streets—talking, laughing.
Smiling with their families as they shared in the day.
My eyes bugged. This was almost too much to wrap my head around. “So we…”
“They can’t see you,” he confirmed. “We knew evil could come lurking in these parts if they found out we were here.”
“There’s more of you?” Ezra shot me a look, one that told me to stop asking questions. “Sorry,” I muttered. I couldn’t help that I was fascinated. The part of me that loved journalism wanted to keep digging into this story. And this knowledge was too good to pass up.
Archer smiled. “Don’t apologize, Rina.” I wanted to point out to Ezra that even the angel could call me the right name, but this didn’t seem like the time. “Now, tell me what you need from me.”
Ezra rapped his fingers on the table. “We’ve found ourselves in a bit of a tricky situation.”
“Oh?” He looked between us, and I wondered if those perceptive golden eyes could see the bond between us. If he already knew before we spoke a single word.
“Rina is my blood mate,” Ezra explained. I pushed up my sleeve, showing Archer the red mating mark on my arm.
He frowned, looking between us. “Why is that a problem you’ve come to me with?”
“Because we can’t stand each other,” I simplified, not wanting to say the word hate in front of an angel. It just felt wrong. “Neither of us chose this.”