Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Noah
“We’ll bring the bikes around.” Xander kisses my temple as we exit the club. With the red neon sign illuminating the sidewalk, the evening air is full of energy as a distant thunderstorm rolls in over the mountains.
Darkness shrouds the street as cars pass by and pedestrians slip into open restaurants.
Harlan clasps my hand. “Come on, there’s a good ice cream shop around the corner.”
I let Harlan pull me along. His hand fits into mine neatly, and his grip is gentle but cold. That’s when I realize he’s not quite like Xander.
I manage to catch up with Harlan, and we walk hand-in-hand as he kicks up his feet and hums happily.
“Can I ask you a strange and possibly rude question?” I find myself asking.
Harlan’s easy smile doesn’t fade. “Of course!”
The white light of an ice cream parlor fills the alleyway as we reach the front door. It’s designed just like a nineteen-fifties parlor with a hanging sign spelling out ‘Malt Shop’ and red and white leather booths lining the checkerboard floor.
“Did you die before you were turned into a vampire?” I ask.
Harlan pauses with his shoulder resting against the glass door. “I did. But I wasn’t dead for very long before I was turned.”
He doesn’t elaborate any further as he pushes the door open and a bell chimes above us as we enter. The place is air-conditioned to the max, and a tired-looking woman stands at the register.
Harlan lets go of my hand and bounds over to the viewing cabinet where countless different tubs of ice cream are lined up and waiting to be devoured.
“These look so good! I’m starving!” Harlan squeals and begins deciding which flavors he wants.
My appetite for dessert fades as my mind wanders from Tyler’s premonition and Harlan’s vague response. Xander explained that some vampires are warm-blooded if they had been turned when they were alive versus those that were cold due to being dead before the change.
The bell behind me rings as another customer enters and queues behind us in silence. Harlan ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ between pistachio and peanut butter or boysenberry and coffee. All the while the lady behind the counter waits patiently with her scoop at the ready.
“I can’t believe I found you, baby.”
The world freezes, and every hair on my body stands on end. I barely blink as my body tenses until my stomach revolts and I spin on my heel, coming face-to-face with the last person I thought I'd ever see again.
Richard.
My mind struggles to adjust to the person standing before me.
Richard, with his perfectly combed hair, thick and hard with hair gel.
Who never left the house without triple-checking his outfit was perfect and had lunch with his clients every Sunday.
Who would order the oysters to look affluent and would laugh at things that weren’t humorous in the slightest.
But the man who looks down at me has deep purple rings under his eyes. His hair is shaggy and matted, and his beard has far outgrown his face as it crawls down his neck.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He snatches my wrist and pulls me towards him, but I dig my heels into the overly polished floor. “Do you know how worried I've been? I’ve been sick every night from not knowing where you were.”
His smile is uncanny. Strained. It doesn’t suit him and it doesn’t reach his eyes in the slightest as they twitch with hidden anger that I know is simmering beneath the surface.
“R-Richard.” I find my voice, but it’s weak. Scared.
After these few weeks, I’d have expected myself to have grown a backbone or at least built some level of animosity towards this man. But all I want to do is cry.
“Baby,” Richard sighs, his smile widening. “Let’s go home. I’ll forgive you for everything. We can go right now.”
Forgive me? As if I was the one who put a fist-sized hole in the wall. Or the one who screamed their lungs out and threatened to toss me to the street if I made another mistake.
“No.” I wrench my wrist from his grip and hiss when my skin burns. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Richard hastily checks over his shoulder, his body tensing, and frantically steps closer while I try to step back. Crowding me like a brick wall, he clasps my arm in a vice grip, his nails digging through the leather of my jacket, and I bite back a yelp.
The faint roar of engines rattles the glass windows of the parlor, and my heart quickens. He’s coming.
Richard isn’t a dull man by any means, as he hauls me forward and rushes for the door.
I feel the movement of air passing me before my eyes can catch up, and Harlan blocks the exit.
Harlan carries himself as if he owns the space, despite being tiny compared to Richard’s towering frame.
The effect is enough to make Richard take an unsteady step backward.
“What the fuck?” He hisses at Harlan. “Out of my way.”
Harlan holds a double-scooped ice cream cone and licks the boysenberry ice cream, allowing his fangs to descend slowly.
The rumble of the colony's bikes grows louder as they pull into the street, their headlights filling the road. I tug at where Richard clenches his fist around my bicep, and it twangs with a deep ache.
“I said move, you little twink,” Richard mocks, shifting to step around Harlan. Big mistake. Harlan moves in a blur, blocking him again before Richard’s human reflexes can catch up.
“Nope.” Harlan pops his lips around the word and takes another lick of his ice cream. His fangs are so long they make parallel dents in the side of the dessert. “You’re just the guy we’ve been looking for.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Richard’s voice rises and he tugs me deeper into his side. “I said, move your ass. Or I'll move it for you.”
Harlan’s eyes glimmer. “Kinky. But you won't be touching me. And I'd very much appreciate it if you let go of my friend."
“Let me go, Richard!” I pull my arm through the sleeve of my jacket and manage to slip away from his grasp, leaving him holding onto the material. My skin crawls as my bicep tingles with warmth as blood rushes back to the site.
Richard watches me, his stormy eyes darken, and he laughs. It’s not a kind or gentle laugh, but a torturing and berating noise that fills the parlor. “Fine.” He tosses my jacket to the floor. “Stay here and die, along with the rest of these monsters.”
Richard raises his hands to shove Harlan.
“Kneel,” Harlan hisses.
The air is knocked from my lungs and my ears ring at a pitch so high it makes me dizzy. Yet I watch as Richard freezes in place, his spine twisting aggressively, and a strained groan leaves his lips. But his legs bend one at a time, and he falls to his knees.
“What the fuck did you do!? You fucking monster,” Richard screams up at Harlan, who’s passionately licking at his dripping ice cream.
“Don’t say those mean things to me. I’m only a kid,” Harlan mocks.
Xander’s bike pulls up to the parlor, and in a flash, he’s bursting through the door and wrapping his hand around Richard’s throat.
A monstrous growl explodes through Xander’s chest as he lifts Richard into the air, his fingers tightly pressed into Richard’s neck before he throws my ex-boyfriend to the ground. Something makes a sickening crack before Richard screams in agony.
My stomach lurches, bitter bile burning the back of my throat as I stare at Richard’s arm, bent at an angle that makes my skin crawl. Xander stands over him, teeth bared in a vicious snarl. Fangs glint and chrome eyes glow.
“Lay a hand on my mate again and I'll rip them clean off!” Xander’s voice is gravelly and shakes the floor beneath my feet.
Ambrose flies in behind Xander, pulling his hand away from Richard's throat, and shoves him out of the way before pinning Richard down across the chest. “Let’s not kill our suspect before we interrogate him.”
Suspect? Interrogate?
Xander crowds me, his leathery scent filling my lungs and slowing my raging gasps. I didn’t realize I was hyperventilating until his hands gently grasp my jaw and his voice breaks through the deafening ringing in my ears.
“Breathe, sweetheart. In and out.” Xander coaches me back to a normal breath rate, all while Ambrose and Cassius pick up a thrashing Richard and haul him into the night.
“Where did he hurt you?”
Xander checks me over with careful hands, his touch surprisingly gentle for someone capable of so much violence. When his fingers close around my arm, he slowly pushes up my sleeve, exposing darkened skin and a bruise already beginning to bloom.
I hiss as the cold air touches my arm, and Xander swears under his breath. His entire body shakes and explodes with heat. “I’ll rip him limb from limb.”
“W-What are they going to do with him?” I stutter, falling into Xander’s chest and feeling the wetness of tears streaking down my cheeks.
“You have to be brave, little mate. Breathe for me, I've got you,” Xander hushes me while he sinks his nose into my hair and drags in a deep breath. “We’re just going to ask him a few questions. That’s all.”
I nod and clutch at Xander’s jacket. Every instinct within me just wants to crawl inside of this man and stay there, where it’s warm and safe and far away from all of this mess.
By the time I finally let go of Xander and step on shaky legs, Harlan is speaking closely with the cashier who still looks painfully unbothered, as if this entire ordeal happens every afternoon for her.
“Here, sweetheart.” Xander picks up my jacket and helps me back into it, careful to keep his hands clear of my sore bicep.
Cassius and Ambrose toss an unconscious Richard over the back of Ambrose’s bike despite the vampire’s dispute of having to haul him back to the house.
“I don't want his slimy hands touching my baby,” Ambrose groans while petting the handle of his bike. “I don’t let anyone ride her.”
Cassius whistles for Harlan while clearly ignoring Ambrose’s whims, and the small vamp chews on the last of his ice cream cone before speeding from the store and hurrying away with Cassius back to the club for his own bike.