CHAPTER 60
FRANKIE
∞
I can’t stop the tears streaming down my face as I watch Wren cradle Alex’s dead body against him. Alex is dead. He hung on until Wren came, and then he was just…gone.
“Wren?”
I sob, but it’s like he doesn’t hear me or doesn’t want to. He’s brushing Alex’s sweat-soaked hair back from his face as tears stream down his cheeks. Alex was all he had his entire life, and now, he has nothing…no one. No one is left except me, and I told him I hated him.
I can almost hear his heart shatter, and new sobs wrack his body. He pulls Alex’s arm up from the floor and wraps his arms around him, as though he’s trying to protect him, even though now…it’s too late.
How could anyone do this to him? Alex of all people. He was kind, and sweet, and everything I never expected from a vampire. He was the first one to show me true emotion, and he fucking cared with all his heart. I’ll never get to see him smile or laugh again. I’ll never hear him rip into Wren for being an asshole and putting him in his place. He’ll no longer be there to protect me, and I feel my heart break along with Wren’s.
Wren’s body is shaking, and his breaths come in sharp bursts. He’s hyperventilating. His eyes are screwed shut and his teeth grind together. My entire body erupts in goosebumps at the scream of pain he lets out. His head tips back, crying out into the night. The guttural scream of anguish makes me feel like my heart is being torn from my chest. The pulse of power that rips from his body has me trembling and shrinking back from him. It pulses through the tower like a wave, shattering all the windows and glass in its wake. We’re plunged into darkness as every light gets snuffed out in his pain. The entire fucking city is black. Not a single light flickers within my line of sight, and car sirens wail in the distance.
So much power. Wren is broken and dangerous right now. He may have fought off the insanity when he turned me, but this feels so much worse. It’s raw and hungry and filled with rage. I fight every instinct in my body, screaming at me to run away, and crawl towards him.
I wrap my arms around him and Alex, and his body stills. The power recedes as his chest heaves with uncontrolled despair. “I’m here, Wren.”
“You’re not,”
he hisses. “You left me. You both left me.”
New sobs batter his chest, and I squeeze him tighter.
“I’m not leaving you, Wren.”
I tuck his head into my neck, and I feel his tears soak through the shirt. “I’m so sorry, Wren.”
I can’t help but to continue to cry with him.
“I want to take him home,”
he whispers, choking on the words. “I need to take him home.”
“Okay, Wren.”
“He feels cold. I need to get him warm,”
he whimpers.
He sounds so broken and I’m struggling to keep it together. I can’t let him hide within himself. I need to help him through this, no matter what. He sounds like a small child in this moment. His voice is weak and quiet, and he just looks so fucking lost. Seeing him like this, destroys me.
I hear footsteps and glance over to see the two who usually stand guard coming from the stairs. They look dishevelled and dressed casually with panic on their faces. They obviously felt the energy burst from their king and came down from their apartments. I hold my hand up to them and shake my head. They drop their gaze and shift back into the shadows as I turn back to Wren.
I cup his face in my hands and try to bring his gaze to mine, but his eyes stay focused on Alex. They look dull. The light I saw in them right after I woke up is completely destroyed. Alex’s death ruined him, and I don’t know if there’s any way to bring him back from this.
I lift to my feet and place my hand gently on his shoulder. “Let’s get him home, Wren.”
He nods his head and as he gets up with Alex gripped tightly in his arms, the power comes back on. I walk in front of him as he drags his feet to the elevator. I push the button, and once it hits the lobby, I step into it and press the button for our floor.
Wren is quiet, and I steal a glance at him quickly to see sadness still gripping at his features and a blank, hollow gaze. The elevator opens and I follow Wren down the hallway to Alex’s apartment. I slip past him to open the door, surprised it was left unlocked.
My breath catches in my throat and fresh tears brim my lashes.
It’s beautiful.
He decorated it so warmly and it’s such a welcoming place. Plush couches and area rugs litter the living room, and the soft lights of the sconces, paint the warm emerald room like a forest from a fairy land. Wren walks past me without a word, and I move to follow him, but pause at the entrance table when I see picture frames littering it. I grab one of the photos and my heart clenches within my chest. Alex and Wren are smiling up at the camera with mischief in their eyes as they embrace each other over their shoulders.
I set the frame down carefully and head the way Wren disappeared to see him sitting on the bed next to Alex’s body. His fingers move absentmindedly across his clothes, trying to straighten out the material. He stands up and leans over Alex, brushing his hair from his forehead and tucking it behind his ears. He leans his face towards him and kisses his forehead as new tears brim his lashes.
“You’re home, brother.”
He closes his eyes and chokes back another sob. He stands up, his hands clenched into fists as his teeth grind together. He turns away from Alex and walks past me without so much as a glance in my direction.
“Wren!”
I call, jogging after him. He ignores me. “Wren! Talk to me.”
Silence. I don’t know what to do. I can’t leave him alone while his mind drowns in darkness. I can’t even imagine how he feels. I feel the loss of Alex and I only knew him for a few days, but Wren…he’s known him for centuries.
I follow him to his apartment and try to touch his arm. He rips it away from me and glares at me with so much anger, that I feel like the blood in my veins will freeze from it. He turns away again and steps into his apartment. I hover awkwardly by the door as he moves to rummage through a drawer, pulling a set of keys from deep inside of it.
He pushes past me again and I feel panic settling into my bones. “Wren, talk to me! Don’t shut me out.”
“Stay the fuck away from me,”
he snarls, slamming his finger into the button for the elevator.
“I…I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
He turns to face me just as the elevator doors open. “I am alone,”
he hisses, and I shake my head. “Go home, Frankie. Pack up your shit and get the fuck out of my tower.”
“No.”
“Do as you’re told.”
“I refuse,”
I say through gritted teeth. “I refuse to leave you when you’re like this.”
“You’re going to leave me anyways. It makes no difference to me anymore. Do whatever the fuck you want, Frankie.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I don’t need your fucking pity. If that’s the only thing tethering you to me right now, just fucking stop. I can’t do this anymore, so get out of my sight before…”
He cuts himself off and turns into the elevator.
“Before what?”
“Before I get you killed too.”