Chapter 14
fourteen
OPHELIA
I ran out of space on my paper-and-tape map around midnight.
I wasn't ready to be done. There was too much to do.
But running out of space meant I had to leave the studio and venture out into the rest of the mansion.
The lights throughout the place were barely bright enough to see everything. It was the perfect level of dim to make every room I walked through feel cozy. Not dark, or dangerous. Just cozy.
The darkness in me that I usually tried not to acknowledge seemed to preen. My wings forced their way out, so I stretched them while I searched for more paper.
I tried not to be fascinated by the way Dante's shadows seemed to dance over my wings in particular as I searched, but failed. It was fascinating.
A few of the rooms were completely empty, but I checked every cabinet, desk, and dresser drawer I could find as I searched for paper.
I found nothing, though.
And more nothing.
And even more nothing.
When I ran out of places to check, I reluctantly texted Dante.
Me
I can't find my printer paper
Do you know where it is?
He didn't answer.
Of course he didn't. He was a fancy businessman; there was no way he was up past midnight.
But I'd found a brand-new minivan in the garage, with all of my pottery transportation stuff packed neatly in the back, during my search.
Did I need a new vehicle?
No.
Was it worth another fight?
Not really.
Plus, it was 2 AM.
So, I headed out to the garage and turned the van on.
My mind was still on the penitentiary as I struggled with the navigation screen, but I managed to find the nearest convenience store that was open twenty-four hours.
Dante's voice rolled through the bond between our minds as I got to the store.
"Where the fuck are you?" Dante asked me mentally, his voice groggy. "And why aren't you answering your phone?"
I looked down at the cupholder.
Nope. Definitely no phone there.
"I went to the store for more paper and tape. Forgot the phone. Get out of my head." I tried to mentally shove the thin wall that now existed between our minds, but the damn thing didn't budge. It was unshoveable.
"Did you look in the studio? The moving team told me they put all of your work stuff in there."
I paused.
Considered it.
Nope. Definitely hadn't checked the whole studio.
Oops.
I couldn't just go home and hope for the best, though. It was a twenty-minute drive. If I didn't find the paper and tape when I got there, I'd have to come back.
"Go back to sleep. I'm fine. I'll be home in twenty minutes," I said.
He grumbled. "Don't leave the house in the middle of the night, Ophelia."
"I'm a terrifying fallen angel. I'll be fine."
"Did you bring money?"
I blinked.
I... had not.
Shit.
"I'll be there in a few minutes. Just stay in the car."
I didn't reply to him.
Instead, I opened the center console, hoping by some miracle that someone had left a few dollars in there.
I had no luck with that, either.
But I wasn't just going to sit on my ass and wait for my knight in shining armor. So, I headed inside to grab everything I needed.
At least I'd be ready to go when he got there.
I grabbed a pack of printer paper, and was comparing the price and amount of two different rolls of tape when Dante showed up. He was wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweats, and his locs were tied up in a massive bun on top of his head.
If I'd been walking, I would've stopped. Abruptly. And drooled, just at the sight of his bare chest.
Oh wait, I was drooling.
Forget the business clothes. Sweats were officially the sexiest thing I'd seen him wear.
There was a shopping bin hanging from the crook of his elbow, and I felt slightly bad, because the man looked exhausted.
I reached for his basket.
Before I could grab it, he stole the pack of paper from my arm, dropped it inside the basket, and tossed both rolls of tape inside too. Plus a few more that were the nicer, name brand shit instead of the store brand (which worked perfectly fine).
I opened my mouth to tell him that was unnecessary, but he was already walking down the aisle.
Dante grabbed a massive pack of pencils, a pencil sharpener, a gigantic pack of colored Sharpies, a box of black Sharpies, and some gel pens and sticky notes to round it out.
"I don't need all of this," I said, catching up to him as he neared the self-checkout.
There weren't any employees in the store. Whichever magical being owned it had enchanted the building not to allow thieves out. It was intricate magic, definitely the spellcasters' doing. Had undoubtedly cost a small fortune, if the owner themself wasn't a spellcaster.
Dante gave me a long look before silently attempting to scan the first item.
It took him ages to find the barcode, so I hip-checked him, taking his place. He handed me the items one at a time, and I scanned them. It wasn't super efficient, but the man looked like he was about to fall asleep standing up.
After a glance at him to see if he cared how much money he was spending—he hadn't even looked at the screen—I grabbed a premade, bottled latte from the fridge nearby. He didn't bat an eye when I scanned it, too.
When we were done, he gave me his wallet, and I paid with his card while he grabbed the bags.
He still hadn't said a word when he carried them back to my car and loaded them onto the back seat for me.
"Thanks," I said, eyeing him as he leaned heavily up against the side of my new van. "Do you want me to give you a ride home?"
"No. I drove here."
"You don't look like you're in good enough shape to drive back."
He lifted an eyebrow. "I don't look like I'm in good shape?"
I gestured to his face. "For driving. Not physically. We both know you're physically perfect. You just look tired."
"Grayson talked me into training with him earlier. I haven't been in peak shape since I went to the penitentiary. Not enough blood. I pushed myself a little too hard."
I gestured to the car. "Which is a good reason to get a ride home."
"I'm fine."
I stepped closer to him, tipping my head to the side and tapping my throat.
"I don't need to—" he started, but I cut him off.
"You've been starving for more than a decade, Dante. Guzzling blood like it's going out of style will probably help you recover faster."
"I don't know. It hasn't exactly been tested." He placed his hand on my chin and slowly tipped my head back to its proper angle. "And I'm not biting my mate in a parking lot, so that's off the table."
"Why not?"
"You deserve better than that."
I rolled my eyes. "It's just a bite. We're not going to fuck. Even if we were, I've had sex in crazier places than an empty parking lot in the middle of the night."
His eyes narrowed. "Where?"
"That's none of your business." I stepped back.
He stepped forward, his eyes narrowing more. "I'm your mate."
"That doesn't mean anything to either of us."
"It means something to me."
"Even in the prison, you said you would be willing to make yourself scarce if we sealed a bond."
"I wasn't thinking clearly in the prison. Like you said, I'd been starving for more than a decade."
"If you were thinking clearly, you definitely wouldn't have mated with me, so—"
Dante grabbed my waist and lifted me off my feet, ducking into the driver's side of the van with me on his lap. He shut the door behind us.
There was a moment of silence as the light above our heads slowly faded away, leaving us in darkness. His shadows moved slowly around us both, so much thicker than they'd ever been in the penitentiary.
"Stop talking," he finally said.
"Don't be an assh—oh." The last word came out a breath against his lips as he kissed me, lightly.
He caught me off guard with the kiss, but even more with the sensations.
The soft intensity of his hands on my hips.
The slow stroke of his tongue on mine.
The slight tilt of my head as the vampire made love to my mouth in a way no one ever had before.
It was addictive.
Utterly, ferociously addictive.
And I wanted more as soon as he began to pull away.
His lips trailed over my jaw, to the side of my throat, before his teeth sank into me slowly.
The rush of pleasure was unreal.
The way he held me against his cock, rocking my hips just slightly as he took what he needed, was otherworldly.
I came before he even pulled away, the orgasm hitting me so hard that I could feel how wet I was without moving at all.
I panted as Dante released my throat, his tongue dragging over my wounds in a way that nearly made me come again. The satisfied rumble in his chest had me clenching my thighs a little.
"It's not just a bite," Dante said in a low voice, his fingers digging into my hips a little deeper. "And it's not just a bond, Angel. It means something to me, and I want it to mean something to you too."
My chest rose and fell heavily as I stared at him, my mind somehow both racing and completely at a loss for words.
What the hell was I supposed to say to that?
Dante opened my car's door and rose to his feet, setting me down on the driver's seat before he closed the door and stepped back.
It took me a solid minute before I finally started the engine and rolled the window down.
I gave an awkward, "Thanks for the rescue, and the stuff. And the orgasm."
His eyes narrowed again. "You don't thank your mate for bringing you pleasure."
"You have too many rules. Bye."
He watched as I drove away.
I waved over my shoulder.
Seemed like the polite thing to do, when ditching your mate in a parking lot after he bought you a bunch of stuff and got you off in the middle of the night.
As soon as I was back in my new studio, I returned to my map.
I was still awake and working when Dante got there at some point the next morning.
Sadly, I was down to the final ounce of the overly-sweet latte I'd been rationing. It hadn't been cold for hours, so the safety was questionable, but I was pretty sure those things were pumped full of both preservatives and magic.
I felt him in the entryway and knew he was there, even without looking back to make sure.
"Did you sleep at all?" he asked me.
I didn't answer, in the middle of sketching out an addition to one of the spells.