Chapter 31 #2
I hear a deep sigh from my sofa. I don’t know how long these two have been here, but it seems like it’s long enough for them to be fed up with each other. Unless there’s another kind of dynamic going on here. Mina hasn’t mentioned anything.
‘I didn’t know where she lived, Mina,’ he mutters, stumbling on her name like it pains him to even say it. ‘I’m immortal, not psychic.’
‘Yeah, well I’m very mortal,’ she snaps back, ‘and I’m recovering from emergency surgery, so many thanks for dragging me out of my sick bed.’
I fight a smile. I’ve never heard Mina talk to anyone like that before. She can be a ball buster, granted, but even so, she’s normally as upbeat as me. Maybe it’s the painkillers the doctor has her on.
Elias mumbles a sorry that doesn’t feel even halfway genuine before he stands, gesturing to the sofa like he’s summoning us. ‘Can we talk?’
I nod. It’s all I can manage. As if this day couldn’t get any stranger, now an actual celebrity – and alleged ancient vampire – is standing in my flat while my usually amiable and cheerful best friend glares at him.
I’m expecting to wake up from this weird-as-hell dream at any moment. But as that has yet to happen, I nod towards the sofa, and we all sit down.
I sneak a look at Elias before he starts to speak.
He looks different up close, or maybe in real life.
Other than the other night, from across a dim, crowded bar, I’ve only ever seen him on the covers of magazines, dramatically lit in all kinds of extravagant poses.
The man sitting on my sofa doesn’t particularly look like a rockstar or a creature of the night.
His low-slung jeans and threadbare T-shirt are a far cry from his flamboyant stage outfits, and those trademark dark curls are messier – more lived in.
But now that I know how old he is, I can kind of see it. Beneath all his millennial trappings, he’s classically handsome – the kind of man that a Renaissance artist might have carved out of marble.
‘I’ve come on a mercy mission,’ he says, light brown eyes serious and fixed on me.
My brows pull into a frown. ‘For Bram? Did he send you?’
I’m annoyed by how much I want that to be true. But Elias shakes his head.
‘No,’ he says seriously. ‘For me.’
My frown deepens. I’m not following.
‘He’s miserable,’ Elias continues, ‘and it’s driving me up the wall. I’ve been trying to cheer him up, but it’s been two full days now, and if it carries on I’ll be sorely tempted to eat a bulb of garlic and then go lie in the midday sun.’
A surprised laugh hoots out of me, but when I look back at Elias, it’s clear he’s not joking.
‘I don’t fly back out to rejoin the tour until Saturday morning.’ He reaches up to smooth his hair, though it has absolutely no effect on the wild curls. ‘Saturday morning, Lucy. That’s three more days of this hell.’
He leans back against the overstuffed cushions on the back of the sofa and shoots me a mournful look. ‘I tried to talk to him, but he’s convinced that he’s doing the right thing. Saving you from him, or whatever grand, chivalrous thing he thinks he’s doing.’
I remember that morning in the annexe, and a sharp lance of pain slices into my ribcage. ‘He asked me to leave,’ I say quietly. ‘He wanted me to go.’
‘Yeah,’ Elias replies, a look of exhaustion on his face. ‘But only one of those things is actually true. He’s a mess.’
The tension of the last couple of days rushes out of me in a sigh, frustration mixing with something else in my guts.
Something that feels dangerously like hope.
‘He freaked out because I said I wanted a family, and I do, but I don’t think that has to mean marriage, then babies, then grow old, then die.
’ I shrug. ‘There are lots of ways to be a family. I tried to tell him that, but he didn’t listen. ’
Elias nods, one hand reaching up to scratch his stubbled cheek. ‘Then you need to make him listen. For his sake and for yours.’ His eyebrows pinch together. ‘And mine. Especially mine.’
Can I do that? I think back to his face that morning, and I’m gripped by a sudden wave of doubt. ‘He asked me to leave. I don’t want him to think I wasn’t listening—’
‘Stop trying to please everyone except yourself, Lou,’ Mina interrupts. It’s the first time she’s spoken for a while, and it makes me jump, even though her tone is gentle. ‘What do you want?’
I don’t even have to think about it. I know.
‘Bram,’ I say.
When I look back up, they’re both staring at me. Mina cracks first, grinning like a proud aunt, before Elias’s face begins to change too – the smallest twitch of his mouth first, which soon becomes a wide, genuine smile.
‘Then what the hell are we still doing here?’ he asks, and all of a sudden I know he’s right.
If I feel like this after one weekend, then there’s every chance that this is the start of something really special. And unlike Bram, I don’t have unlimited time to sit around and think about it. I’m not spending ten years looking for The One when my heart is telling me I’ve already met him.
‘I have to go back,’ I say, and then I fly into a panic, grabbing a few essentials and stuffing them into a bag.
‘Mina,’ I yell over my shoulder as I ram in some clean underwear, ‘look up the train times!’
‘Train?’ I hear her scoff behind me. ‘Come on Elias, can’t you fly her back to Whitby or something?’
I can’t see him roll his eyes this time, but from the rumble of his groan behind me, I’m going to assume that’s what he did.
‘Please stop reading that vampire fan fiction,’ he mutters, and I turn just in time to see Mina trying to hide her grin.
‘Never,’ she says, which is met with a deep sigh.
‘I can give you a lift back there right now,’ Elias says. ‘Unfortunately my supernatural skill set doesn’t currently include flying’—he shoots a loaded glance at Mina, who smirks—‘so we’ll have to go in the car I borrowed. I hope that’s acceptable.’
My laugh is louder than I intend. I’m nervous, or excited, or maybe both. ‘Car is fine,’ I reply. ‘Meens, you want to come?’
This time I definitely see Elias roll his eyes.
‘You know, normally I’d be all over a trip to Whitby,’ she says, then gestures to her lower belly, ‘but given recent events, I think I’m going to give it a miss.’
‘Ok.’ I hold out my arms. ‘You look after yourself.’
‘I will,’ she says, stepping into my embrace, and then I feel the movement of her chin on my shoulder as she speaks over it. ‘Elias, take care of my girl.’
Elias mutters something that I don’t catch, but Mina chuckles to herself as she tightens the hug. Then she whispers her last words of encouragement before Elias and I head out of the door.
‘Go get him, Lou.’