Chapter 4 #2
I grabbed the nearest item—a completely dry sponge that rested on the edge of the sink—and chucked it at his back. It bounced off harmlessly.
"Tell me his plan," I ordered.
"Ask him yourself, Rae. I don't think it's a secret."
"I don't have my phone." It was an excuse, but I didn't feel ready to talk to or face Darius again anyway. I wasn't sure when I would.
Maybe never.
Probably never.
Grayson slid me his phone again.
"I don't want to talk to him," I said.
"I don't know how you're going to be mates if you never talk to him."
"I don't want to be mates. Can't I have a few days to just process everything without seeing or hearing from him?"
"You can try, but I don't know if he'll be on board. You'd have to talk to him to find out."
I flashed a glare at Grayson's back.
Then at the phone.
"Maybe later," I finally said.
"After the pasta. It'll fix things."
"Pasta doesn't fix things."
He turned on a mystery TV show. I spun my barstool around, watching the pair of detectives solve a mystery I already knew the answer to. I’d watched it with him a few times before. It had been our comfort show, when I lived with him.
When Grayson gave me a bowl of pasta, I ate way too much.
I felt a lot hungrier than I usually did. I was refusing to admit to myself that it might have something to do with the hot-blooded male I'd fed from the night before.
Unfortunately, the pasta did make everything feel just a little more manageable.
Grayson's phone rang while I was scraping sauce out of the bowl with my spoon to buy myself more time. Eventually, I knew I would have to do something about my Darius situation.
Grayson glanced at the screen. The way he looked at me after he did told me who was calling.
When he answered, he put it on speaker.
"Hey, Darius."
"Hey, man. Is Rae with you?"
Grayson looked at me again.
I gave a reluctant nod.
"Yeah, she's here."
"Is she okay? It seemed like she didn't realize what the mark was until I told her."
"She didn't, but she's fine. Just needed food."
"I would've fed her."
I rolled my eyes.
"She wants to know what your plan is," Grayson said. "Can I tell her?"
"Just pass her the phone."
Grayson lifted an eyebrow at me.
I sighed loudly, but took it, turning it off speaker and lifting it to my ear.
"What?" I asked.
"Hey, baby."
"Don't call me that." My chest fucking ached with the way he said it. I should've hated it, but I didn't. "Did you know before we made the bargain?"
"No, but you're the first person I've been genuinely interested in for as long as I can remember. I thought it was a possibility, but I didn't let myself consider that it might work out."
"Why not?"
"Am I on speaker?"
"No. Not anymore." I glanced at Grayson.
He pointed to his spare room in question, and I nodded. With my permission, he walked away, giving us a little more privacy.
"Remember what I told you on the roof? I'd stopped believing I had a soulmate. I thought fate was just mocking me by putting a woman I actually wanted in front of me."
My face flushed. "You didn't really want me."
"That's bullshit."
"I saw the pictures. You were with random people every night, Darius."
"I haven't fucked anyone since I started working at the coffee shop—which was right around the time you and I went to that fight together. My family won't let me be alone for more than two minutes, and I get tired of them, so I find new people to hang with."
"If you get tired of your family, you'd definitely get tired of me."
"Not likely."
"Extremely likely," I corrected. "I can't be your mate."
"It's too late. You are my mate. And I'm yours."
"No."
"Yes."
"You want someone to fix you, Darius. I can't do that. I can't even fix myself."
"I think we can figure out a way to coexist. We'll deal with everything else when we get to it."
"I doubt it. The most social interaction I can handle is like five minutes."
"You were with me for at least half an hour."
"That doesn't mean we can be mates."
"We won't know unless we try."
I made a face. "Grayson said you have a plan. What is it?"
"I moved into your apartment. Looks like I came on grocery shopping day, because your pantry and fridge are empty."
"There's no grocery shopping day. I only eat takeout food."
There was a pause. "Nothing else?"
"Unless Grayson makes me eat something he's cooked, but that doesn't happen often."
There was another pause. "And you're not drinking blood? Other than mine?"
"No."
Yet another pause followed. "You must have some pretty strong shadows keeping you alive."
"Well, yeah. I eat more than enough takeout food, though." I brushed some hair out of my eyes. "I need a few days."
"A few days of what?"
"To wrap my head around everything. Alone. Without you living in my apartment."
Darius didn't reply. I heard my couch creak as he moved. That thing was totally going to break.
"I'm always alone, Dare. My situation is the opposite of yours. I can't handle being around people much. I definitely can't just be okay with you moving in with me. I need time to process."
"You can process while I'm here."
"I need to process alone."
The couch creaked again. "I think this thing is going to break if I keep sitting on it."
"It is, and you're avoiding the conversation."
"Am I?"
"Yes."
Darius made a noncommittal sound. "I might not be on board with you leaving for multiple days. I was thinking I'd just worm my way into your life. We can hang out together constantly. Do whatever you want. Go wherever you want. Kill whoever you want to kill."
"You have a life, Dare. I've seen it on the tracking website."
"I have a family. The rest of my life revolved around finding my soulmate. Now, it revolves around you."
My eyes widened slowly. In worry. Then in horror. "You want your entire life to revolve around me?"
"Yeah."
"That's your plan? Shove your way into my life, become a part of it, and refuse to leave my side?"
"Yes?"
"No!"
"Look, I've got your phone. If you come back, we can—"
I hung up and dropped Grayson's phone on the countertop, staring at it like it was a bomb that might go off at any point.
Grayson had already confirmed he was on Dare's side with everything that was going on. Asking him for help wasn't going to work out.
Darius wasn't going to be on board with me taking the time I needed to figure my shit out, either.
So, I was just going to have to vanish.
I found Grayson's wallet in the drawer he always left it in, scribbled on a sticky note, and stuck it to his phone.
Then I disappeared again, traveling through the shadows to a shitty motel in Monster Alley where no one would ever think to look for me.