4. Rena #2
I’d never been good at sleeping in unfamiliar places. I’d battled insomnia my entire adolescence because I changed homes before I could ever get comfortable. So it was surprising as hell that I drifted easily to sleep just minutes later.
I woke up the next morning to bright blue eyes less than a foot from mine.
“Fucking hell,” I yelped, remembering in a flash where I was and what had happened the day before. I groaned as the pain in my side registered.
“Easy,” Chance said, brushing my hair away from my face. “I figured you’d wake up feeling like garbage, so I went down and grabbed you some pain pills and the antibiotics Alice wants you to take.”
“No more IV?” I asked, lifting my hand gingerly. I’d caught it at least three times while I slept, and the top of my hand still burned with the memory.
“Nope, I can take it out right now, if you want.”
“Are you qualified to do that?” I asked as Chance helped me sit up.
I grimaced as the stitches in my side pulled.
I was still in the gown from the day before, and at some point, the little ties in the back had come undone.
I could feel cool air from the nape of my neck to the waistband of my underwear.
“Overqualified,” he assured me, reaching for my hand. I looked away while he pulled the IV out and looked back as he gently covered the tiny wound with a bandage.
“So you have medical training,” I said dumbly as he leaned away to grab the pills and a cup of water off the nightstand.
“Everyone in the teams has basic medical training, yeah,” he said, turning back to me. He must’ve seen the confusion on my face because he explained, “All Vampires join Vampire Command when they reach adulthood. It’s basically our military. We stop when we find our mates.”
“Interesting.” I took the pills and waited for relief. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“Joe served,” he said, taking the glass when I was finished. “We crossed paths a time or two.”
“Really?”
“Really. We never really worked together, but he and your grandma were friends with my parents, so we’d see them around at parties, shit like that.”
“That’s crazy. You’re so old.”
“Fucking ancient,” he agreed. He sounded so serious that I froze.
“Wait, seriously?”
His lips quirked.
“How old are you?” I demanded.
“My parents met right after the American Civil War,” he said, rising to his feet on the opposite side of the bed. “I was born a few years after that.”
The knowledge was hard to accept. I’d known he was old.
It didn’t bother me, probably because it wasn’t shocking by any means.
My grandfather had been very old when he found Gran.
As I watched his bare back flex as he pulled clothes out of his dresser, I still found it hard to believe that he’d been alive for so long.
“That’s not ancient,” I said finally.
“You’re right,” he said, turning to face me. “My dad’s ancient.”
“How old is he?” I asked, barely paying attention.
I was too distracted by the plethora of tattoos peppered all over his torso and arms. I’d noticed them the day before when I’d woken up and he was in his underwear, but I’d been too groggy then to pay attention.
Now, I couldn’t seem to look away. There wasn’t any color.
All the lines were that dark bluish-grayish-black.
Some looked new, with precise lines. Others were so old that they were faded and almost blurry.
“He doesn’t remember,” Chance said easily, still talking about his dad. “Older than the US and a few of the European countries.”
“Jesus wept.”
Chance chuckled. “I’m going to hop in the shower. You need in there before I do?”
I nodded quickly and carefully lowered my legs over the side of the bed.
He watched me closely, but I was glad that he didn’t try to help.
I needed to know if I could do it myself.
Still, he could step in if I needed him to.
It made me a little braver as I got to my feet, knowing that he wouldn’t let me fall.
“Steady,” he said sweetly. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah,” I breathed, shuffling forward.
I was sweating by the time I reached the bathroom, but I’d made it.
I let Chance close the door for me and looked around the room while I did my business.
The bathroom was pretty utilitarian, with white towels, mats, and a plain white soap dispenser, but nothing about it was cheap.
If I wasn’t mistaken, the floor tiles were heated.
The countertops and shower were nicer than any hotel I’d ever stayed at, and there was a pristine clawfoot bathtub that looked like it had both come from a hundred-year-old country estate and had also never been used.
I washed my hands and brushed my teeth with some toothpaste I’d found in a drawer and my finger.
The stitches on my forehead were pretty gruesome, but Chance hadn’t lied when he said the scar would be easy to cover.
It was so close to my hairline that if I couldn’t cover it with makeup, I could style my hair to hide it.
Thankfully, once I’d run my fingers through my hair, it looked pretty decent, even after everything I’d been through.
Someone must’ve washed the blood out of it.
By the time I was done, I just wanted to sit back down.
When I let myself out of the room, I found my best friend sitting at the end of Chance’s bed while the Vampire was nowhere to be seen.
“I brought you some clothes,” Reese said, patting the pile beside her. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I rolled my car,” I answered. “Where’s Chance?”
She lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “He’s out talking to Beau in the living room, if you can call it that. It’s more like a lair.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you see it when you came in?” Reese asked as I looked through the clothes. “He doesn’t even have a couch, just a big desk with a bazillion computer monitors.”
“I wasn’t paying attention,” I replied, pulling the hospital gown carefully down my arms.
Reese let out a quiet ooh when she got a good look at me. Glancing down, I could see random bruises all over my torso and a mark that looked like a rug burn between my breasts where the seatbelt must’ve rubbed.
“I didn’t bring you a bra since we aren’t the same size,” she said apologetically as I pulled on a T-shirt with a graphic on the front that said, I Punch Nazis.
“Thanks. Might as well go braless while the girls are still perky.”
Reese grinned. “Sorry I tore you a new one yesterday.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, making her wrinkle her nose at me.
Reese and I had gone through much worse arguments than the one we’d had the day before.
Hell, we’d gotten physical when we were kids.
They never mattered. I figured when you loved someone for half your life, there were bound to be times that they drove you insane.
She was still my best friend. That wouldn’t ever change.
“Will you help me with the pants?” I asked quietly, wringing the leggings in my hands. There was no way I’d be able to bend down far enough to pull them up my legs.
“Of course.” She took them from me and kneeled down on the floor. “How did last night go?”
“It was fine,” I replied, threading my foot through the hole. Even lifting my leg made the pain in my side sharpen. So fun. “We talked for a while and then fell asleep.”
“He’s cool, right?” she said a little too nonchalantly.
“He’s a dick, and I can’t stand him,” I replied, my eyes on the door. “Plus, I know your fiancé looks a lot like him, but I’m sorry, he’s more gargoyle than Vampire.”
I’d barely gotten the leggings over my hips before Chance was in the doorway, staring at me in mock offense. “You said I was pretty,” he accused.
I tried to keep a straight face, but I was fighting a losing battle.
“I knew you were listening, you creep.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t talk so loud.”
“Maybe you need to buy some earplugs with all that old money you have so I can get some privacy.”
His mouth opened and closed a few times before he closed it with a snap. Then he announced, “I heard you pee.”
He turned on his heel and disappeared while Reese giggled on the floor.
“So it went well,” she said, climbing to her feet.
“He’s all right,” I grumbled, shuffling toward the open door. “You coming?”
“Where are we going?”
“I have no idea,” I replied as I caught sight of the room I’d missed the night before.
Reese was right. It looked nothing like a living room and everything like a lair.
There were computers, computer parts, monitors, and cords all over and around a large desk that was shaped like half of a hexagon.
Behind the desk was a countertop delineating a small kitchen from the rest of the room.
There was a window above the sink, and the fridge was covered with magnets holding up takeout menus.
He was over a hundred years old and lived in a damn bachelor pad.
Disappointing.
“Stop judging,” Chance said from where he was standing with Beau near a small, round kitchen table. “I work in here. If I want to be social, I go downstairs.”
“Feeling a little defensive, are we?” I asked lightly, making my way across the room.
He glared and looked back at Beau. “They should be landing soon, yeah?”
Beau nodded. “Ambrose is waiting on their check-in. I think Mordecai is going to land here, and Dalton’s guys will meet us at the runway once we have the go-ahead.”
“What?” I asked, failing to follow their conversation. “What’s going on?”
“I told you yesterday,” Reese said quietly, glancing over at me. “Chance found the guy who’s in charge of everything that’s been happening. They’re going to get him.”
“Get him,” I replied slowly. “By that you mean?—”
“We’re sure as fuck not bringing him back for dinner and a movie,” Chance clarified grimly.
“Wait, you’re planning to just go and kill this guy?” I asked, horror making my belly swoop nauseatingly.
“And all his little friends too,” Chance confirmed flippantly. He looked at Beau. “I’m going to take Rena down for breakfast if you want to get our kits ready afterward.”