4. Rena #3
“Sounds good,” Beau said, holding his hand out for Reese. She laced her fingers through his and followed him to the door while I gaped like a fish.
It was all so normal to them, whatever this was, like it was any other day. Who the hell discussed breakfast and murder in the same sentence?
“Hungry?” Chance asked, smiling.
“What the absolute fuck?” I muttered, glancing between him and the door Beau and Reese disappeared through.
“What?”
“You’re just hunting down a person,” I said flatly. “Like, no big deal, right?”
Chance’s eyebrows pulled together in the center as he stared at me. “I thought Reese explained it to you.”
“Yeah, she told me that some group of humans was killing Vampires?—”
“And their mates.”
“Right. But she didn’t say that you were going to murder some guy?—”
“Hold it,” he ordered, lifting his hand in a stop motion. “I think Reese may have given you the PG version of the shit that’s been happening.”
“I doubt it.”
“I don’t,” he said, something like pain flashing across his features before disappearing again. “This guy? The one we’re looking for? He’s not in charge of Vampires and their mates just being kidnapped. He’s responsible for their deaths and the torture they’re enduring in the meantime.”
“So call the police! Report what’s happening.”
He looked at me like I was a child. Like I was an idiot.
“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last hundred years, Rena? I am the fucking police.”
“You said you were military?—”
“They’re one and the same for Vampires. There is no local police force. Vampire Command fills all of those roles. Diplomacy, military action, investigation?—”
“Judge and jury too?” I asked mockingly.
Before he spoke, I watched Chance visibly trying to calm himself. He tipped his head toward the ceiling, inhaling deeply through his nose, but when he looked back down at me, there was nothing calm about his expression.
“That human is responsible for my baby brother being tortured to death. They cut him up into pieces before taking his head.”
I swayed in shock.
“So, yes, I am the judge. I am the jury. And if I find Hermann, I’ll be the fucking executioner too. You have any more questions? Snarky comments to make? Arguments that have no basis in reality?”
I shook my head mutely.
“Great,” he snapped. “Give me five minutes to shower, and then I’ll bring you down to breakfast.”
I stood in the center of the room, reeling.
I’d always felt so smug, especially when I was young, because I knew so much more about Vampires than most humans. My mother had told me everything she knew when I was a little girl, shaping the stories into fairy tales, keeping her parents alive the only way she knew how.
The realization that I really knew very little about Vampire culture or how their communities were structured was a sobering one.
I may have known that Vampires were devoted to their mates, but until Reese and Beau had found each other, I hadn’t known that they were physically incapable of spending time apart.
I’d known about the mating heat that assured Vampires and their mates were attracted to each other, but I hadn’t had a clue how uncomfortable it was.
I walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed when I began to sweat and nausea made my mouth water. It was insane to me that moving just fifty feet closer to where Chance was in the shower made the nausea subside. The heat still thrummed, though.
I let out a silent breath of relief when he opened the bathroom door, fully dressed, with damp hair that he’d brushed away from his face.
“Hungry?” he asked shortly.
I nodded, getting to my feet. I wasn’t sure what to say that would smooth things over.
He may have still been angry, but his hands were extremely gentle as he moved forward and lifted me into his arms. For a moment, he just stood there in the middle of the room.
“I’m sorry,” I said to his jaw as he shuddered. “I…all of this is a lot to take in.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said as he carried me out of the room. “But if you could try not to assume that I’m some kind of psycho, that would be great.”
“I don’t think you’re a psycho.”
“You said I was going to murder someone.”
“Well…” I tightened my arm around his neck as he started down the stairs.
“We’re at war, Rena. Just because it doesn’t look like one of your human wars, fought by a drone flown by someone halfway across the world, that doesn’t mean it’s any less of one. We’re fighting for our fucking family here.”
“I hear you.”
“You know they nearly killed Lucy?” he asked conversationally. “Rosemary, too.”
“No,” I whispered. “I didn’t.”
“They attacked our house. Almost killed Uncle Sven. Kidnapped Charles?—”
“Who’s Charles again?”
“Zeke’s mate.”
“Right.”
“He’s around. He spends most of his time in his room, though. He struggles.”
“But he’s alive,” I said quietly.
It was a victory that Chance’s brother-in-law still lived.
Losing a mate was so incredibly devastating that suicide was an acceptable solution in Vampire culture.
They didn’t judge the act the way humans did.
Living forever without your other half, knowing that you’d never see them on the other side…
well, it was too hard to bear for most. Following a mate into oblivion was accepted and understood.
“Lucy keeps him here,” Chance said as he carried me through the large living area and set me down as we entered the kitchen.
“You’re awake!” Chance’s mom, Mattie, said happily as she glided toward us. The woman was ethereal. Her blonde hair was perfectly curled, and she was wearing a long, flowing silk caftan with long sleeves that she’d folded sloppily up to her elbows.
“Breakfast?” Chance asked.
“Rude,” I chastised, shooting him a look. “Morning, Mattie.”
“Lucy, Charlie, and Reese call me Mom,” she said, smiling. “The offer’s open, if you want.”
I gaped at her.
“You don’t have to call her Mom,” Chance said, walking toward the stove.
“Of course not,” Mattie assured me, wrapping her arm around my shoulders as she led me to a stool at the counter. “I just wanted you to know that you can, if you want to. Chance, get your fingers out of those cinnamon rolls, you heathen. Use the spatula!”
I sat at the counter and watched as Chance deviled his mother, as my own mother would’ve called it. He reached for food with his fingers, tried to lick her coffee spoon, stood in her way, and generally made a nuisance of himself until she ordered him out of the kitchen.
It was so fucking charming, I felt a lump forming in my throat. He seemed like such a little boy interacting with her, and she ate that shit up. She laughed, practically glowing.
I hadn’t seen her with all of her sons at once, but if I had to guess? Mattie had a favorite, and he was striding toward me with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“You’re such a pain in the ass,” I told him as he sat down beside me.
“I haven’t even hit my stride yet,” he replied, setting his hand on my thigh.
I moved my leg a little closer to his. The heat hadn’t gotten any better, but when we were physically touching, it seemed to mellow slightly.
I was getting used to the sensation, and with the wound in my side taking up most of my attention, it was easy to ignore the fever.
But it was always there, flowing through me.
“Everyone else has already eaten,” Mattie said as she set plates in front of us. “So if you want more, feel free.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Chance said as I added my own thank you.
“I’m going to go get dressed. There’s coffee in the pot if anyone wants some.”
I nearly expected to see little birds carrying the edges of her caftan as she walked away.
“Your mom is like a fairy,” I said, cutting into my cinnamon roll.
“Just wait until she’s pissed about something,” Chance joked. “She’s more like Medusa.”
“I don’t believe it,” I argued, gingerly sliding off the stool. “Want some coffee?”
“I can get it,” he protested. I waved him off.