14. Rena #2
The minute I left the bed, a familiar warmth started at my toes and rolled up in a wave all the way to my scalp. I stumbled to the side with a gasp as Chance groaned.
“It’s back,” I said, not sure if I was relieved or annoyed.
“What do you mean?” He pushed himself carefully upright.
“The heat,” I explained, tugging at the neck of my hoodie. “It disappeared last night.”
“It did?”
“Yours didn’t?”
“Not that I know of,” Chance replied. “It was there when I passed out. When I woke up, you were next to me, so it wasn’t bad.”
“Mine was gone,” I said shortly. “I thought you were dead.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Let’s discuss how that made you feel.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
“You don’t want to discuss our feelings?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips. “Because I, for one, love talking about my feelings.”
“You’re so full of shit.”
“Last night, I was feeling very anxious when we were apart,” he began, and his voice didn’t hold any of the humor that it had before. “Scared may be the correct term.”
“I was safe,” I replied, gesturing at his shoulder. “But you weren’t.”
“A Vampire lost his mind and broke Alice’s neck, and Hermann pointed a gun at you,” he replied flatly. “I wouldn’t call that safe.”
“I was still safer than you were.”
“From this point forward, let’s not use me as a metric to gauge your safety.”
He threw back the blankets, and my mouth dropped open in shock. Not only was he completely naked, but there was a massive bandage on his right hip.
“What the hell happened?” I asked as he carefully lowered his legs over the edge of the bed.
“I was shot,” he replied grumpily. “Twice.”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” I sputtered as he began to rise.
“I need to piss,” he grumbled, swaying for a moment. He reached over and yanked the blanket off the bed, wrapping it around his waist.
“I…” I glanced around the room. “I don’t know where the bathroom is.”
“I do,” he countered. Moving slowly, he shuffled toward the doorway. When he reached it, he looked at me over his shoulder. “You coming?”
“What? Do you want me to hold it for you?” I joked, following him.
“Would you?”
“Not on your life.”
“Mates support each other!”
“You can aim your own junk,” I shot back.
The woman I’d met the night before met us in the hallway and laughed. “Good to see you up and around,” she greeted Chance. She looked at me. “We didn’t meet this morning. I’m Adira.”
“Nice to meet you. Rena,” I greeted.
“She’s my cousin Matthias’s mate,” Chance clarified. “Where is that asshole? He hasn’t come to see me once.”
“He did a lot of flying last night,” Adira replied. “He checked on you while you were sleeping, but he’s passed out now.”
“Likely story,” Chance said suspiciously.
Adira rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “You shouldn’t be out of bed yet.”
“I need to use the facilities,” Chance announced.
“You want to come get something to eat?” Adira asked me. “Chance can handle himself.”
“Go,” Chance said with a nod, shooing me.
I was hesitant to leave him, but I also didn’t want to stand outside the door while he used the bathroom, so I followed Adira.
The house we were in was one story and massive.
It sprawled in every direction from an open living space that held the kitchen, dining area, and family room.
There were people everywhere, and the atmosphere was subdued.
“Hey,” Reese called from the dining room table. “You’re awake!”
“Yeah,” I answered, walking toward her as Adira spoke to someone else. “Chance is in the bathroom, so Adira brought me out here.”
“He’s up and moving around?” Reese asked. “Whoa.”
“He seemed to be doing okay,” I replied slowly as I sat across from her. What did she know that I didn’t?
“Thank God,” Lucy said from further down the table. “Ambrose said it was touch-and-go for a while last night. Chance had lost a lot of blood by the time they got him here.”
I turned slowly toward Ambrose’s mate. “What?”
“Wait, haven’t you completed the bond?” Rosemary asked, dropping into the seat next to me. She looked exhausted, with dark circles beneath her eyes.
I shook my head.
“Huh,” she said, looking at me curiously. “Bold choice, but you do you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, bristling.
“Well, I mean, I guess we all figured that’s what the two of you were doing yesterday when you disappeared.” She grabbed a banana out of a bowl in the center of the table. “Since we were going on the mission, I figured you would’ve wanted the protection.”
It took a moment for her words to register.
The immortality.
“I mean, it doesn’t always happen that fast,” she said with a shrug. “But a chance is better than nothing, right?” She huffed. “Ignore the pun.”
I couldn’t even answer her.
I’d known intellectually that Chance and I weren’t immortal the way that bonded mates were.
He’d even mentioned it last night before we parted.
But, for some reason, I hadn’t recognized that we could’ve changed that.
We could’ve cemented the bond before we left.
Chance could’ve been safe. Not mostly safe, but completely safe.
He hadn’t even asked. He’d never even mentioned it before we left for Arizona.
I felt sick.
“Here, honey,” Mattie said, setting a plate in front of me. “Eat something.”
She moved away, and I stared at the pasta. “She’s always feeding someone.”
“That’s her love language,” Reese explained. “Just go with it.”
I didn’t want to offend anyone, but I didn’t think that I could choke down a single bite.
“Hey,” Reese called softly from across the table. “It all worked out, right? Forget about it.”
I nodded, but I still couldn’t make myself eat. I sat there while everyone else finished their plates and then rose when Reese did.
“Come on,” she ordered, grabbing our dishes.
I waited as she took care of the plates and then followed as she walked confidently out the back door. It was chilly outside, and it felt good against my face and the palms of my hands that were throbbing with heat.
Why hadn’t Chance said anything? He’d known that it was dangerous.
He’d known that there was a risk that he’d be hurt.
So why hadn’t he asked me to cement the bond?
Things had been going well. If he’d explained, I wouldn’t have said no.
I’d already begun to accept and even relish the fact that he was my forever.
“So Mordecai and Helen are pretty private,” Reese explained as we traveled down a little gravel walkway.
“But they have the facilities and the space to take in a lot of people. Who knows why? Maybe Helen guessed that someone would need it someday. I wouldn’t put it past her to have a little clairvoyance going on. ”
“I wondered why they planned to bring everyone here.”
“I think it was two parts,” Reese said, inhaling a lungful of fresh air.
“One, the Bouchers really don’t have the space for everyone at their place.
Ironic, right?” She rolled her eyes at me.
Both of us knew that people made do with a whole lot less space than the Bouchers did.
“And two,” she continued. “I think they wanted to be sure that no one followed us back home. They would’ve expected the raid to come from the Bouchers and assumed they’d bring the kidnapped Vampires and mates back to their property since they’d already tussled with the humans before. ”
I nodded in understanding.
“So here we are,” she said, gesturing to the large building. “It’s set up like some kind of summer camp, usually, but they’ve turned it into a hospital. There are beds on the basketball court.”
“Nice.”
“There are a bunch of bunkhouses on the other side of this building. That’s where everyone who doesn’t need round-the-clock care is staying.”
“Can we go in?” I asked cautiously.
“I don’t see why not,” she replied, heading toward the door. “Pretty much everyone headed home as soon as we got here last night, but some stayed to help deal with the aftermath. Thank God, because there are a lot of wounded.”
I stopped her before she’d stepped inside. “Is Alice in there?”
Reese smiled sadly. “No, Alice is family. She’s inside the main house with Sven.”
I took a deep breath and followed her through the door. Inside, there was a low hum of conversation, but thankfully, no one was crying out in pain. It was the exact opposite of what we’d walked in on the night before, and it healed my heart a little to see.
The beds that lined both walls were wider than regular hospital beds, and most of them held two. Between each bed was a fabric divider for some semblance of privacy.
“Mates heal better when they’re together,” Helen explained as she walked over to meet us. “I saw you looking at the beds.”
“That’s smart,” I replied.
“Thank you,” she replied in amusement. “Can I help you with anything, or are you here to help?”
“I was wondering, um…is Zack in here? Zack Walsh? His mate’s name is Suzie, but I’m not sure what her last name is.”
“Halfway down on the right side,” Helen replied. “Reese, could you help me hand out lunch?”
They headed toward a little kitchen at the end of the building, and I wandered slowly toward where Helen had indicated.
I hadn’t realized how afraid I was to see everyone from the labs, but my heart pounded as I made my way down the wide aisle.
They’d been screaming when I saw them for the first time, crying, begging for help, but now most of them were quiet.
Some were asleep. Some were whispering with their mates. Some watched dully as I passed them.
But they were all clean. They were all bandaged. They were all being treated with the dignity they’d been denied.
“Rena,” Zack called when I’d almost reached his little area. “I wondered if you’d be by.”
“Hey, Zack,” I greeted, smiling. “How are you feeling?”
“A hell of a lot better,” he said, grinning. “A little birdy told me you’re mated to a friend of mine. Just saying, you could do better.”
I let out a loud, shocked laugh and then covered my mouth in mortification.
He chuckled. “Nah, he’s a good guy. Hear he was wounded. He doing okay?”