Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
NAOMI
A (Boy)Friend in Need is a (Boy)Friend Indeed!
Walk of shame? Nah, I was doing a slut strut to my car.
On the way home, I stopped to treat myself to an overly expensive and overly sweet coffee.
But whatever, I’d earned it. It wasn’t every day I got cracked like a glowstick and connected with someone on a spiritual level.
And yes, it was that deep. Deeper than Rowan’s impressive cock had been inside me.
Although he’d definitely stretched me to capacity, that part of his anatomy hadn’t reached my heart.
But he definitely did, as a person.
I practically skipped all the way from the café back to my car, then from my parking spot at home to my apartment, and right to the shower to ease my gloriously aching muscles and tame my sex hair.
Once I was all squeaky clean and wrapped in a bathrobe, I DMed Tweety.
Call! Now!
Her response was almost immediate, the program lighting up and the ringing notification practically blowing out my eardrums. I kept telling myself to lower that setting, but I always forgot until the next time it blasted my ears.
“Girl, please tell me that the fact that you went out last night and didn’t hop online at all means exactly what I think it means.”
I flushed as the memories of the night before replayed through my head. That was definitely going to be in my spank bank for the foreseeable future. I’d thought I’d had fun sex plenty of times in my life, but I had been surviving on dregs, and I hadn’t even known it.
“If you think my brain is leaking out of my ears right now because I got dicked down good, then yes, it means exactly what you think it means.”
Tweety let out a squeal that overloaded the noise filter on our call, her side of the line temporarily going quiet until she returned to a more suitable register.
While some people would call our conversation filthy, I just called it girl talk, and it was much-needed after everything that had happened.
Also, it was about time I could finally give my friend, my best friend, some good news instead of another dating horror story.
“I’m so happy for you! What happened? Give me all the deets!”
Believe me, the deets were indeed shared. I told her about the great food, the delicious tension, and even about my brothers showing up at the restaurant. Of course, I had to play up the big reveal, so I buried the lede a little. All those theater kids had rubbed off on me more than I thought.
“You’re kidding me! He jumped out as a full wolf? What was he thinking?”
“I guarantee you the idiot wasn’t thinking. I basically broke my handbag beating him over the head with it while yelling all sorts of things. That was long overdue, believe me, but I would have preferred if all that family drama wasn’t right in front of my date.”
“Yeah, you two really do have some poor luck.” She paused and I could almost hear the realization hit her across the line.
“Wait! Rowan saw a shifter! How did he react? Do you think the cleaners will come after him? Actually, double-wait! You said you two slept together so things… went well, I guess? Girl, give me the details faster!”
“Then stop interrupting, Gossip Girl,” I teased.
“Gotcha, lips are sealed.”
“You’re never gonna believe this,” I said, and now that I was reiterating it out loud, the entire concept seemed so impossible. “But he’s a vampire!”
“Wait times three now, a vampire? How could you not tell? Aren’t you supposed to be able to smell that or something?”
“Usually, yeah. But I have a theory that it must have something to do with his albinism. Or rather, whatever caused him to keep his albinism after he was turned. I just didn’t mention that to him because.
..” I trailed off. Huh, I was doing that a lot more lately.
I wasn’t sure why, but it probably had something to do with the fact that a lot of really insane things were happening, and my brain was still catching up. “Of personal reasons.”
Thankfully, Tweety didn’t press me about that, no doubt able to tell that it wasn’t gossip.
I hadn’t said anything because I was afraid it would hurt Rowan’s feelings.
I could tell he still harbored a lot of pain after decades of being told he was wrong somehow.
That he wasn’t really a full vampire. And telling him that he didn’t have the scent of a vampire would only reinforce that, and that was something I never wanted to do.
“Dude. I can’t believe this! You’re telling me both of you were pretending to be human, and neither of you were aware the other was pulling some serious shenanigans?”
“That really is the long and the short of it.”
Tweety laughed again, and I had to join in. Because really. Only in my life would such a thing happen.
“Oh, and also we’re now officially boyfriend and girlfriend.”
I had anticipated that Tweety would be enthusiastic about that, but I hadn’t expected another scream that blew out our sound filter. I didn’t complain, however. Not everybody had someone enthusiastic rooting them on, so I wasn’t going to take my dear harpy for granted.
“Anyway, I’d love for you to meet him. I think the two of you would get on in a lot of different ways. And maybe if it’s not just me and you one-on-one, you won’t feel as much social pressure. I know that can be a lot for you.”
“God yeah, who’s gonna give him the shovel talk, if not for me?” She paused, and I could tell she was considering something. “Or should it be a stake talk? I can’t imagine a vampire being very intimidated at the idea of being interned underground.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of their thing.”
“Uhm, well this week won’t work, I’m super slammed with some projects, but we should plan maybe for later in the month? Once it’s a little closer, you know?”
I recognized a brush-off when I heard it, but I wasn’t bothered. My best friend had severe social anxiety as well as mobility issues with no wings, so she would meet me when she was ready. In the meantime, I would continue to enjoy her company virtually and share my life with her.
“I have to start getting ready for work in about an hour and a half,” I said, ever so grateful that I have been proactive in planning our date for Saturday night so I only had my small Sunday crew to worry about. “Do you wanna watch something together? Or play a game?”
“Let’s play!” she said, as chipper as ever. “That way we can gab while we’re doing our thing.”
“Sounds like a great plan to me.”
“Home at last,” I murmured to myself as I shut my door and kicked off my shoes.
It was Wednesday, my busiest day, and both of my morning cruises had been full of the vim and vigor that left me feeling pulled in about a dozen different directions.
Nothing that I couldn’t handle, but definitely a bit crazy considering their normal habits.
“I wonder if there’s a full moon coming up.”
Normally that was something a wolf shifter would have memorized. The full moon didn’t compel us to shift, but it did cause an increase in our more primal nature and our abilities. Being a latent shifter, I was never influenced by celestial bodies, so I’d never bothered to learn the schedule.
I went to the kitchen, intent on refilling my water bottle, as the summer had not let up once in at least a week, the days alternating between insanely blazing and dry, or so humid that it felt like I was walking a bunch of wet dogs through aerated soup.
As I opened the freezer, my phone started going off with the very distinct ringtone I’d assigned to Rowan after we’d agreed to make everything official.
He’s got them Love Bites, they’ll get you every time!
I grinned at his name popping up on my screen before I realized it was the middle of the afternoon. As far as I knew, it was supposed to be physically impossible for him to be awake at this time.
What the fuck was going on?
I hit the call button so fast I was surprised my junker of a phone didn’t lock up.
“Rowan, are you okay, baby?” I asked, already on high alert.
He sounded bleary and in pain. All my protective instincts rushed to the forefront of my mind, and I ran back to the door to put on my shoes.
“S-something, an animal, I-I-I think, loosened the tiles my window cover hooks into so there’s no s-seal. I… light got in. I didn’t… realize at f-f-first.”
“I’m on my way. Please tell me you’re somewhere safe.”
I’d done tons of research in my free time over the last four days. I’d learned that trying to rip themselves out of vampiric slumber was not only incredibly difficult, but also incredibly unhealthy.
“I… I… uh…”
I hated how confused, how hurt he sounded, but it told me that I didn’t have room to panic. I needed to be his gliding light, er… darkness in this case.
“Rowan, I need you to tell me if you’re safe. Are you away from the sunlight now?”
“Yes. I am. I, uh, closet? It’s dark.”
“That’s perfect. Can you pull some of your clothes down over you just in case? As many as you can reach. I’ll help you hang them up later, so don’t worry about the mess.”
“Uh, yeah, yeah, I can do that.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Rowan. I’m heading out my door now. I’m on my way, and I’m gonna fix it, okay?”
“Y-y-you don’t have to. I c-can make it until nightfall.”
“Absolutely not,” I said with a vehemence I didn’t expect before softening my voice. “There’s no reason to wait when I’m right here. You’re not in this alone anymore, remember? Now, once you have all those clothes on you, I want you to shut your eyes and relax, okay? You’re gonna be okay.”
“I’m gonna be okay,” he repeated dully. Fuck, I’d never heard Rowan sound like that. His voice was so flat, so listless. Every single instinct in me was screaming that I needed to get to him as quickly as possible, so I finished putting on my shoes, grabbed some duct tape, and sprinted to my car.
My baby needed me.