Chapter 14 #2
Fate was on my side, because not a single cop pulled me over on my way to Rowan’s, and I knew I was blowing past speed limits like they were suggestions. I turned into his tiny driveway way too fast and ended up more diagonal than actually parked, then raced to the door.
Which was locked.
Of fucking course.
I was all for the pace our relationship was going at, but I wished we were at the stage where we had exchanged keys. Fuck. As much as I hated to damage Rowan’s property, I wouldn’t let anything stand in my way—not even a heavy duty, old-fashioned door that really fit my boyfriend’s aesthetic.
“I’m almost there,” I said as calmly as I could muster, trying to exude comfort. “I’m coming, Rowan.”
I backed up on the small stoop, then kicked just under the doorknob with all the power I could muster. Once. Twice. A third time. A fourth. On the fifth, when my foot was starting to throb, the locking mechanism finally gave, the door jolting forward only to be caught on the chain.
Not a problem.
I kicked one last time, then I was in, slamming the door behind me. I grabbed his umbrella and propped it against the door to keep it closed.
I rushed through the delightfully maximalist yet classically decorated rooms, up the stairs, and down the hall to the bedroom.
Sure enough, on one side of that skylight that had impressed me so much, a solid beam of light as wide as my palm went from about two-thirds up the bed all the way down onto the carpet.
Horror lanced through me at the sight. Although I knew Rowan had survived it because he’d called me, I suddenly realized how close he’d come to it all ending. If that beam of light had been just a little higher or a little wider, or if he hadn’t been able to force himself awake…
With that realization came a deeper understanding of what it meant to date one of the undead. Sure, he was essentially immortal, but he was so vulnerable in ways shifters weren’t.
That was… something, all right. Something worrying, anxiety-inducing, and all around concerning that I just didn’t want to think about it.
“Naomi?”
Rowan’s voice, barely there and reedy, jolted me out of where I’d frozen in the doorway.
My first impulse was to run to the closet and see if he was okay, but that would just reintroduce the light he’d fought so hard to escape from.
I wasn’t sure if he had to be directly in the sunbeam for it to hurt him or if it just being in the room was enough.
I still had so much to learn about my beau and his species.
Really, this seemed like something all magical folks should be taught.
After all, if I was exposed to silver or wolfsbane, I would hope any vampires, harpies, or anyone else there would know what to do about it.
“I’m here, Rowan, I’m here,” I called, fighting to keep the calm in my voice. I had no doubt he was panicking pretty hard, and I didn’t want to add to that despite how dire the situation was. “I’m going to get something to patch the gap so I can get you out of here safely.”
He didn’t answer, and that had my short little legs sprinting as fast as they could back down the stairs into the kitchen.
It was easy enough to find some black garbage bags, but it took a bit more rooting around to find scissors to cut the tape I’d brought.
Thankfully, I found a pair in Rowan’s utility closet.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” I called, not even sure if he could hear me. Vampire senses were better than human senses, but they weren’t on par with shifters. The real question was if he was around my level as a latent shifter.
But that question would have to wait for a more appropriate time.
I was nearly to the stairs again before I turned back to grab the stepladder in the corner of the kitchen. I was definitely going to need that.
I was breathless when I got back to the bedroom and set up under the skylight. It took nearly half the roll of tape to cover the skylight and the area surrounding it with the garbage bags. I didn’t want to risk another tile abdicating from its position right when I thought we were safe.
With the room finally plunged into darkness, it was safe enough for me to retrieve Rowan. Carefully, I opened the closet door, dreading that I would find a pile of ash waiting for me.
“Naomi?”
Thank God or whatever deity watched over vampires, my boyfriend was very much alive. Although, as my eyes struggled to focus on him in the darker depths of the closet, I could tell he definitely looked worse for wear.
“Hi there,” I said, making my way into the wide closet.
It was all I could do not to burst into tears of both relief and horror, but I was so pleased to see that he had done as I had asked and piled a dozen items over himself, effectively making a little cocoon. “Let’s get you out of here, shall we?”
“Y-yeah,” Rowan murmured. “I... I tried to call some members of the coven. They’re asleep, but I figured their thralls...”
He didn’t need to finish that, and honestly, I didn’t want him to. While I knew that whoever he had phoned had no way of knowing what was going on, especially if they were thralls, it was hard not to assume the worst about them purposely ignoring his number under their master’s orders.
“It’s okay, baby. That’s not important right now. What’s important is that I’m here, and that you’re gonna be fine. Why don’t I help you out of here and get you into bed? Or I can set up a fort for you on the couch, if you’d prefer that?”
“I… I need to get to my coffin.”
“Your coffin?” I murmured, like that wasn’t something we’d already talked about. I was still getting used to it.
“It’s in the basement. Need it to h-heal.”
“Okay. I’ll get you there. I promise.”
He let out a sound that I thought was pretty positive, and I finally reached him and began gently removing his armor of pulled-down clothing. And as he was revealed to me, bit by bit, I began to feel sick to my stomach.
Rowan tended to sleep in loose, almost billowy sleep pants and no shirt, which allowed me to see a black, crackling wound from his sternum all the way down to one of his hips.
It reminded me of a volcanic fissure, craven in the way it turned flesh into something completely inorganic.
There was no blood, which struck some part of my brain as wrong, but I ignored it.
“Is it b-bad?” he asked as his frigid hands closed around mine.
“Nah, just a flesh wound,” I murmured, not really wanting to lie to him but also not wanting to articulate that it looked like he was both being turned to stone and burned to a crisp at the same time.
Because while the wound itself would seem natural with magma flowing through it, there were blisters all around it that looked like something straight out of a Kronenberg movie. It was like poison ivy on steroids.
Except, steroids were used to treat poison ivy, but whatever, the metaphor still stood.
“That’s good.”
“Do you want to rest a little before we go down to the basement?” I asked gently once I had Rowan on his feet, his weight leaning heavily into me.
He shook his head weakly. “W-won’t help. The faster we get me i-in, the better.”
“That’s what she said.”
Was that comedic brilliance? No. But the tiniest smile cracked across Rowan’s pale features. And by pale, I didn’t mean his normal translucence. No, he looked gray, ashen in a way that was completely unnatural, even for a vampire with albinism.
“Okay.”
That smile gave me hope, however, because if I could give Rowan at least the tiniest bit of mirth, then things couldn’t be so bad, could they? And I kept that thought at the forefront of my mind while we made the lengthy journey down the hall, then down two flights of stairs.
My one bit of comfort was that at least his basement stairs were sturdy and not covered with cobwebs, as so many were.
And I was also incredibly grateful that I had pretty good vision in the dark, because even though I knew interior lights were fine, I didn’t want to subject Rowan to any illumination if it wasn’t completely necessary.
“Almost there,” I soothed as we descended the final few steps. Unfortunately, the basement grew too dark for my vision, and I used my phone to dimly light the space.
It was nice enough, as basements went. In the center was what looked almost like a bedroom, but instead of a bed, there was indeed a coffin sitting in the middle of it.
It looked pretty, for a coffin. Although, I supposed it was a casket and not the classic coffin one associated with vampires.
It was rectangular rather than the more goth, Halloween shape, and made of meticulously polished cedar instead.
The fittings and hardware on it were silver, so I grabbed the little draping cloth off the nightstand next to it so I could cover the handle as I opened it.
“Sorry for the s-silver,” Rowan whispered. He sounded barely there. I needed to get him interred ASAP. “I’ll get it replaced.”
“Don’t you worry. This is your space. If I need, I’ll bring some oven mitts down here.”
“Oven mitts…” Rowan chuckled as I lifted the lid. Thankfully, he had enough strength to climb inside.
I was a bit surprised by the interior, if I was being honest. Instead of being decked out like an actual burial tool, it was a lot like a bed.
I spotted one of those therapeutic memory foam pillows at the top, and the sheets were a soft, high-blend cotton, judging from how they felt under my fingertips.
And then I noticed a panel on the lid with several buttons.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing, as I forgot that Rowan really needed to sleep as soon as possible. Fortunately, I didn’t so much as slow him down as he settled, looking quite comfortable under his blankets with his arms crossed over his wounded chest.
“Oh, those are my controls.”
“Controls?”
“Yeah, I can pump a cool breeze through here, or heat the coffin, and play certain white noises.” He pressed a button, and I heard an ominous echo with an occasional screech.
“That’s the interior of a cave system. And oh, here’s a funeral procession from six feet overhead.
” He pressed another button, and yeah, I’d say that was exactly what played.
“And then this is just someone slowly digging in dirt.”
I supposed that made sense as sounds a slumbering vampire would find soothing.
“And what’s this?” I asked, pointing to the last one in the row.
“Ah. That’s Susan Boyle’s entire discography, starting with her initial audition on Britain’s Got Talent.”
I shot him an incredulous look. “You’re kidding.”
“I would never k-kid about Susan Boyle. She has the closest thing to the voice of an angel that the damned c-can actually hear.”
Double-blink at that. Apparently, my boyfriend’s gift for poetry and saying incredibly deep things extended to when he was half-conscious and in sun-shock.
“Goodnight, Rowan,” I said, kissing his cheek.
“Goodnight, Naomi. And… thank you for coming for me.”
My heart ached at that even as fondness rushed to fill me. “Anytime, my dear. You never have to be alone again. I’m always gonna be here for you.”
“I… thank you.”
I brushed my lips against his. As happy as I was to see him, to protect him, I was still burning with rage that no one from his coven was willing to help him.
How dare they? It made me want to do something special for him.
Something that would make him forget that no thrall, assistant, or anyone would pick up his call.
“Hey, this weekend, would you like to come over to my place for dinner? I’d love to cook for you.”
He was already half asleep, but he managed to look pleasantly surprised and sent me such a sappy look, I actually blushed. “I’d love to.”
“It’s a date.”
He gave me a weak smile, his eyes sliding closed and his breathing stopping entirely. Normally I would panic at that, but I’d read that was a completely normal part of the vampiric sleeping cycle. It was a little disconcerting, though.
Touched that he trusted me with something so vulnerable, so intimate as where he was interred whenever he was hurt or needed a deep rest, I gently closed the lid, then settled down on the ground behind it, leaning against the side.
Well, time to start searching for traditional dishes from where Rowan grew up, because I was serious about going absolutely nowhere until I was sure Rowan was safe.
Oh, and I definitely needed to say hi to Brahm. I had no doubt he was stressed after everything that had happened, and I liked to think that the orange guy and I had a bit of an understanding with each other.
After all, we both cared very deeply for the same guy.