Chapter 21 Rowan #2
“Hello, Maverick,” she said, her voice so calm that she sounded nearly ethereal.
“I do wish you had come here with different intentions, but that’s too much to expect of you.
However, I can’t help but notice that Mason and Reggie aren’t here with you.
I don’t suppose that’s because they know you’re being moronic about this, is it? ”
Maverick started to puff out his chest, his mouth opening, but Naomi placed a hand on his cheek. It was a gentle touch, but he hadn’t been expecting it, because I watched as for the second time, she shut him down completely—and this time she wasn’t even beating him with a purse.
“The thing is, big brother, I am like the rest of these people. You and our family have made sure of that. Every single person you see here, for whatever reason, has been told that they’re not enough.
That they’re lesser for something completely out of their hands.
Been ostracized, sometimes even exiled, and left utterly alone.
“How many times did you guys joke at our family dinners that I would be a crazy old dog lady? How many times did you try to set me up with one of your friends who, frankly, were quite trash, and then tell me beggars couldn’t be choosers when I broke it off?
“How many times did you leave me behind on runs? Not invite me to events? Join in on people making fun of me rather than standing up for me? You’ve given me a lifetime of wounds I’ve had to heal from. And even though I have found love and a community now, I will wear those scars forever.”
Although Naomi had shared many stories with me, and I knew that her life had not been easy, it broke my heart all over again to hear her spell it out, point by point, to one of her main tormentors. But the real power in it was that she didn’t sound angry. She didn’t sound upset.
No, she sounded healed.
“So, if you want to pretend you care about me, or even if there is an infinitesimal flicker of actual love for me within you, you’ll understand that this is not the place for you unless you want to come in with open arms. All of us here deserve friendship and connection, perhaps even love.
“And if you make us have to fight for it, we will.”
We absolutely would.
I hadn’t really been in a battle since Ibrahim and I had cleared out a malevolent enclave of sorcerers who were working with the Ahnenerbe across the ocean to lock out all the local native magical folk from their connection to their Orenda, but I was more than ready to call upon that side of me if I had to.
“And I have to warn you,” Iko added, voice still more earth and petrichor than spoken word. “I can’t tell if it’s a limb I’m ripping off, or a skull.”
Maverick’s face remained remarkably still considering the situation, and he looked around slowly before his gaze returned to his sister.
The other wolves—I assumed they were wolves—behind him appeared less and less certain by the second.
It was amazing how quickly most abusers and bullies crumbled when met with an equal playing field.
“Fuck this,” he said eventually, and although it wasn’t the first time I’d watched him slink off with his tail between his legs, it was just as satisfying. His compatriots followed suit, the crowd shrinking down to a lone six.
“Are you kidding me?” Celestia snapped, looking extremely ruffled. “I thought you shifters were supposed to be so big and bad, and you’re being scared off by a bunch of nobodies!”
Nobodies, huh?
It seemed it was my time to step in.
“Celestia, this really is coming across as a situation where the lady doth protest too much.”
Her head whipped back to me, and the look she gave me was pure poison. Too bad it was a type I was immune to, because to me, she looked like a petulant child. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You throw out all these insults—losers, freaks, nobodies—but you’re the one who’s here because you were desperate for our attention.”
“That’s not—”
“I wasn’t done,” I said firmly, and to my great satisfaction, Celestia looked quite chagrined. Good. “You see, I get that when you’re used to being placated and coddled, something not being centered around you feels like a bit of a slap in the face.
“But the truth is, there’s a whole world of amazing and fantastic people who exist, and you are not one of them. You’re boring. You’re trite. You’re a stereotype that’s old hat by now, and frankly, I’m embarrassed it took me so long to see it.
“And unlike the rest of us, who are outsiders because of things we didn’t have a choice in, you’re this pathetic for reasons that are entirely within your control.
You choose to be petty, to be false to my face and use me for my connections while speaking ill behind my back.
You chose to have the personality that robs you of having any sort of meaningful connection.
“Really, I would feel bad for you, if you weren’t such a bitch.”
“My personality is shit?” she shrieked, and one of the vampires behind her snickered, earning a glare from her. Naturally, her boy toy stepped forward, squaring his shoulders like he could possibly intimidate me.
“You’d best watch your tongue, abomination.”
“Or what?” I asked dully, wrapping my arm around Naomi’s waist when she growled. “You think you can do something about it?”
I stared the man down, his red eyes meeting my lavender ones, and he visibly shrank. “That’s what I thought.”
That just pissed Celestia off even more, and she brushed past him to try to poke at my chest. Tried, that is, because Naomi’s hand flashed out to slap it away, a louder growl issuing from her.
Although I could handle the situation, I loved that I could always count on my darling to throw down for me—as she would say.
“I’m going to rip your throat—”
But in what was hopefully the last surprise of the night, Orthallow let out an extremely pained sigh.
“Celestia, be so for real right now,” he said, his Jersey accent coming to the front.
“We were shit to Rowan. We used him. We should be apologizing to him and begging him to forgive us for being asshats instead of throwing this tantrum because there was finally a consequence to you being a fuckin’ crumb bum! ”
Well.
That was certainly unexpected.
When they’d first stormed in, I’d thought Orthallow had been running reconnaissance for them. But no, his intentions really were pure.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. We all made mistakes, all had capacity for growth. And it seemed like he truly meant what he said.
“Why don’t you just go home? Go home, work on yourself, and fix that shitty attitude so you can actually contribute to the world instead of leeching off others. We’re bloodsuckers, but that’s supposed to be literally, not metaphorically.”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to look at all the faces around her, the ones she wanted to make feel small but weren’t letting her. The rest of her vampires were doing much the same, except the one who had chuckled before. Instead, they stepped a bit to the side, offering their hand to Carolina.
“I apologize for not understanding what this event was all about. If you don’t mind, I’d love that tour. If that’s still an option. Lovely music, by the way.”
Was that still playing? The comment brought me back to reality. The DJ had stopped playing the pop synth and was blasting Queen’s “We Will Rock You”.
I needed to remember to tip him.
“Of course it’s still an option. Here, let me show you where we’re keeping the bloodwine. We have it chilled and warmers too.”
“Wait, I wanna come as well!” another voice popped from the back and a shorter vampire who looked barely old enough to be in college sped around the remainder of Celestia’s posse.
Celestia moved her mouth as if she was going to spit at our feet, but Iko cleared his throat, and she stilled. Instead, she gave me what I was sure she thought was an intense glare, then stormed out, although with a lot less oomph than when she’d come in.
And it may have been trite, it may have been petty, but when the doors slammed shut behind them, a cheer came up from everyone that had gathered around.
“Not bad for a bunch of rejects, huh?” Iko asked, all grins once the furor died down.
“Not bad at all,” I agreed before turning to Naomi. “You were perfection, by the way.” She was still glowing, radiant in her strength, her kindness, and her resolve.
“It was a group effort,” she objected slightly, her cheeks flushing with pink as they always did whenever I got sappy.
And sappy didn’t even cover the depth of my feelings.
Although it wasn’t a life-or-death situation by a long shot, staring down those who meant to hurt me, who had hurt me, was transcendent, to put it frankly.
As much as I tried to be up on modern slang, I didn’t think there was a single current word that did the feeling justice.
And so finally, because the third time seemed to be the charm, I got the words out that I’d been wanting to say for so long.
“Naomi Bracken, I love you.”
Despite everything that had already happened in the night, that was the phrase that seemed to make everything slow down to nothing.
Naomi looked at me, those jade eyes of hers going wider than I’d ever seen, which was saying a lot considering all we’d gone through in our time together, and that beautiful blush of hers was back again, stronger than ever.
“I love everything about you. I love the way you think. I love how you treat those around you. I love the sound of your voice being the first thing I hear at the start of my night, and I love it being the last thing I hear when I go to bed just before dawn.
“I love the shimmy you do when you taste something particularly delicious. I love the way your face lights up when you have a new video you want to show me. There isn’t a thing about you that I don’t love, and although it’s very fast, I just had to let you know how I felt.”
Naomi stared at me, mouth open. Everyone around us was watching with bated breath, but they didn’t matter. Time seemed to drag on forever, and Naomi wasn’t even blinking.
If she had stayed frozen any longer, I would have started to be worried that she was caught in some sort of spell. But eventually, she managed to speak, although her first words were not what I expected.
“You think six months before saying I love you is fast?” She wasn’t angry about it, but she did indeed look like she was about to laugh, and I did hear a couple of snickers behind me.
“Is it not?” Perhaps my extended life and lack of casual dating experience might have given me an incorrect view of what a normal timeline was for such things.
“Not at all,” she said before throwing her arms around my shoulders and kissing me again. “I would have waited even longer if you needed. But for the record…” Another kiss, sweet and happy in all the right ways. “I love you too.”
“Thank the gods,” I breathed, then we were back to kissing.
And as strange as it was to have an audience around us, it only added to my joy when they cheered. I hoped that they took comfort in the display, as I had no doubt many of them thought such romance would never be in the cards for them.
But if there was one thing I had learned from the entire experience, it was that true love and connection was worth fighting for.
Worth never giving up on. I couldn’t say exactly what our future held, but I knew wherever our path led, I would be happy to be on that route as long as Naomi was by my side.
I couldn’t say how many minutes we stood on the dance floor, lips locked as the music surged around us, but however many seconds or minutes it was, it just wasn’t enough.
When we broke our kiss, I still wanted more.
I wanted to chase Naomi’s lips with my own.
Somehow, I resisted, but my fangs were fully out and itching.
I wasn’t worried, however, as I knew that once we went home, we would have plenty of privacy to do whatever we wanted.
“Thank you,” Naomi murmured as she leaned her head against me, the two of us transitioning into a slow dance along with the music still pumping from the speakers, the soothing melody almost working like a scene transition.
“For what?”
“For everything.”
That really was the long and short of it, wasn’t it?
Contentment flowed through me, heady and thick, so I closed my eyes and allowed myself to just be in the wonderful experience that was the present.
No more worries. No more planning. Just the woman I loved in my arms and the community we were beginning to build all around us.
Yes, I would absolutely need to talk to that siren with the speak-and-spell, who I was pretty sure was a coder, but that could wait.
For the moment I had everything I could ever need.
And her name was Naomi.