Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Images of Lisa’s and Uncle Derek’s dead bodies didn’t want to leave my mind. Even my nine-year-old self knew that my world would never be the same. I was forced to face the harsh reality of the supernatural world far earlier than any child should have.
The once beautiful forest around the kingdom felt darker and foreboding. From that day forward, I carried a weight on my shoulders that I could never shake off.
Torin placed his hand over my heart, jolting me out of my thoughts.
“Slow down your breathing, Anna,” he said in a low, gentle voice.
My skin, even under the material of my shirt, heated at his touch. Here I was, breaking down in the arms of the man I loathed the most, but I couldn’t disentangle myself from his embrace.
The Alpha dropped his hand and rested it on the leather car seat. The absence of his glove-covered hand over my heart only built more coldness in my chest.
I wished I could control my heart to slow down my pulse, but if I could do that, I wouldn’t have gone to his pack manor five years ago to profess my feelings.
What a stupid girl I was.
Desperately ignoring my body's reactions to Torin, as my body fell into the rhythm of the car ride, I kept repeating to myself that Tammy would be okay. We were almost at her apartment.
She would be safer if I wasn’t around her. It became clear that I wasn’t supposed to live in the human world because I’d always put my friends in danger. I couldn’t expose Tammy to that level of trouble.
But where was I supposed to go if I couldn’t live among my own kind and I didn’t want to live among the supernaturals?
Disturbing thoughts spiraled through my mind like the wild tendrils of a vine.
Inhaling Torin’s earthy scent with every shaky breath, I grounded myself. Right now, I wanted to make sure my best friend was okay, to see and hug her.
Everything else had to wait.
When I stood in front of her apartment door, I knocked with a trembling hand. But then I remembered Lisa’s broken lock. I grabbed the door handle and pushed it down, holding my breath.
The door didn’t open, and I sighed heavily, but my heart still pounded.
I had to see the smiling face of my best friend.
When Tammy opened the door, I lunged at her, hugging her tightly. She made a “humph” sound with her throat. I might have knocked the air out of her lungs, but I couldn’t explain with words how happy it made me that she was alive.
“What’s gotten into you?” She grasped me by the shoulders to look at my face.
Then her gaze fell on Torin behind me, but Tammy didn’t smile at him the same way she had for Hayden.
“Did he do something?” she asked in a low voice, but even a human would have heard her.
I shook my head and tried not to cry harder.
“Is he another bodyguard of yours?” She raised her eyebrows in a challenging way, and I shook my head again.
Torin let out an annoyed sigh behind me, and Tammy sent him a death look. She intuitively thought he had something to do with my red, swollen eyes.
“Then where is Hayden?”
The low growl that followed Tammy’s question told me I needed to get on with my explanations faster than I thought.
I nudged wide-eyed Tammy to walk inside her apartment.
She held the door open for Torin, although she looked conflicted about him.
Many people in the kingdom had the same initial reaction to the vampire Alpha.
You either loved him or hated him, but there was no in between.
Tammy was clearly trying to figure out which side to take.
I took a sharp breath and paced in her small living room, looking around.
The transformation of the space was evident in the white walls, which made the place much brighter, unlike the dark gray she’d had before.
The air still carried the scent of fresh paint and cleaning supplies.
The fuzzy rug under the couch and mahogany chairs were new.
The framed posters of vampire movies were replaced with photographs of boats in rivers and black-and-white pictures of forests. Tammy had kept the same dark-brown fabric couch, but the new green and soft-orange throw pillows gave the space a warm and cozy vibe.
I glanced at Torin, and he shrugged innocently. His compulsion had not only made Tammy forget the bad experience she’d had with the vampires, but it also had transformed Tammy.
She gestured for us to sit and asked if we wanted something to drink. When she spoke to Torin, she carefully studied his every move. I liked that she was protective of me, just like I felt the same for her. She sat opposite us and waited.
“My apartment was broken into,” I said and swallowed hard.
Torin stretched out his arm behind me on the couch.
“We don’t know who it was, but we know what they were after.”
Tammy wore a thoughtful expression, and her gaze darted to Torin every few seconds.
“They were after a rare book in my possession.” I took a deep breath, calling on all my strength. “We believe they killed Lisa, although they made it look like a slip-and-fall accident in her bathroom.”
“No.” Tammy gasped and placed her hand over her mouth.
Tears welled up in her eyes at the bad news. She liked Lisa as much as I did and had known her for almost as long as I had. Tammy dropped her hand in her lap and opened her mouth to ask questions.
I put my hands up to stop her. “I can’t say more, Tammy. I’m sorry. I still can’t share everything, but I promise I will one day.”
I would live up to my promise, even if I had to break supernatural rules, but it wasn’t the right time yet. She leaned back against the chair and took a deep breath. “Okay, Bree. Whenever you’re ready.”
I gave her a small smile. She never pried for more than what I could divulge, and I liked that about her. She smiled back, but it was strained.
Torin’s movements next to me jolted me out of my thoughts.
“I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce you to Torin. He’s an old friend I haven’t seen for the last five years,” I said, looking Tammy straight in the eye.
She and I were tuned in and could communicate with only a few words. Understanding passed behind her eyes, and she nodded.
Five years ago, after I left Torin’s pack manor in California, I flew back to London and cried on Tammy’s shoulder until no tears were left. Tammy was there to collect the pieces of my broken heart and shattered soul.
I had told her the man I liked rejected my feelings, but I didn’t tell her anything about him being a feared half vampire, half werewolf.
Smiling, she looked at Torin. “So, were you in the neighborhood and stopped by Bree’s?”
I almost laughed at her question despite my achy body. The girl had picked up on all the cues I’d given her about Torin, and I liked her even more for it.
“I’m here to protect her, and we think you may be in danger, too,” Torin said in a soft voice.
He returned her smile, a rare sight to behold. It was as if he were trying hard to win her over. Tammy was a fiercely independent woman who wouldn’t be happy to find out Torin had basically hypnotized her without her consent.
“It’ll be for the best to get out of town on vacation until I figure out how to secure the book, Tammy,” I said.
Torin adjusted his body and pulled his brown leather wallet from his back pocket. He took out a black credit card and handed it to Tammy.
I did a double-take.
“I would like to pay for your vacation. How about the vineyards in Italy? Maybe Milan?” His smile broadened, and it was a good thing that I was sitting.
Was he trying to make up for what he’d done to Tammy, although his compulsion's effects seemed positive so far? Did he feel guilty somehow? No, it definitely didn’t make up for violating Tammy’s consent and free will by rewriting her memories.
But Torin’s compulsion had worked to make Tammy abandon interest in dangerous people and places.
Tammy wasn’t a woman to accept free things from strangers. She was proud of what she’d achieved on her own and made sure her boyfriends were well aware of it. She never accepted anything else from them, except for the physical stuff, because she didn’t want to owe them anything.
Without disconnecting her gaze from Torin, she reached out and took his credit card. I bit my cheek to stifle my gasp. She then looked at me and winked.
Torin’s vampire powers couldn’t have changed her personality, so what was she up to?
“I’d love to do some wine tasting in Milan. Thank you very much, Torin. Sounds like my dream vacation,” she said, and I raised my eyebrows.
Her smile had a wicked twist to it.
Her dream vacations used to be traveling to cities famous for supernatural stuff, with haunted houses and vampire museums. She used to want to visit the last vampire buried in New England, an annual vampire ball in New Orleans, and a masquerade ball of a vampire court in New York.
Of course, all these venues weren’t real and included costumes and fake red cocktails.
I blinked in disbelief as she pocketed Torin’s credit card.
“How about you rest here while I go into my bedroom to book the vacation on my desktop?” she asked.
Torin nodded and smiled at her, probably because he didn’t have to compel her again for refusing to go on a vacation. Not that I would let him do so, but Tammy made it easy by agreeing, unsettling me.
Once Tammy was out of sight, I said, “Thank you for spending your money. But you shouldn’t have. If anything, I would have offered her my support.”
Not that I had any money, but I could have dipped into my secret money stash. Thank goodness the bad people didn’t damage or discover the shoe box filled with cash lodged deep into one of the shelves in my walk-in closet.
“I’m glad to help, Anna,” was all he said.
To Torin, the lines of life and death were blurred. He must have taken many lives while doing Dad’s special missions, and I’d guess Torin thought I was too soft and cried a lot.
“I’m sorry for crying on you in the car…” I took a throw pillow and hugged the life out of it.