97. Rune
Rune
My leg bounces nervously under the table as I watch the back of the brothers while they walk toward the counter.
Vameer has our heartbeat under control. Promised he’d keep it steady when I told him how nervous I was. He also told me we didn’t have to leave Volik’s house at all, but we’ve been holed up there for nearly a week, and I need to deal with my new fear of the public.
And since I can’t stop craving these delicious muffins, we decided to come to Abigail’s Bakery at three in the afternoon. The perfect time for a snack. And the most likely time for a bakery to be empty.
Breathing in the scent of pastry and coffee, I try to enjoy the outing.
It’s super cute in here. Warm tan walls. Light wood furniture. Rattan light fixtures of varying sizes hang from the ceiling in clusters. And a marble countertop stretches across the front of the café, hosting glass cases filled with bakery items and a large espresso machine.
And plants.
Hanging plants in every window. Potted plants as tall as I am in corners. Smaller ones on tables.
It feels like an oasis on one of the busier streets in town.
My guess about it being empty was sort of correct.
There’s a table with two women and two toddlers close to the entrance.
A guy with a laptop at the tall communal table in the middle of the dining area.
Us at a table in the far back corner. And two people are in line to order, with a third walking away.
“You doing okay?” Nix keeps her voice quiet.
“Yeah.” I heave out a breath. “No. I don’t know.”
She snickers. “It’s a lot. I get it.”
I cross my ankles under my chair, trying to still my anxious movements. “You taught a class the day you woke up with fangs. If even one of these people tried to talk to me, I might cry.”
Our vampire men flanked us as we entered, ducking through the doorway, and walked us to this table. Nix and I sat facing each other, leaving the empty chairs for our mates beside us, and Vameer asked four times if I was okay before he agreed to walk the twenty feet back to the front to order.
Nix rests her elbows on the table. “You were literally attacked by an awful man the moment you first stepped outside after changing. My audience was a bunch of barely twenty-year-olds who were already terrified of Volik. Our experiences are not the same. Plus”—she tips her head toward the boys—“we have them with us. I’m fairly certain that literally nothing can get past them. ”
We’re both looking at the Vadas brothers when Volik bumps his shoulder into Vameer. Vameer sidesteps from the action. And his horns knock into one of the rattan chandeliers.
A laugh bubbles out of me before I can catch it.
Reaching a hand up to still the swinging light fixture, Vameer slowly turns to look at me, his eyes narrowed.
I hold my hands together, forming a heart in front of my chest, as I mouth I love you.
His nostrils flare, and he turns back toward the counter.
I turn back to Nix, not looking at anyone else. “Don’t you ever get scared? When you go out without Volik?”
They’re almost always together, like I imagine I’ll always be near Vameer. But there are times when Nix goes to the university alone. Jumps alone.
I was never a shut-in, but now… I can’t imagine doing that. Even if I could jump.
“A little. But not any more than I was just as a woman going out alone before all this.” She gestures to her face.
The sound I let out is exhausted. “Fair.”
“I know you haven’t turned all the way, but even as you are, you’re stronger than a human.
And if for some reason you couldn’t fight a person off, you could bite them and suck the actual life out of them.
” She shrugs, making a solid point. “And for me, being fully turned, the idea that scares me most is some new enemy crawling out of the woodwork.”
We both turn our attention to our mates.
Vameer will attract enemies.
And to his enemies, he’s the one who crawled out of the woodwork.
The couple is still ordering at the register ahead of Vameer and Volik. And I hope the cashier isn’t too intimidated by the pair of brothers looming behind the other customers. Standing shoulder to shoulder, both their arms crossed, both looking ready to bust out of their custom shirts.
Vameer has been wearing the robe at home. But since we’re out, he opted to leave it off, along with his sword, and just wear his pants and shirt.
The dark red color really is perfect for him. But we need to go visit Haruto soon, because he still hasn’t sent anything else. And Vameer is still barefoot.
“I know you haven’t been to France yet, but have you met Barth on any of your calls with Uncle Frio?”
I shake my head.
“He’s a…” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “D-word.”
I snort, loudly.
Vameer tips his head, and I know he heard me.
“You know what I mean.” Nix laughs as she wiggles her fingers, indicating magic.
I smile, feeling more of my stress slip away. “D-word with the glowing…” I blink rapidly, indicating my eyeballs.
Nix snickers. “Precisely. Well, anyway, Barth is mated to one of their cousins.” Nix gestures toward the brothers, then lowers her brows. “Well, I actually don’t know how she’s related. So maybe cousin is wrong. But that’s not the point.”
“There’s a point?”
She tries not to smile. “Anyway… Barth was telling me that most of the cursed artifacts from human history, like when an archaeologist would dig something up and then mysteriously die… Those items are actually old D-word items.”
My brows lift. “Really?”
She nods, then leans closer to whisper. “The m-a-g-i-c is too powerful for humans to hold.”
I lean toward her, keeping my voice to a whisper too. “I can’t take you seriously when you spell the word magic. Anyway…” I grin and sit back. “That’s pretty cool.”
She grins back. “Right? Makes sense once you know it.”
A car honks twice out on the street, and I glance toward the wall of windows, but I can’t tell if they’re honking at someone out there or if they can see Vameer and Volik standing inside.
My leg tries to bounce, and I distract myself with a different topic. “What are you gonna do about your car?”
Nix snorts. “No idea. It’s pretty much just been parked in the employee lot on campus this whole time. I think I’ll talk to Henry about giving it to a student or something.”
I smile as I nod. “That would be really nice to do.”
The couple ahead of our mates finally finishes their order and starts to move away. The man keeps his attention down, but the woman doesn’t. She lets her gaze linger over the brothers.
A low growl rumbles out of Nix that only I can hear.
“Down, girl.” I tease her but feel the same way.
Not that our mates need any warnings from us. Neither Vadas brother so much as glances at the human. Or anyone else. Ever.
Still shoulder to shoulder, Vameer and Volik uncross their arms and step to the counter perfectly in sync.
Nix and I look at each other.
She rolls her eyes. “It’s been days. Imagine them a decade from now.”
Volik is closest to the glass display cases, and Vameer keeps reaching in front of him to point at what he wants. Purposefully bumping him.
Volik shoves his arm away.
And I decide that I can imagine them a decade from now, and I’m very much looking forward to it.