Chapter 39
Volik
My heartbeat jumps. Then starts to race.
Nix.
I push my new chair back from my desk.
My mate is in trouble.
I take two steps, then use my gravito.
I have never jumped inside my house before. But I can. So I do. And half a second later, I am at my front door.
I rip it open.
Air gusts in.
I look down.
“Merde,” I curse. Then slam the door shut.
I’m naked.
I jump back down the hall.
My house is not a straight line, so I cannot jump straight from one end to another. For exactly that reason. Meaning there is no way for an enemy to get inside my home and jump directly to my bedroom, where I am most vulnerable.
It’s smart.
But also…
My shoulder slams into the wall as I take a turn too wide.
The stone feels rough against my bare body. But I slowed myself enough that I should not have damaged the wall.
Recovering, I jump four more times before my bare feet come to a stop in my bedroom.
I stride into the closet, grab a T-shirt, and pull it over my head.
It catches on my horns and tears.
I toss it to the floor.
I grab a button-down shirt off a hanger and shove my arm in the sleeve.
It gets stuck at my forearm.
I tug.
The material rips.
I drop it on the floor.
I grab a zip-up hoodie.
My arm does not fit in the sleeve.
Turning, I grab a pair of dress pants.
I cannot get them even halfway up my thighs.
My jaw clenches, and I throw those onto the pile on the floor.
I know I grew. My clothes literally ripped off me. But I… did not consider what that meant.
All my clothes are the same size. I stopped growing two hundred and fifty years ago. There is nothing…
That might work.
I walk to the back corner of the closet and reach for the chest on the floor.
My horns catch on something.
It tears.
I stand.
Frustration wraps around me.
Taking a deep breath, I hold out my hand and call my gravito.
The chest slides across the floor, out from under my hanging clothes, and stops at my feet.
I twist my wrist.
The trunk lid opens.
I turn my hand, and a heavy piece of wool flies up into my grip.
Shaking it out, I slide one arm through a sleeve, then the other. Then I tie the belt around my waist.
My chest thrums with energy.
This new level of power is exhilarating. It’s like every time I use my gravito now, instead of draining my power, I charge it even more.
I concentrate on that feeling in my chest.
I stand still.
My heart is beating normally.
I press my palm to my chest to make sure.
Nix’s heart is beating normally.
My mate is calm.
Dragging my tongue over my fang, I walk out of the closet, back into the bedroom, and look at the clock.
Just after seven.
Nix does not have class for another three hours.
She must have gone back to sleep and just woke up again. I have never been woken up by an alarm clock before, but I have seen the reaction in movies. She was probably startled out of sleep.
My mate is fine.
Needing to keep my own pulse steady, I drop onto my bed and stare up at the ceiling.
The rock above me arches smoothly over the room. Small pin lights dot the surface, filling the room with a warm glow.
I wonder if Nix will like my home.
No one has ever been in here before. Other than the workers who helped create it.
It took time to find people to work for me. The project was unique. And I, the scary vampire, would be on site all day, every day, overseeing the process. But I eventually found a good crew and the perfect piece of land.
The land was the most important part. Because the house is built into the earth.
The forest I am in is dense with trees in all directions. But the natural rise of the earth in this spot was clear.
And under the dirt was rock.
Lots of rock.
Which is why I needed sculptors. Not builders.
From outside, it looks like the front of the hill was sliced off, but instead of a retaining wall to keep the shape, there is a wall of glass.
Or what looks like glass but is far more impenetrable.
And once you get close enough, you can see that one of the panels is actually a door. Which still makes it seem like maybe there is just a room carved into this hill.
Then you step inside.
There is a normal room to start, with minimal furnishings and a domed ceiling above.
But then you see the first of many hallways.
And the first hallway angles down.
The floors, the walls, the ceiling. Everything. It’s all carved from stone.
The depth keeps my home cool, and hidden airways tunnel up through the ground above for circulation.
As for heat… I am the heat.
Not all vampires run hot. Some run incredibly cold. But my bloodline runs scorching. So when I’m home, my body heat warms the whole structure.
And if I am gone for long stretches, my living spaces are below the frost line. And my water comes straight from a well underneath the home, so nothing will freeze.
I blow out a breath and sit up.
This house took a long time. And a lot of money. And I really like it. But if Nix does not… Then we will move. Anywhere in the world. As many times as she wants.
Standing, I start to make my way back to my office.
I take the curved staircase up. Turn through the reading room, into the library. Another turn past the kitchen. Past the next hallway up, which leads up to the front door. Down another curved hall.
There is not much for security in the house, aside from the high-tech front door. But that’s mostly just to keep the humans out.
Curious fools don’t deserve to lose their lives.
I flex the power swirling in my chest.
Because anyone who sets foot in my home without my permission… They will lose their life.