The vampire from Sunset, Sunworld, whatever corporate hellscape he had crawled out of, smiled like he already owned my bones. Given the state I was in, I couldn’t blame him for thinking that. They’d hauled me from the basement after catching me by the window and dumped me onto a ratty couch. I was lucky they had not rebound my hands, because the burns on my wrists would have made that absolutely hellish. I was shivering from cold, hungry, and scared out of my mind.
In contrast, this Sunworld rep was tall, immaculate, and terrifying in that quiet way predators got when they were done pretending. His suit didn’t have a wrinkle, and his eyes definitely didn’t blink enough. He stood in front of a stone hearth like this was a boardroom, and I was the last bullet point on his agenda. “You’ve delayed us long enough,” he said mildly. “Where is the book, Jade?”
I leaned back against the cold cement wall and smiled through dry lips. Was he going to break out the torture instruments if I didn’t start talking? How long would I have to stall for Belfry to reach Luther? What if Belfry’s fears came true, and he got attacked because he was flying in daylight? The vampire probably heard all that fear in my voice, but I still tried to put on a bold front. “You know, I’ve been asking myself all day how you people manage to be so boring while being immortal.”
David snorted from where he hovered behind the tall Sunworld guy, hands folded, smug as ever, and definitely a coward. “Stillmouthy. You always were.” He felt like he was back on solid ground now that he’d realized the vampire wasn’t going to make a deal with me that would cut him out. He thought his fat paycheck was within reach.
I turned my head just enough to look at him, to pierce him with a stare that betrayed all the distaste I felt for him. “I’ve always known you were a lowlife bastard, David. Selling me out to Sunworld just proves I was right to dump you before you got any worse.” His smile twitched. I had only seen it do that once, right before I hauled back and kicked him. Good.
The Sunworld rep sighed, his patience cracking, not that I’d had the impression there’d been much of it to begin with. “Enough. You will tell me…” he snarled, lunging forward and baring his fangs in my face.
Then the wall exploded; that was the only word for it. Plaster, wood, and something structural vanished in a roar of sound and splintering debris. The lights flickered and went out, and the air sizzled with power; the temperature dropped. Then people poured in through the hole, dark silhouettes casting shadows in the dancing dust and plaster.
Luther was first. I instantly recognized the glacial glow of his pale eyes. He didn’t slow down, didn’t say a word; he was a blur of motion and purpose. He crossed the room in a flash and took the Sunworld rep’s head clean off his shoulders. One second there was a vampire threatening me; the next, there was a body collapsing in an expensive suit while the head hit the far wall with a wet, final sound.
I didn’t scream, I couldn’t, because the sound got trapped in my throat. My chest locked up as relief and horror collided. Then Luther was suddenly in front of me. He took me into his arms as if he was afraid I’d vanish if he didn’t hold on tight enough. His body shook like a leaf, trembling with such force that it rattled through my bones. Or perhaps I was just shaking that hard too.
He pressed his face into my hair, his breathing unsteady but his arms strong and tight. “I feared I was too late,” he said hoarsely. “I love you. Gods, Jade, I love you.” The words felt like they swept in and erased the past few minutes, easing the trembling in my flesh and settling deep beneath my skin. That was the truth—he loved me—and like he loved his town, Luther was beyond loyal. That was my man, and I knew I’d never once doubted that he was coming.
I clutched him back, fingers digging into his coat, breathing him in like oxygen. “I love you too. I knew you’d come. I just…” My voice broke. “I knew.” Even though I knew, it was still the single most terrifying moment of my life. I clung to his coat and let his solid presence soothe me.
He pulled back just far enough to look at me, his hands framing my face with reverent care, like I was something precious instead of bruised and bleeding. Yeah, okay, I really loved him, there was no doubt about it.
He rose slowly, cradling me in his arms, bridal style, his eyes never leaving my face. I saw no sign of Belfry at first, but then he stuck a tiny snout out from under the collar of Luther’s coat, and I drew in a relieved breath. Belfry had made it; he was okay.
Movement over Luther’s shoulder caught my eye, reminding me that he was not the only one who’d burst through that wall like it was made of paper. A man stood by the hearth, his fingers curled around David’s throat—pale silver hair tied at the nape of his neck, even paler eyes, and a coat that had gone out of style a few centuries ago. He had to be a vampire, effortlessly controlling my dangling, scared-out-of-his-mind ex.
“I think we’ll be taking care of this one, Luther. If you don’t mind?” the man drawled the words with an accent as vague and soft as Luther’s, except it was different. His words sent a shiver down my spine, but they inspired a fight response in the dangling David. He clawed at the vampire’s wrist, feet scuffing along the floor as he struggled to free himself.
Luther took one long look at David, then flicked his eyes down to me once—a very quick flicker of eye contact. “Be my guest,” he said with a roll of one shoulder, as if he didn’t care one bit what happened to the man. I tried to figure out what I thought about it, but I felt so numb from the past couple of hours that I could not bring myself to care, not right now.
The pale vampire holding David flicked his wrist, and my ex tumbled across the room before crashing into the wall at the feet of several more people. They picked him up without a word and vanished silently outside through the hole in the wall. Then the man turned to face us, and with a polite incline of his chin, he introduced himself: “I am Vale, and you must be Luther’s soulmate.”
The word landed differently now—real, heavy. It wasn’t some fictional thing when I’d discovered the feelings blossoming between us were more than a little real. They were powerful,they were inevitable, and that, I realized, was what a soulmate bond was all about.
“This is Jade,” Luther said, pride threading through his fear. He didn’t introduce me to the others lingering in the wrecked suburban house, silent shapes watching from the shadows. I was pretty sure he didn’t care what anyone thought, except that this Vale had to be the one in charge, which afforded him a certain amount of respect.
Vale’s gaze softened when it landed on me. “You have my word,” he said to Luther, eyes flicking briefly to where his underlings had vanished with David, “that I will take care of the sniveling human.” Luther nodded once, but those words had been aimed at me, as if it were my permission or approval the master vampire was after. Wide-eyed, I nodded too and discovered that I didn’t feel guilty signing over David’s fate to a man I knew nothing about.
I was relieved when Luther walked out of that building without another word. My body ached, I was tired, and I was definitely not fit to be sparring with a supernatural leader. There was a car waiting in the road, and as soon as Luther slid into it with me, the car brought us back to the hotel. I never saw the driver. Upon arrival, Luther carried me back into the hotel as if I weighed nothing.
I protested weakly, because the short drive had revived me a little, but my legs were still shaking, and my wrists really hurt now that the adrenaline had worn off. Those burns were the most painful thing I’d ever felt, but I almost felt worse for Belfry, who kept apologizing once he saw the wounds. “It’s fine,sweetie,” I said to him. “You only did as I asked so you could get Luther, and it worked. You did good.”
Luther said nothing at all, but I saw him dip his head to nuzzle it gently into Belfry’s matted fur. Of the other vampires, the backup that Luther had brought to free me, I saw nothing once we reached the hotel, as if they didn’t exist and had never been there at all. In our room, he set me gently on the bed and knelt in front of me, hands steady as he cleaned and bandaged my wrists. I watched him, the tenderness of it making my chest ache.
“Can’t you just… heal me?” I asked quietly. “That’s usually what happens in the movies and books.” My mind flashed with an image of him using a fang to cut his own wrist and dribble blood onto my wounds, and they’d vanish like snow under the sun. That would be very nice right now, because I really hurt, so much it was making me a little sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to whine, though, because I was sure I wasn’t the only one for whom the night had been rough.
He huffed a small, apologetic laugh. “I am sorry to disappoint you. I cannot.” His eyes were mournful when they flashed up to my face. “Vale has no healer in his coven, so we’ll have to see Arden when we get back to Hillcrest Hollow. I am sorry.” He said that as if it were a personal failure of his, that he could not take away my pain. Instead, he offered me a glass of water and a painkiller.
Belfry fluttered from Luther’s shoulder to land on my knee.Only some vampires can heal others,he said.Most of them can heal fast, but other than the fangs and blood drinking, they’re really not that special.He had a tear in his ear I saw now, with a dried crusts of blood, and his vest was torn and stained.
I blinked at him, wanting to reach out, but my hands were back in Luther’s, and he was rechecking the bandages. “You can go into the light,” I pointed out. It had felt rather weird to ask about it before, as if I’d be asking something really dumb. The vampires I was familiar with, the ones from books and movies, they couldn’t, though. Luther liked thick drapes, but I was certain that was for Belfry’s benefit, not his.
There was an amused snort from Luther, and then he picked up the bat and gently began cleaning his ear. Belfry was the one who answered.That’s Bram Stoker’s fault. He deliberately got all his facts wrong.I laughed, the sound shaky but real. Belfry made it sound like the famous author of Dracula actually knew about vampires. I was too tired to ask further questions, but it was day, and Luther was eager to return home. “You can sleep in the car, darling,” he promised me.
Vale saw us off personally inside the garage below the hotel. Two buff-looking men in sleek suits brought the book from the vault to us. It was locked in a reinforced safe box and handed over with ritual gravity. Then he told Luther they must meet again so Luther could explain how he had found his soulmate.
He was unfailingly courteous to me when he bowed over my hand and said goodbye; almost wistful. I saw it then: envy, sharp and lonely beneath centuries of control. He held no hope of finding his own soulmate one day, and endless days of immortality stretched out in front of him. I was still mulling that over when the armored sedan hummed as it pulled onto the highway.
