Although she was visibly tired, her normal bantering cadence was nearly all the way back. Good.
I went in for one last hug and lingered a bit, but eventually Rowan and I were walking to the ancient elevator.
“Wanna take the stairs down?” Rowan asked after he pressed the button and the elevator basically cursed him out in a string of mechanical screeches.
“Absolutely.”
When we made it down to the parking lot, Rowan took my hand and intertwined our fingers. His skin was still warm to the touch, but I noticed it had faded considerably since he’d fed on me. Vampire anatomy and metabolism sure were fascinating.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I pulled out my keys.
“For what?”
“For being there. For being so kind to my best friend.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? She seems lovely.”
I didn’t need to tell him that far too many people in the magical world looked down on her for having no wings, and that was why she was relegated to a tiny apartment in disrepair with what she could make with her online work. He knew it. And the fact that he rejected their prejudice without so much as blinking an eye made me love him that much more.
Because although I hadn’t worked up the nerve to say it yet, I was mostdefinitelyin love.
It was different from how I’d imagined it, and I couldn’t believe that it had taken me so long to find it, but I knew deep down in my heart that what I felt for Rowan was unlike anything else I’d ever experienced before. Sure, there’d been infatuation, lust, even crushes. But nothing like the depth of compassion, attraction, and admiration all mixing inside me.
I would forever be grateful to the human dating app that had unwittingly brought us together.
“She is lovely. Amazing even. I just wish more people would see it.”
“Me too. But she has you, and me, if she wants. At least two people are in her corner. Does she have anyone else you know?”
I shook my head. “No, but we can help her find a therapist or whatever it is she needs to get her feeling better. One step at a time.”
“I’ll ask around my network, see if I know any magically inclined therapists. I imagine there has to at least be a few.”
“Well, even if there aren’t, at least with Zoom calls Carolina won’t have to go out.”
“Yes, I imagine that would be best for the foreseeable future.”
I nodded, unlocking the car and reluctantly letting go of Rowan’s hand. We didn’t say much on the drive home, but I got the feeling both of us were digesting everything that had happened. While my friend hadn’t been in any direct danger, it was very clear to me that her mental health was so low that shehadbeen hurting herself and suffering. I didn’t want that for her.
I didn’t want that foranyone.
Again, I wondered how many others there were like me, Rowan, Iko, and Carolina, who didn’t have people to rely on. Each of us had above the bare minimum, with Rowan having a century’s worth of connections with different people and species, me having my dog-walking business and a family that only emotionally abused me rather than physically, and Carolina did make enough to have her own place to hide among the humans. It wasn’t a lot, and none of it wasenough, but how many had even less?
“I know you’re gonna downplay the compliment,” I said after a while. “But you did really great with Twe—I mean, Carolina.”
“Did I? I was worried about putting a bit of vamp glamour on her, but I tried to keep it extremely light. Just enough to relax her, you know?”
“I think you used it just right. I was wondering if that was going on.” An errant thought rose in the back of my mind. “Have you ever used those special psychic skills on me?”
Rowan chuckled softly, and I didn’t quite understand what was so amusing until I glanced over when it was safe to do so. For once, I appreciated a red light. “It’s the opposite, really.”
“Opposite how?”
He reached over, taking my hand that wasn’t on the wheel. “You’re the one who’s always mesmerizingme.”
Unsurprisingly, I flushed at that. I wished I could linger in his gaze, because the way he looked at me made me feel so valued. So special. Soseen.I truly wished that every person could feel like that, because surely if they did, the world would be a better place. Far too many people were lonely and isolated, especially within the magical world that was trying to hide from the ever-encroaching onslaught of the humans. If we kept going the way we were, everyone was going to end up isolated from anything even closely resembling community.
Things really needed to change.
