“You’revampires.” The words escaped Seth’s mouth through clenched teeth.
“But the elk needn’t suffer for it.”
Seth now had clenched fists to add to his clenched teeth. “Am I— Am I beingkidnapped?”
Daphne’s eyes widened in a very neat approximation of shock. “Why, darling, of course not. But we can’t very well let you walk all by your lonesome.”
Walking hadn’t even occurred to Seth. He looked around at the vast forest surrounding him. It had to be—what—eight miles, at least, if he followed the road? It would be a long walk home, and possibly a wet one, if the clouds did what they seemed to be threatening to do. And it was freezing, and Seth was dressed for car-to-house travel, not a forest hike.
He could call someone to get him—he had Violet’s number now—but what kind of friend would he be if he lured a teenage girl out to a vampire den just to save himself some inconvenience? He mostly trusted these people, but Riley’s moms were clearly protective of their son, and Seth didn’t know how far they’d go with a stranger.
“We’ll of course compensate you for any days of business you might lose,” Sybil said coolly.
“Days?” Seth yelped, any approximation of chill fleeing his body. “Plural?”
“We’ll try to get a mechanic out here as soon as possible, but—” Sybil shrugged, a gleam in her eyes Seth didn’t care for at all. “We’re so very isolated.”
Of course, of course. Theywereisolated. Isolated and diabolical. And Seth was stuck here, at the mercy of his supposed mate and his supposed mate’s meddling mothers.
Seth tried his best to get his voice back to a normal human register. He knew he’d been bordering on shrill. “Whether my car is working or not,” he said slowly, “I would like a ride home first thing in the morning.” He’d figure out how to get his car home later, when he wasn’t in the midst of an existential crisis. “You know. Once the elk are no longer of such…concern.”
He didn’t sound like himself, but he didn’t feel like himself either. He felt like a character in a play, only he didn’t know any of his lines and the director was raging on ketamine.
Daphne clapped her hands in delight. “We have a lovely guest room.”
She wrapped her arm around his, and Seth let himself be escorted back up to the beautiful house with a vampire mother on each side of him.
15
RILEY
Riley sat at the kitchen table, listening to the whisper-yells and the thumps of what sounded to be pillows flying.
“I’ve never heard him swear so much,” he murmured.
Riley almost wanted to laugh—the thought of his sunny, cheery Seth driven to such rage that he was cursing like a sailor—but it wasn’t funny, was it?
Riley had fucked up. Again.
He hadn’t even realized he was doing it at the time. He’d maybe had the vague thought that it was too soon, but also Seth had been handling it all so well—the existence of vampires, Riley’s sorry story. Seth had listened, and he’d comforted, and he’d said perfect things.
I don’t know who you are without it either. But I know who you are now. And I like that person a lot.
And Riley just…hadn’t had it in him to lie. Not after the events of the evening: Seth throwing himself into Riley’s arms, letting Riley touch him, accepting Riley’s bite and then turning around and wrapping his perfect lips and hot mouth around Riley’s aching cock.
What had Riley been supposed to do in the face of that? Pretend there was someone else out there for him?
He hadn’t expected the mate part to be the final straw in breaking his sweet Seth.
Was it really so bad, being stuck with Riley?
A cup of tea appeared in front of Riley’s clasped hands. It was one of his favorite cups, even, a delicate china number with pale-blue cornflowers.
“I don’t deserve pretty cups,” Riley said, scowling down at it.
“Whyever not?” Mama Sybil asked. “It wasn’t you who hid the jumper cables.”
No, it wasn’t. And his moms weren’t telling him where they were either. Which was extra thoughtful of them because Riley wasn’t certain he would have given them back to Seth if hedidknow, and it was nice not to have to face that side of himself so soon.
