"Noted," Jeffrey finally managed.
But Carol wasn't done. "And if you've hurt my man in any way, I swear you'll regret it for the rest of your immortal life."
Our sweet Carol... I was a little afraid of her in that moment. And fully believed she was capable of carrying out the threat she had given.
"I didn't hurt him," the vampire squeaked out, apparently, just as sure Carol meant what she said as I was.
Jeffrey gave Daniel directions to a warehouse almost out of the county. Further than I'd traveled since returning from turning my ex back into a human. I wouldn't have expected them to keep Bryan there. I’d sort of figured he was holed up in some mansion’s secret dungeon or something. But I guess if this was something arranged by a bunch of idiots, and not an actual coven, it made sense.
And so, our group traveled, mostly in silence, to the location given. Carol's energy beside me was almost palpable. Deva handed her a candy that she could use to calm herself a little, but Carol refused it. Just sat there, practically out of her seat, eyes glued to the road.
"He'll be okay," Beth whispered.
Carol's eyes never left the road. "Yes, he will be."
Deva and I exchanged a glance. It was strange to see Carol like this. We knew she'd carried a torch for Bryan all these years, but her deep sense that he was the one, that she loved him enough for all of this, it was a bit unnerving. In any other situation I might be tempted to ask her if she was sure about all of it, but I knew that this was not the time.
It might never be.
Being friends with our passionate, creative Carol might just mean suspending some disbelief. Understanding that logic and her love for Bryan might not go together, but it didn't make her feelings any less real.
It took over an hour to get to the spot Fredrick had told us about, to a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. A place I was pretty sure was a drop off place, just off the highway, probably for some not-so-legal items. Not that that was our focus right now.
Carol had me shoved out of the backseat before Daniel put the car in park. We ran full tilt for the door to the warehouse, and Jeffrey moved in his lightning fast vampire way and had the door unlocked before we got there. This boy, it seemed, believed us about what we'd do to him if he was lying to us.
He sure as heck better not be lying to us. If this was a trap, he'd see why our little group was so feared.
I went into the building a split second after Carol, and even as fast as I was, she’d already used her magic to unravel the rope around Bryan. He sat in a chair, wordlessly pulling into his lap, as her arms went around him. It only took seconds, but she was already sobbing. And as tired and as sore as he looked, his focus was entirely on her. Running his hands over her hair, whispering reassurances to her that I couldn't quite make out.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, burying his face in her hair. “I’m here. Everything is okay.”
We all stared in silence for a long moment, and I felt emotion choke my throat. Swallowing around the lump that had formed, I couldn't pretend any longer. Even though none of this logically made sense to me, it was what it was. These two... they were meant for each other.
And I was happy for them.
We backed away, Deva, Carol, Beth, and me, until I bumped into Daniel. “Where’s Jeffrey?” I whispered, frowning as I looked behind us and saw no one else.
“As soon as he got the door open, he bailed. He did that fast vamp run thing, and I elected to wait here instead of giving chase.” Daniel didn't look the least bit happy until his gaze fell on Carol and Bryan, and then his eyes soften.
"He's okay?"
"He seems to be," I told him.
He gave me a little smile and ran a hand down my arm as if to remind me that Carol wasn't the only person who had someone who cared about her. I smiled right back. How the heck had I been scared of him as a bear, even for a second? My sweet Daniel was my everything.
"Should we--?" I turned to look at Carol and Bryan, then froze.
They were kissing. Nope, not just kissing, full on making out. Beth and Deva looked at me, mouths hanging open in shock, and I shook my head, not knowing what to say or do. Carol had spent so many years pretending love and desire didn't exist. Apparently, it did with her, it'd just been waiting for Bryan to come back to be unleashed.
We all faced each other and tried our best to ignore Carol and Bryan necking like a couple of teenagers in the middle of the room. It felt like we should just go, but we were in the middle of nowhere, and they would need a ride. Besides, we had no clue what condition Bryan would be in when he finally stood up. I risked another glance but jerked my gaze back to Daniel when I saw that Carol was nowstraddlingBryan as they made out.
The door of the warehouse slamming grabbed all of our attentions, even the lovey-dovey couple. Daniel rushed over and tried the knob, but it didn’t budge. He frowned, tried again with more force, but nothing happened.
What the heck? When I got my hands on that idiot, I was going to shrink his dick to the size of a pinky, I swore it!
“Uh,” Daniel looked around, his nose twitching. “Do you smell smoke?”
Smoke? Uh oh. He had the best nose of all of us, even Bryan, so if he was smelling smoke, there was smoke somewhere. We could hope it had nothing to do with us, but I doubted we were that lucky.
