I shouldn’t accept any gifts from him, his angry side said.
Not even your immortality? the Seamus voice replied.You seem to be enjoying your vampirism so far.
“Panic attacks do suck.” Zack pointed his finger at Seamus as he continued. “But I swear on Mary Gladwell’s grave, I will fuckingmurder youif you mess with my desires. Or with my fears in other ways than this.”
Seamus glanced at the open door and gestured for Zack to close it. Zack did while Seamus took a seat on the couch. “I understand the impulse to doubt my intentions, but you have to give me some credit. You are far more … present in my mind than I thought would happen. Our bond is stronger than I anticipated.”
“Really? Because you had to offer up the power.” Zack folded his arms over his chest.
Seamus met his glare with an impatient frown of his own. “And you had to take it. I knew in the moment that you were grabbing for it, but that didn’t mean it would take root. I see that it has.”
“Wouldn’t you want yoursonto be strong?” Zack demanded.
“I would. Hence the offering.” Seamus relaxed, putting his arm along the back of the couch. “Look, I’m not going to talk in circles about this. We both got what we wanted with your transformation. I have an errand for us to run, and you must be getting hungry. So, go shower and dress in similar attire to me and come back. Oh, and send Takashi out here. I’d like to speak to him.”
Zack hated the idea of following Seamus’s orders, but short of throwing a fit and stomping his feet like a toddler, there wasn’t anything else he could do. He continued to glare at Seamus on his way across the living room and strode into the bedroom.
Takashi was already standing and heading for the door. He paused beside Zack long enough to kiss his cheek and squeeze his arm.
Since Zack was beginning to feel gross, he headed for the bathroom.
The conversation from the living room was in quiet voices, but Zack could hear them as if he were sitting next to Seamus.
“He seems to be acclimating faster than I feared he would,” Seamus said. “Your influence?”
“Some,” Takashi said lightly.
“Thank you. He wasn’t listening to me.”
Zack puffed up, preparing to storm out there and shout at Seamus. Ofcoursehe wasn’t going to listen to the bastard. Why on earth would he? Taking a shower because he suggested it felt like betraying some piece of his soul. But he started the shower and stepped into it. Just like with the bath, all of the soaps and shampoos were orange-scented.
The rush of water didn’t block his hearing.
“You can hardly expect him to be complacent and thrilled with you,” Takashi said. Zack recognized that dry tone. He’d used it right after the incident at Devil’s Cove when Zack had been flipping out about Roger killing a hunter. “All things considered.”
“I expect that he would kick and scream around me for a while. Hopefully, not too painfully for either of us. I would like to remain proud of him.”
“You’re proud?”
“So far, very. He rose on Christmas, one of the hardest nights for our kind to rise. Also, I saw the way he was eating up information last night. The Wrights have been letting him waste away. I’m quite glad to have stepped in. He may yet reach his true potential.” A moment passed. “Now, Takashi, are you going to remain in these rooms with Zack, or are you interested in the new ones I’m preparing for you?”
“That depends,” Takashi said. “Do the new ones have a door handle on the inside? Do they have silver in the walls?”
Takashi had said his “all right” state was relative. He hadn’t shared what he had been going through, not really. Zack had been so caught up in his own crap that he hadn’t dived into the topic with him.
The urge to protect Takashi swelled, and Zack snapped off the water, though he was only half done in getting clean. What good was newfound confidence if he didn’t yell at the bastard making his lover’s life a living hell?
“Drop the attitude, Zackery,” Seamus said sharply. “I will remind you that the two of you were conspiring to kill me and that locking Takashi in a comfortable room was the kindest thing I could have done to him.”
Zack paused with his hand on the shower door. In the softest whisper he could manage, “Did you hear the shower turn off, or was this a bond-sense thing?”
“Bond-sense,” Seamus replied. “Then I heard the shower stop. And now I know how good your hearing is.”
“I was merely asking for clarification,” Takashi said. “Because if I have the choice of staying with you or returning to a prison cell, I obviously choose you.”
But the fact that he was thinking about having his own rooms at all pulled Zack’s heart toward a cliff.Hey, it’s not a bad thing for him to have his own space. You might need it from him, too. What you just shared should be proof he’s not really going anywhere.
“Zack, finish showering. You and I have somewhere to be,” Seamus said.
