Vampires of Eden (Alexander #2)

41. Daniel

CHAPTER 41

Daniel

A mazed, bewildered and excited, I push up to my palms and look down at Alexander.

Or rather, my mate.

My bonded partner.

Wow.

His eyes are wide and he’s perfectly still. Mummified.

“Alexander,” I say. He doesn’t move. Only his wide un-alighted eyes shift toward me. Suddenly, I realize his chest isn’t moving either. No throat bobbing.

I lift a palm to his face to hold his chin. “Sweetheart— breathe .”

He inhales sharply, audibly and blinks his eyes. His arms are splayed out like he’s considering making a snow angel in the bedsheets. The moment I shift and gently pull out from inside of him, his legs fall flat.

“Are you alright?” I ask, nervous. “Say something?”

He blinks up at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling. His mouth opens, closes, then opens again. “I… you…”

“Yes?”

“You…” he pauses once more, then meets my eyes. “You love me. ”

Taken aback, I grin. “Haven’t I been saying as much?”

“I know but—you—you really love me.” His palms drift up to cover his eyes and he breathes in an incredulous little laugh.

“I do,” I say calmly. “Why is it so hard for you to believe?”

“Because I’ve been wrestling with these feelings for you for so long Danny—since I was a fucking teenager and after I first saw you. I had this ache whenever I thought about you. This burn deep inside my nature that I couldn’t explain. I didn’t know how to articulate it but everyone told me it was wrong—well, specifically, my mother. She told me it was inappropriate and disgusting that I was obsessing over you like a pervert, so I shoved it away and stopped acknowledging it.”

He rubs his eyes as the words spill out. “But then everything with Oliver came crashing down and I met you again, here, and all those feelings bubbled back up to the surface—but you hated me, which made me feel even more crazy and ashamed and I just—I never thought that you’d really… Not really , you know? Maybe some? Like—you said I had pretty eyes and that I was nice to talk to. Which was enough for me! I was happy about that if nothing else. But I didn’t think you’d love me. Not like this!”

He drops his hands and when he looks at me, there are tears in his eyes.

Feeling sheepish for my unquestionable hand in the history of his internal torment, I gently rest a palm on his thigh. “Well, I do. Love you like this—enough to be bonded with you. To be your mate… Is this why everyone at the estate knew about me?”

“Yes,” he breathes, wiping his eyes. “I didn’t know how to deal with the feelings so I just talked about you to anyone and everyone who’d listen. The running joke was that Oliver was actually my second choice and you were my first. But once my mother got wind of that, she shut it down . Nobody was allowed to even say your name again—especially not me.”

Well, Lady Victoria Kendrick is not a fan of me. Duly noted.

Lazily caressing his thigh as I sit between his knees, I speak softly. “I apologize for making you more insecure about your feelings.”

He shakes his head against the pillow and lifts a hand, waving it dismissively. “We’ve already talked about that, you’re fine. You spent six years in hell with Josefina. It’s a miracle that you didn’t go on a purebred murdering spree in retaliation.”

He’s joking and it does indeed make me smile, but I shift to lie atop his firm body once more. His hands drift up to my lower back in response. I want him to take in and focus on the moment. The bigger picture, so to speak.

“Rabbit?”

“Mm.”

“I’m your mate. Do you get that? Our natures are entwined. Your energy is inside of me, and mine in you. Can you feel it?” The words and truth of our situation sends an electric thrill through me, and as if on cue, a gentle burn resonates behind my irises. I feel them glow and alight as I stare down at my partner. This beautiful purebred that I trust with my heart, mind and essence. My blood, body and safety.

Alexander’s lips part as he inhales, captivated. His eyes alight too, but they’re glassy. Golden and subtly swirled with lilac. Like the radiant and ethereal shift just between night and sunrise.

“Can you feel me?” I ask once more, leaning down and touching my forehead to his.

He blinks and another tear glides from his eye, but he smiles. “I can,” he says. “I do.” One palm strokes up to the center of my back while the other rests at my hip.

Alexander stills and the atmosphere becomes tranquil. The staticky frisson settles between us—comforting and warm and wonderful. It reminds me of a freshly baked cake, all heat and sugar and butter, resting after being removed from an oven.

Quietly, Alexander lifts a hand to brush my hair away from my face as he stares at me, searching. “You said yes to me,” he whispers.

“I did. ”

“Your eyes are beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you alright? How do you feel?”

“Excellent,” I say, assessing inwardly. “But it’ll take some time to know for sure, I think.”

He nods, serious. “Okay… if you need to feed, just tell me. I’ll come to you—it doesn’t matter what time it is… Jesus. How—It usually takes months to bond. Sometimes years! How did we… It happened so fast. And we weren’t even trying, were we?”

This baffled vocalized stream of consciousness tickles me. “I was thinking about it,” I say honestly. “I wanted it. When I fed from you, I pulled with intention and your nature responded to me. Rabbit, it isn’t about you just feeding and taking care of me. You have to feed from me now, too. We have to take care of each other.”

Alexander blinks in revelation. “Ah right. Shit. Yeah, of course… Danny?”

“Yes?”

“How the hell are we going to do this?”

With my fingertips, I trace the shape of his lips. The handsome line of his jaw. “It’s already done. We’ll find a way.” We’ve come this far, so I have to believe that this will work. It’s obviously meant to be. I refuse to doubt it.

Our night together was spent in what I’ll forever recall as newly bonded bliss. Once Alexander knew my mind, it was as if something inside of him came undone—a resistance he’d been wrestling with just… slipped away.

We didn’t talk. Somehow, though, we communicated intensely and in a way we never had before. Through unwavering eye contact and subtle, tentative touches and strokes. A soft caress down my thigh was like a question. The arching of my lower spine a response. His kisses felt like periods or commas and my gasps enthusiastic exclamation points. Our natures sang and twisted together in ecstasy, taking hold and ravaging us until we collapsed over and over again in a sticky and tangled heap.

In the hazy hours of first daylight, we showered together. Sensual and fluidly—gently touching and exploring.

Still enraptured within our passionate delirium, we made it back to bed and miraculously, we slept.

When I open my eyes again, the bright rays of the afternoon sun make me squint. There’s a sound… ringing. My ringtone. For my phone.

I lift and wince. My body aches in ways it hasn’t in a very long time. Good ways, rest assured. Gratified. Alexander is beside me naked, asleep on his stomach and with his golden head turned toward me on the pillow. God, if I fell asleep like that, I’d regret it dearly. My neck would punish me for days.

Ringing. Phone. Get the phone.

I asked Alexander to turn his off last night, but I left mine on. He’s the only vampire that ever calls me besides Leoni and it wouldn’t be her. She knew about my intentions for last night. My seduction.

Reaching across Alexander, I grab my phone from the bedside table. He grunts softly from my movement as I brush past him, but doesn’t wake. By the time I have the device in my hand, it stops ringing. What a pain in the ass.

I sit upright and rub my eyes, then brush back the unrestrained tangle of my hair. I look down at the screen—two voice messages and five missed calls. All from Raphael.

This is not reassuring.

Navigating to the call app, I hit play on his message and bring the phone up to my ear.

“Hey Daniel—Can you ask Alexander to turn his phone back on ASAP? We’ve got some trouble here.”

Next voice message.

“It’s me again. Listen, my back is up against the wall—can one of you please call me? Immediately? If I don’t give up some answers soon, his mother is going to stake me.”

The line goes dead.

Huh.

Two things. First, this does not sound good. Second, stakes don’t necessarily work. That’s a myth and common misconception. The amount of pressure and strength you’d have to apply to fatally penetrate a vampire’s heart is unfeasible by most humans. Plus, we heal and regenerate too quickly.

Well, it would probably work on me? Since my health is questionable and my regeneration is slow to begin with.

Something in the atmosphere tugs at my attention and I instinctively turn my head toward the window. Aside from the bright birdsong, it’s silent. Leoni is not home. It should only be me and Alexander here but… I sense another vampiric presence close by. Fading. As if it’s moving away from the cottage.

“Sweetheart.” I lean and bend so that my lips brush his ear and neck. I kiss him, trailing a line down the curve of his shoulder. “Rabbit, wake up.”

He groans once more, unbothered and with his eyes still closed. I run my fingers through the thick of his hair. “Do you sense someone here besides us?” His ability to detect other vampires is much stronger than mine, so I want him to check.

Alexander lazily opens his eyes and shifts onto his back. Once settled, he breathes and stares up at the ceiling, unmoving. “Someone is driving away… toward the main road. Maybe the mail person?”

“Maybe,” I say, even though they never come this late in the day. I brush off the odd sensation. “Anyway, something is going on at your estate. Raphael has called me five times… I think it’s about your mother.”

Frowning, Alexander pushes himself upright. Without question, there is an ominous tone to Raphael’s messages. Even still, I can’t help but watch this purebred in awe. His lovely golden nakedness in my bed. His skin and eyes awash in afternoon sunlight.

My handsome prince. All mine.

“Where’s… I don’t know where I put?—”

“Use this,” I say, holding my phone out for him.

As he takes it, he leans and kisses me on the lips. “Hi,” he whispers, his voice drowsy and rough.

I chuckle. “Hey.”

He scratches his chaotic bedhead with one hand as he examines the phone with the other, navigating to the call app. “How is it almost three o’clock?”

I shrug. “Time flies when you’re newly bonded and fucking.”

He shakes his head at me as he brings the phone to his ear. Raphael picks up immediately.

“No, it’s me. What’s—” Alexander pauses, listening. Raphael’s voice is audible from my vantage point, but I can’t hear exactly what he’s saying.

“She wasn’t supposed to be back until later this week,” Alexander says. I hear Raphael’s muffled speech again. Alexander rests back against the headboard, breathing deeply. He stares across the room where my bookcase is located, but I know he’s not really looking at it.

He’s silent for a long moment. Like, really long.

Raphael doesn’t stop talking and I wish he was on speaker because Alexander isn’t moving at all. Not reacting. He stares into a void. His naked chest gently rises and falls and it takes everything in me to stay calm.

Alexander lifts his free hand and rubs his fingertips against his brow. He takes a deep breath and his eyes close. “Just out of curiosity, who wrote this story?”

I blink. Story? Someone wrote something? Who? About what?

“Right,” Alexander says. “It makes sense now.” He finally looks over at me. Something must register in my expression because his gaze softens and he reaches to take hold of my hand. With his palm in mine, I squeeze, as if to ask what the hell is going on. Understanding, he nods.

“Raph—stop. Listen, let her know that you’ve spoken to me and I’m on my way home. I’ll be there in a couple hours and I’ll explain everything. Leave the house in the meantime if you need to, alright? Go for a walk. I’ll turn my phone back on and head there now.”

There’s another swift exchange before Alexander finally ends the call. He sets the device in his lap and looks at me. “I have to go. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry—tell me what’s happening? Why is your mother home early? And what story?” My heart races and my throat feels as if it’s closing in on itself, making it difficult to breathe. His mother wouldn’t try to keep him from me, would she? Our natures are entwined now. I can’t be without him and he can’t function properly without me. I won’t go through that again, I can’t?—

“Raven.” Alexander lets go of my hand and lifts his palms to hold my face. He brings me into his nearness and undeniable calm. Forehead to forehead. “Danny, we’re alright. Why are you getting worked up? I feel you getting stressed. Like a strange tension inside my chest.”

“Tell me what’s happening, please?”

He nods and lifts slightly, kissing the corner of my mouth before he grips both of my hands between us. “A reporter wrote an article about us and published it today. First thing this morning. He was at the safe house opening yesterday. Apparently, he saw us together on the back patio—even took candid photos.”

“Oh God,” I cut in. Dread washes over me and makes me nauseous.

Alexander grips my hands and again, a soothing wave of calm emanates from him. He explains and his words are even and unperturbed. As if this isn’t even about us and our relationship being grossly exposed to the whole of Eden society. “My mother got wind of this and came back from the mountains. She’s been calling me, of course, and Raph’s been trying to reach me too. I need to go home and take care of this.”

I tilt my head, shocked at how unruffled he is. Alexander has been distressed around me for a lot less. “Why are you so calm?” I ask honestly.

He shrugs, still gripping my hands. “I decided yesterday that I was going to talk to her when she came home this week, so I was mentally prepared for it. Plus, you and me… we’re locked into this now. We can’t hide our relationship—even if we wanted to. As soon as I walk into a room, vampires will know that I belong to someone.”

Leaning, he kisses me on the lips again, then smiles. “And I want them to know it’s you. I love you, Danny. I always have and I… I still can’t believe that you chose me back. How lucky am I? I’m grateful.”

I sit, mesmerized by his heartfelt words. I know he feels this way because he pours these sentiments and more into me every time he feeds. I think I’m the lucky one. That he’s put up with all my bullshit and bad manners.

Relenting, I sigh. “Alright, let’s do it. Let’s get dressed and I’ll come with you?—”

Alexander shakes his head. “No. You should stay here.”

“You just said we’re locked into this, Rabbit. Emphasis on we . I’m going with you.”

“I think that my mother is my problem, and having her scream and say nasty things is not something I want you to witness right now. We are in this together, but… would you please let me handle this part? Just let me confront her on my own.”

Considering, I gnaw at the inside of my cheek. I think I should go with him. Something in my gut tells me that I should, maybe because we’re unequivocally linked now. We’re a pair and should face these hard things together.

But as I look into his pleading eyes… I also want to respect his feelings. Things between him and his parents sound complicated. If he wants to talk to them alone, I think I should respect that and give him space.

“Are you absolutely sure?” I ask.

“Yes. It’s what we decided anyway, right? I wanted you to meet my father and you did. Otherwise, you should stay in your safe space.”

I snort. “Yeah, but that was before last night.”

“Still. I know I can’t protect you, but I can at least avoid throwing you directly in front of a careening bus. Agreed?”

I don’t agree, but I can’t easily express my looming uncertainty. “Alright,” I say, sighing. “Just… keep me updated. Call me when you can, please?”

“I will. I promise.”