Vampires of Eden (Alexander #2)

42. Alexander

CHAPTER 42

Alexander

F uck Reginald Vern from the Central Eden Courier and News . And fuck his camerawoman, Rema, too.

What a couple of snakes.

This is why you should always trust your instincts. I knew something was slimy about him and here we are. Instead of focusing on the impressive opening of the safe house and all of Kathryn and Roland’s innovative and hard work, this voyeuristic bastard was sneaking around in the woods and snapping candid pictures of me and Danny during a private moment.

The photos are crisp, too, like they were working with some crazy zoom capabilities. And they named him outright in the article. Daniel Lim. I am furious.

I didn’t look at my phone and the article online until I’d gotten in the car and I’m glad. Not that I’m above losing my shit in front of Danny (because, let’s face it, that’s already happened more times than I can count). But he was already stressed from Raphael’s calls. It’s amazing how I could feel his anxiety pinching my upper spine as if it were my own. One of us needed to be calm.

Us … I really… I still can’t believe it.

I’m angry as hell, but simultaneously trying to be a mature adult about being mated with a man that I have probably loved since before I even knew what love was. If I think too hard or deeply about Danny and what we are now—what we’ve done—I think I’ll just combust into a cloud of glitter.

Either way, I will be completely useless. I need to focus right now.

In addition to at least six missed calls and voice messages from Raph, I also had three calls and one message from my mother asking, “WHERE ARE YOU?” All caps. A text from Sebastian asking me, quote, “Leksey! Is this article for real??” And last, a message from Nadya that simply says, “Hey, are you alright? Please call me when you have a minute.”

I didn’t respond to anyone.

By the time I pull into the garage behind the estate, I don’t have a plan. I’ve spent the two-hour-long drive thinking of all the things I could say to my mother—about Danny and everything he means to me. About the aristocracy and how we need to stop adhering to these outdated, cruel and strict rules surrounding mating and relationships. About how my life choices are my own and she can’t make decisions for me anymore because I’m not a child.

In my heart, all of this feels like more than enough justification to make her see my side of things and accept my decisions. Regardless, I know it won’t hold with her. Not even a little.

I step out of the car and the inner door that leads to the house swings open. Raphael is there, looking uncharacteristically pale. The Irish part of his Irish-Italian heritage peeks through in this stressful moment. He swiftly closes the door behind him, takes a couple of steps toward me, then stops dead.

His chestnut-colored eyes grow wide as he takes me in. He blinks, dramatically. I’m about to say something, but he steps into the space of my body and wraps me in a firm embrace. Surprised, I hug him back in the silence.

“Congratulations,” he says warmly, then pulls away and takes me in again. “I said so, didn’t I? I was right.”

“You were right,” I admit .

“Are you happy?”

My face warms. “I’m ecstatic.”

Releasing me from the embrace, Raphael nods. “Fantastic. Poor timing, though.”

I shrug. “Was there ever going to be good timing?”

He forces a weak smile. “Probably not. It’s bad, Lexie. She’s… I’ve never seen her this angry before.”

“I’m sorry you had to deal with her on your own.”

“Well, you were obviously busy.” He exhales a heavy breath and runs his fingers through the short length of his gingery hair. “You ready? She’s waiting with your father in his study.”

“Let’s go,” I say, rolling my shoulders as I step around him and head toward the door. Raphael follows.

We walk into the house, down the hall and I’m nervous as hell but determined. My stress level is high but adrenaline pushes me forward—the certainty of knowing there’s something important that I need to do. Someone I need to face when I’ve been avoiding her for too long.

“I like Daniel a lot,” Raphael says, trailing me as we turn the corner into the hall that leads to Father’s office.

“You’ve made that pretty clear.”

“He’s bold. He knows himself and his mind, and he’s not intimidated by you and your position. He’s exactly what you need.”

Ahead of me, the doors to the office are closed. I slow and turn to Raphael, keeping my voice low. “Is this a pep talk? I’m already bonded with him. You don’t need to convince me.”

“I know, but…I’ll admit that I was a jerk about Oliver. I’m sorry that I wasn’t supportive—but it’s because I knew he was wrong for you. I just… want to make it clear that this time is right . No matter what your mother says in there, Daniel is unquestionably your match.”

The sentiment warms my heart. Of course, I feel this. I know it, but hearing Raphael say it means a lot to me. “So, what you’re saying is, if Daniel was drowning, you’d lend a hand? ”

Raphael’s serious expression lifts as he snorts in a laugh. “Yes, I absolutely would.”

“Thank goodness.” I turn and head toward the office door. No more stalling.

“I’ll wait out here,” he says.

With one hand gripped on the knob, I take a deep breath, then knock softly with my free hand.

“Come,” Father’s voice calls from inside.

I give Raphael one more look and our eyes meet with a kind of mutual panic swished with uncertainty. Then, I push the door open and step into the office.

Immediately, I’m hit with a wall of tension. The room is silent, but my parents’ vampiric energies pulse with an intensity I’ve never experienced. Father sits behind his desk rubbing his temples. As I walk inside, he stops to observe me. My mother paces, but she also comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room and regards me with eyes like daggers.

“Alejandro, where the hell have you—” She freezes once more. Inhales and I can see her posture cinch with utter indignation. The same revelation that Raphael had only a few moments ago sweeps across her face. No, her entire being. Something in her aura shifts abruptly.

Without question, I am not about to get a congratulatory hug.

I step forward and lift my palms, wanting to take the lead in any way that I can. “Madre, please listen to what I have to say?—”

“?Qué haz hecho?” Her gaze is riddled with disbelief. Disgust. “What in God’s name—Who have you?—”

“Fue mi decision,” I say calmly, pleading. I switch to English because my father doesn’t speak Spanish fluently and it annoys me when she does this in front of him. “This was my choice. A choice that I am old enough to make on my own, and I’ve never been happier! You told me to move on after Oliver, but you have no idea how… how truly miserable and confused I was. Nothing made sense to me anymore, but Daniel has helped me to see?— ”

“Daniel?” My mother tilts her head as a new wave of disdain crosses her features. “Is that whose scent I smell all over you? You’ve gone and bonded yourself to that wretched and sickly leech?”

“Please don’t talk about him that way. You don’t know him at all?—”

“Oh, I know him.” She chuckles darkly with her nose upturned. “Daniel Lim—the former pianist that you were grossly obsessed with when you were a teenager. The one who was living in my sister’s house for years as your cousin’s pet whore. That Daniel Lim, right?”

Heat rises in my face from the vulgarity of her words. The ugliness of her perspective. “H-how can you casually say these awful things? That’s not how it was?—”

“Wasn’t it?” she asks, her voice pitching higher as she steps toward me. “Why? Did he tell you something different to make you feel sorry for him?”

“ No —”

“He did. Because he’s just another disgusting, manipulative and predatory first-gen determined to get his fix on some purebred blood. And you’re so soft and silly like your father, you’ve fallen for his lies. I cannot believe you’ve done this, Alejandro. Dios, ten piedad—como resolveremos este desastre. Disgraceful.”

She paces the floor, smoothing her hand over the top of her honey-blonde head.

My throat is so tight that I can barely breathe. My hands tremble at my sides. She doesn’t know Daniel at all. Nothing of what she’s described remotely resembles him and I can’t… How the hell do I even communicate as much to her when she’s being like this? How do I make her understand?

“You’ll have to break the bond.”

Her words are like a punch to my gut, making me refocus on her. I blink because I couldn’t have heard her correctly. “What?”

“We’ll break the bond,” she repeats.

“Victoria.” Father’s voice cuts into the tense atmosphere, weighted with fatigue. “We need to be reasonable about this. He cannot and should not break his bond with Daniel. For many reasons, but above all, it could kill them.”

“Alejandro will survive it, he’s strong,” she goes on, unbothered as if she’s suggesting that I simply wash my hands to remove an unwanted stain. “It hasn’t been that long, right? We’ll call someone—Lady Batista, Lord Cherrington, whoever.”

“ Victoria —”

“He can feed from them right away. Maybe we’ll waive the dowry cost in exchange for their discretion? We can fix this disaster if we act quickly and discreetly.”

She looks between me and Father, her ponytail swinging. She waits for our confirmation as if she’s conjured a master plan for success.

This is… fucking absurd. In my chest, my heart breaks and the shattered pieces harden like lead. Sinking and fueling a growing rage. Even though Father told me as much—and maybe I knew it within myself, vaguely. Seeing the evidence as clear as day makes something inside of me die. Something small and fragile that I didn’t realize I was holding onto.

Hope? That my mother would be rational, caring and put my well-being before her own desires. Maybe trust? That she would be on my side when it really came down to it. That appearances and other vampires’ opinions wouldn’t be valued above my own safety and well-being.

“No.” I say the word louder than necessary. Plainly. I meet her surprised gaze and I don’t look away.

Her eyes narrow. “No? No what?”

“No, I’m not breaking my bond with Daniel. No, I’m not feeding from Lady Batista or Lord Cherrington or ‘whoever.’ None of that is happening. The suggestion is crazy.” That’s all there is. I don’t know what happens next, but me walking away from Daniel is not it.

“Did you just call me ‘crazy’?” Mother steps forward, looking at me with her head tilted as if she’s trying to see into my mind. As if she can make sense of me if she only looks harder.

I shake my head. “What you’re saying makes absolutely no sense?—”

Slap.

“Victoria!”

Father’s voice rings out as my cheek burns and tiny lights swirl in my vision. My breathing hitches from shock.

She hit me.

Slowly, I shift my face back to take her in. I… I can’t believe it.

“Victoria, you are severely out of line.”

“?Has perdido la cabeza?” She stares at me, ignoring Father beside us.

Have you lost your mind?

She regards me as if she genuinely believes I’ve had a lapse in sanity and slapping me hard across the face will somehow re-set my brain. “Alejandro, we have to fix this as quickly as possible,” she says, blinking. “You’re confused because the first-gen leech has manipulated you. We’ll undo this and make him pay for what he’s done?—”

“You hit me.”

“Are you listening?”

“You hit me! You really just… My whole fucking life, I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to. I do one thing for myself, and you hit me?”

She huffs, folding her arms. “Calm down, I didn’t hit you that hard—and you’ve done more than one thing for yourself! You brought that stupid cat home, for starters.”

“Jesus Christ, right—I’ll never live down rescuing an abandoned and starved kitten from a dirty alley. Stake me, why don’t you. I don’t eat meat either! Do you want to add that to my long list of selfish and egregious offenses? Oliver ran away, another failure on my part, right?”

Mother draws back. The look of astonishment she gives is almost comical. “You cannot talk to me like this. What’s gotten into you? Calm down.”

“Calm down?” Now it’s my turn to laugh humorlessly. “What’s gotten into me? I’ve just had what’s probably the happiest, most fulfilling couple of weeks in my entire life. I come home to calmly, rationally talk about it with my mother and she fucking slaps me.”

“Get over that already. And stop swearing and being disrespectful?—”

“Why should I respect you? I’ve listened to you and played by your stupid rules?—”

“Alejandro.”

“I tried to forget about Daniel all those years ago because you made me feel ashamed. I put everything I had into that empty, painful arrangement with Oliver and nothing came from it but heartbreak and agony. He never wanted me! Turns out, he was smarter than all of us for not subscribing to this tired bullshit of arranged bondings and dowries.”

My temples pound from adrenaline and my heart races. I step back and toward the office door. “You’ve made your stance clear, so here’s mine. I love Daniel. You don’t know shit about him. If you’re going to be prejudiced, condescending and violent, I don’t have anything else to say to you.”

“You—Do not leave this room.” She steps forward but Father reaches out and takes hold of her wrist. The move surprises her enough that she finally looks up and acknowledges the disappointed glare in his expression.

She starts, hesitates, then looks back toward me. “We’re not finished talking! How dare you speak to me this way—who are you and what’s happened to the vampire prince that I raised?”

“Maybe I don’t want to be that fucking vampire anymore.”

“So you’d rather be a na?ve little fool? A disappointment to our entire society?—”

“Enough, Victoria,” Father says, exhaling a heavy sigh. “No more. ”

Shaking my head, I put my hand on the knob and pull the door open. “When you’re ready to listen to me and not be vulgar and selfish, let me know.” The air of the room is heavy and suffocating as I leave, then pull the door firmly shut behind me.

Fuck all of this.

When I turn, Raphael is just beside the door. Eyes wide, teeth clenched as if he’s holding his breath.

I stalk past him to head to my bedroom. “I’m leaving.”

He hurries behind me. “Where are you going? Back to Daniel? To the cottage?”

“No, I’ll pack some more things and get a hotel in Central for the night.” I’m too worked up. I really cannot believe that she hit me. And the things she said. How gross and uncalled for. All of it.

“Well, that… went terribly. I tried to warn you. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, Raph, alright? I just need to get out of here so I can breathe.” I can’t stay here, looking at her. Doing what I always do—pretending I’m not fuming while I shuffle food around my plate at dinner. It’s not happening.

When I reach my bedroom door, I push it open. I pause because Buffy is curled in the center of my bed. Her head pops up when she sees me and a small flutter of peace registers in my brain, telling me to calm down.

“Buff Buff.” As I walk over, she unfolds her fluffy body in a tall stretch, then pads toward the end of the bed to meet me.

“I know you’re stressed at the moment, I get it,” Raphael says, gently closing the door. “But we need to think, okay? Get a hotel in Central for the night and decompress. Then go to Daniel tomorrow and talk this out with him. He’s your partner now. You have to confide in him.”

“I know that,” I say absently as I stroke Buffy’s head and back. She arches into my palm. Indulging and purring. “I don’t want to leave her here. What if Mother does something to her to spite me.”

“Lexie, your mother would not hurt this cat. ”

“She hit me. I don’t know what she’s capable of anymore.”

Raphael sighs, then walks over and into my closet. I’m confused, but then he comes out with my large travel suitcase. “She won’t hurt Buffy. If I know Victoria Kendrick, she’s probably in a state of shock right now because her reliably dutiful and obedient son just set a very hard boundary. You broke character in front of her. She’s going to need a minute for that to sink in.”

I have an overwhelming urge to say “Fuck her,” but I can’t say it aloud. The whole obedient son thing stops me. I think it, though. “Is it safe for you to stay here?” I ask, looking over at Raph. “Will she harass you in place of me?”

He shakes his head as he lays the suitcase flat on the floor and unzips it. “I’ll just stay out of her way. She’s got a lot more than me to worry about right now. Let’s decide what you’re taking with you. Leave Buffy to me for now. I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

As if she understands that she’s the center of attention, Buffy promptly hops off of the bed and trots over to the suitcase. She steps inside, then flops onto her back against the soft lining to mark this new and strange territory. I wish with my whole heart that I could take her with me.

Raphael’s phone rings. He starts, then pulls the device from his pocket and looks at the screen. He smiles and brings it to his ear. “Leelee, hi! Long time no talk—” Raphael stops. Slowly, his expression shifts. His brow furrows as he meets my gaze. “Oh no… are you serious?”

Raphael is quiet for too long, his face distraught. Just as I’m reaching the limit of my patience, he says into the receiver, “Yeah, alright, okay. He’ll head straight there. Thanks, and please be careful… Ah, you too.” He ends the call.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, my temples pounding.

Raphael shakes his head in bewilderment. “Someone… Leoni said that the vineyard cottage caught on fire.”

My stomach lurches as my eyes widen. “ What ? What do you mean? Are they okay? Is Danny alright?”

“I… I don’t think so. You need to go, Alexander. Right now.”