Vampires of Eden (Alexander #2)

43. Alexander

CHAPTER 43

Alexander

L eoni texts me an address in Hollywick that I don’t recognize and I drive, mindless and like a bat out of hell to get there. Usually, the drive takes a little more than two hours. Today, it takes ninety minutes, which feels like an eternity. The whole time my mind raced and my chest ached. It felt as if I was going to vomit blood everywhere again.

The navigation guides me into the village center, which is surprisingly crowded as I park outside a two-story, ivy-covered brick cottage. I hop out of my car and the vampires loitering around outside the structure gasp and murmur as I stalk toward the entrance. Ignoring them, I pull the door open and step inside.

The front room is dimly lit with yellow lamp light and the ceiling is low. The air is warm and smells like rubbing alcohol and medicinal herbs. My mind is a blur as I glance around, barely taking in my surroundings. I can feel Danny’s presence, but the pulse of his energy is too weak. It’s all wrong and makes my breathing tight and strained.

Instinctively, I walk toward a darkened hallway to my left near the back of the room. As I approach, Leoni rushes out from around the corner .

“Alexander,” she says, her eyes blinking with relief. “This way, he’s back here.”

“Is he conscious yet?” I ask, following her into the narrow corridor. The floor is carpeted and muffles our steps. It’s too quiet. Too still and tense.

She shakes her head. “Not yet. Amber said his breathing is steady but shallow.”

I called Leoni in the car and on my way here after she spoke to Raphael. When she came home a few hours ago, the front window to the sitting room was smashed and a fire was blazing inside. She called the local emergency line, then circled the house to try to get inside using the back door. She found Danny unconscious in the grass below the kitchen window. She thinks he tried to extinguish the fire himself before giving up and climbing out.

We step up to a door and Leoni turns the knob, then gently pushes it open. The room is cast in dim lamp-light, but there’s a single stained-glass window backed by the overcast, late-afternoon sun. It throws a strange rainbow of color over Daniel as he lies completely still atop the full-sized bed. An oxygen mask is strapped to his face and his clothes are a smoky, dirty mess.

I step closer and his arms are bandaged from wrist to elbow. Dark smudges stain his cheeks and forehead and his hair is a disheveled mess against the pillow.

Slowly, I sink to my knees at his side and touch his hand. There’s no response.

How… how did this happen?

“Prince Alexander?”

My brain and heart feel as if they’re filled with heavy fog. Or like I’m walking through mud and nothing makes sense anymore. Time has stopped moving. I can’t breathe.

“Your highness?”

I lift my gaze, registering a second-gen woman standing at the end of the bed. Her skin is light bronze and her hair is braided and twisted back away from her face.

“Alexander, this is Amber,” Leoni says, then takes a breath and rubs her forehead as she stares down at Danny. “She runs this clinic for the local villagers. Amber, this is Alexander.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, your highness. His pulse is steady and stable. I think he just needs a little time.”

My mouth is dry as I open it to speak, like there’s raw cotton stuffed in my throat. “What can I do?”

She steps closer. “All we can do is wait for him to heal internally. I think he inhaled too much smoke. He had an ugly coughing fit just before you got here, but he didn’t properly wake up. I… I don’t mean to pry, but has he fed from you, recently?”

“Yes,” I respond mechanically, looking back at his too pale face smudged with smoke and grime. “Yesterday evening.”

“That’s excellent,” Amber says. “Given his physical state, having recently had your blood should give him a boost in recovering.”

Reaching, I wrap my fingers around his palm at his side. I expect him to squeeze my hand in return like he always does, but there’s nothing. No movement. Still holding his hand, my stomach drops and I bend forward to rest my head against the bed.

“Amber, can we have a minute alone?”

“Sure. Of course.”

I feel myself sinking into a dark swirl of remorse and anger when suddenly there’s a firm hand on my shoulder.

“Puercoespín?”

“Leoni, what the hell happened?”

“It was intentional. I saw this sketchy jerk driving away from the cottage when I was on my way back home. It’s his doing. I’m sure of it.”

Intrigued, I lift my head from the bed to meet her eyes. “Sketchy jerk?”

“Yes.” She sits on the edge of the wide bed and near Danny’s knees, facing me. “You know that long, tree-lined road that’s connected to the driveway for the vineyard?”

“Of course. ”

“As I was coming toward the house, someone in a dark car sped past me. Driving way too fast. Nobody typically uses that road except me, you, Danny and anyone else coming directly to the vineyard.”

Nodding, I agree with her assessment. “Did you get a sense of him as he passed?”

“I did—and a glance. He was some dark-haired, gaunt-looking guy. First-gen. I remember the car, too. If I do some digging, I bet I can find out who he was.”

A moment ago, I had felt as if I was dying inside. The darkness is still there, but it’s morphing into something hot and furious. Rage-filled.

First-gen, gaunt and with dark hair. Someone connected to a vampire with motive to hurt Daniel. Someone who works for an old vampire that’s willing to commit an atrocious act against the man I’ve been publicly outed as being in an intimate relationship with.

An arrogant fucking coward who’s just made the biggest mistake of his sad, useless and despicable life.

The words pass through my lips like a growl. “I know who it is.”

Leoni watches me in the silence, considering. “Is he connected to Lord Cherrington? A manservant?”

“Oh, I’d put money on it. But I don’t know his actual name. I call him Smeed.”

“Didn’t Lord Cherrington’s parents famously die in a fire a long time ago?”

“That’s the story,” I say, following the thread of her logic. “It was a terrible ‘accident.’”

She nods as if an important, long-deliberated decision has been made. “Let me gather the evidence about the vineyard fire. Witnesses. Everyone talks—especially within the ranked vampire community. We can’t just go on your word if we take this to the Royal Order. We have to be able to prove it. ”

I balk, frowning. “The Royal Order? Cherrington is on the goddamned board. There’s no way they’ll hold him?—”

“You stay with Danny, I’ll look into this. When he wakes up, make him feed again since your blood helps. He’s your priority, got it?”

Exhaling heavily, I lift his limp hand and touch his knuckles to my forehead. I close my eyes and speak quietly. “Yeah, I got it.”

Leoni stands from the bed and stretches her arms up. “I need to go back to the cottage. The emergency team put out the fire, but I want to assess the damage and grab some things, if I can. Then make some phone calls to the main house about repairs.”

This surprises me. “Your parents would help with the cottage? Even though you’re technically an outcast?”

She snickers. “My parents don’t want me living in squalor. That reflects poorly on them in a different, bonus sort of way. I’ll be back later.” She pats my shoulder once more, then leaves me alone with Daniel.

Aside from the soft, steady puff of his breathing behind the simple oxygen mask, it’s stone quiet. The splash of stained-glass lighting his still frame makes me feel like I’m inside of a church and it unsettles me. Reminding me of austerity, death and sacrifices.

I notice an ensuite bathroom along the wall opposite the window. Standing, I investigate and find clean towels and a proper hospital gown. First, I wet a towel, then wipe and clean his face and neck, getting rid of the grime blotting his skin.

Amber comes in to check on us and I ask her if we can change his clothes. She seems shocked for a moment, but quickly agrees.

Carefully, we remove his singed and dirty attire. I wipe him down more thoroughly—his legs, feet, shoulders and chest—then we get him into the gown and pull back the bedsheets without disturbing him too much.

When we finish, I sit down on the edge of the bed and take hold of his hand once more. I stare into his face as he lies there, wanting him to squeeze my palm. Desperate for him to respond to me, somehow.

“Would you like some tea?” Amber asks. “Something while you wait? Coffee?”

“No, thank you,’ I say, not taking my eyes off Daniel. Please wake up. Please .

“Forgive me for prying—I know it isn’t my place, but… the article about the two of you in the Courier and News … could this incident be related?”

There’s no reason to deny my and Leoni’s suspicions, so I don’t. “It’s likely.”

“Bastards.”

The sharpness of her rebuke makes me shift my gaze to meet her eyes. She shakes her head in disgust, doubling down. “Everyone has been shocked by this news. The pictures were printed there in the paper and online, but we didn’t know what to think about it—the true nature of your relationship. The article didn’t say that the two of you were romantically bonded.”

“We weren’t when those pictures were taken.”

“I see,” she says, then offers a timid smile. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“This is… unprecedented in Eden. Momentous.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t necessarily feel like celebrating.”

Amber smooths a hand across the top of her braids, nodding. “I understand, I’m sorry, but he’ll pull through this. We’ll all celebrate when he does. We can’t let the bastards win.”

I huff with my eyebrow lifted. That was unexpected. For the first time since I arrived, I register my surroundings. “You’re running a blood clinic? Is this like the one we’re opening in Nantshire?” I thought Kat and Roland’s clinic was the first of its kind, but maybe I was wrong?

“No, there’s no blood here. I don’t have the means or resources for something like that. I primarily offer medicinal and therapeutic remedies, but I have a couple beds for unusual emergencies like this and some basic supplies. Nothing too advanced. ”

The clinic in Nantshire was inundated with requests on the day it opened. If Amber is interested, this could be a good prospect for a second location. “Would you be interested in offering blood to your local residents?”

Her eyes widen as she steps forward. “I would love it! I went to the opening of the clinic in Nantshire, but the crowd was overwhelming. I decided to try again another day.”

“When things settle down, I’ll ask Kathryn and Roland to contact you. They’ll be very interested in expanding.”

“I’ll look forward to it. Thank you, Prince Alexander… I’ll give you some time alone. Let me know if you need anything.”

As she leaves, I offer a weak smile, then exhale a weighted sigh once the door is closed. I bend down, hovering over Daniel’s body and closing my eyes. Sensing him deeply and breathing him in.

He’s healing. Silently, slowly, I feel his nature working to repair the distressed parts within his body. Amber is right. All I can do is wait. Be patient, calm and not think about the vampire who did this to him and how I want to rip his heart out from his chest with my bare hands.

The sun sinks lower in the sky, throwing the strange kaleidoscope of light from Danny’s chest and hips, to his knees and across his feet. Eventually, the sun dips below the horizon and the colors no longer touch him.

With his hand still in mine, I kick off my shoes and climb onto the bed, careful not to jostle him as I position myself at his side atop the sheets. Resting my head against the pillow beside him, I close my eyes, then allow my aura to radiate outward. Softly, just to let his nature within him know that I’m here if he needs me. If I can help at all.

“Please wake up,” I say quietly, touching my forehead to his temple. “Come back to me.”

Eventually, darkness falls over the room.

I must pass out at some point because when I open my eyes again, there are tapered candles silently flickering on the window sill. Disoriented, I lift my head from the pillow and my suitcase is tucked in the corner of the room, along with a duffle bag that I recognize as Danny’s.

I’d left my suitcase in the car when I arrived, too distressed to even think about it. Leoni must have brought it inside. There’s also a pitcher of water and two half-full glasses on the bedside table opposite me.

Emotionally and physically exhausted, I drop my head back down against the pillow and scoot closer into his side. I shut my eyes once more, resuming my internal refrain for Danny to wake up and come back to me. Swelling my already flared nature out just a little more.

A light feathery sensation brushes the top of my head. Confused, I open my eyes. Danny’s fingertips caress the longer length of my hair with his opposite hand. Startled, I inhale sharply and sit up onto my elbow.

“Danny?”

I watch like a hawk as his hand drops back down to his side. Slowly, his eyelids drag open and he blinks. “Mm.” The sound is dry in his throat. He raises his hand once more and touches the oxygen mask as if he wants to remove it.

Taking a chance, I help him remove the mask, sliding it up and over his head before setting it to the side. The movement stirs his hair and I’m alarmed when several strands break off and litter the pillow case and sheets. Danny takes a tentative breath in, then immediately starts coughing. Hard. A deep rattling wheeze from inside his chest.

Panicked, I reach for the mask again but he shakes his head. He moves to sit up and I help, not knowing what else to do. He coughs, heaving and I shift to my knees, reach past him and take hold of the water.

More terrified than I have ever been in my life, I wait as another ravaging cough rocks his frame. Quietly, I rub the center of his back with my free hand, wondering if I should yell for Amber to come and help. I’m about to, but then the coughing fit subsides and Danny takes a full, uninterrupted breath. The moment he exhales, I offer the glass.

“Drink this, please? Maybe it’ll help.”

He nods and wraps his fingers around mine to pull the glass to his mouth. With my aura still warmly encircling us, I hold my breath, watching and silently willing it to go down smoothly.

Daniel pulls the glass away and clears his throat loudly. The sound startles me because I assume it’s the beginning of another fit. But he takes a deep breath, blows it out, then brings the glass forward for a second sip.

He finishes the glass. I reach to refill it, but he gently takes hold of my wrist and shakes his head. “Nah—” The sound comes out crunchy, like crumbling ashes and he clears his throat again.

“Not now?” I ask.

His tired eyes soften and he nods. He mouths the word “Yes.”

I set the glass down, then wrap my arms around his shoulders and bring him into my chest. I close my eyes tightly. All the emotion I’d been pushing back spills forward and tears fall from my eyes. “You scared the shit out of me, Danny.” I bend and nuzzle my face into the chaotic mess of his hair. He smells of smoke and burnt things, but his undertone is like an autumn solstice and ripened cherries. Cool and sweet like always.

His hands lift and embrace my arms around him in a still moment. I feel his nature growing stronger within his frame—pulsing and responding to our shared essence and lifeblood. The bond between us is so new. Barely a day old, but already, our connection is resilient.

I kiss the top of his head and lift from the embrace. I have no idea what time it is, but I should let Amber know he’s awake. When I look down, I’m surprised to see Daniel’s eyes glowing as he meets my gaze. They shimmer in pale purple and golden, like a sunset descending over a horizon.

My eyes naturally alight in response as I gently cup his head with my palms. “Thank you for coming back to me. ”

He huffs and closes his eyes. He doesn’t try to speak.

“I need to get Amber so she can check on you. I’ll be right back.”

I shift to stand from the bed, but Daniel’s grip tightens on my wrist. I draw nearer to him once more. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

He stares up at me with his alighted twilight irises and somehow, I know. I can’t explain it, but I do. So, I settle down next to him, making it easier for him to access my neck. I raise my chin and Daniel leans in and bites me.

I wasn’t expecting anything at all, but a heady swirl of emotions fills my head and heart as he pulls. Love and pleasure. Excitement for me and our bond. Gratitude and trust. All of it floods my being like a rosy cloud and I gasp, feeling the tears threaten to well up in my eyes yet again.

I submit to him, sitting still and allowing him to take as much as he needs. When he’s finished, he licks my neck, then meets my eyes. Daniel sighs and mouths, “Thank you.”

“I don’t deserve any gratitude,” I say, wiping the corners of my eyes, “If I’d listened to you and let you come with me to talk to my parents, this wouldn’t have happened.” In the background of my mantra and concentration to heal Danny, this truth loomed guiltily in my mind like a dark shadow.

I should have listened to him and we should have stayed together. I’ll never make that mistake again.

Daniel shakes his head in dispute, but that’s probably because he can’t talk at the moment. I reach across him to pour another glass of water.

“Have more, please? While I grab Amber. I need to text Leoni too. I thought she’d be staying here with us, but I don’t sense her.”

When Danny has the glass and is drinking without issue, I climb off the bed, then go to crack the door open and poke my head through the gap. The house is silent, but I sense Amber just down the hall. I leave the door open and stalk in her direction.

As I move, a series of new mantras begin playing in my head .

Danny’s throat just needs more time to recover.

I will hear his voice again.

Very soon.