“I’m going up to shower. When I come down, I expect to be included and filled in on the details. I’m either with you, or against you. Figure it out and let me know,” I said, standing up and turning to meet his golden eyes. “Soon.”
“Are you giving me orders? I think you need another example of who is the master in this relationship.”
“Relationship? Who the fuck said anything about a relationship? You can’t give me one, remember?” I glared pointedly and headed up the stairs.
I made it to the middle of the stairs when I felt it. You know how they say that you can tell when death picks your number; how you can feel it as it wraps its cold arms around you? It’s true. I felt the thickness of the air, and turned back to look down the stairs as I felt it. The air grew cold, as if it too, had felt death’s cold clutches coming for me. The entire house grew silent. Not even the birds outside the house made a single noise. A window broke downstairs, shattering the silence. And then it all came back with a vengeance. The sound deafening and damning as my ears exploded from it. I gasped, knowing I wouldn’t make it out alive.
The entire house shook around me, and the sound of wood splintering erupted as the house started to shake with force. I watched the blurriness as something fast moving up the stairs, right before it hit me. And then the feeling of weightlessness sank in.
We sifted into Ryder’s club. It was filled with people dancing and drinking. Right up until we’d sifted in, they’d been having fun. I blinked as Adrian looked right at us, and Vlad, who had been behind the bar, moved in his lighting fast speed to stand in front of us.
“What’s happened, Ryder?” Vlad’s voice boomed over the music, which made it stop on the spot.
“Someone just blew up her house, with us inside of it.” Ryder growled, and held me against his frame as my legs threatened to give out. As if he was afraid to let me go. I was glad he was holding me as I had no doubt I’d hit the floor if he released his hold.
“Adrian, get Syn seated and, get her a drink. The rest of you,” Vlad’s eyes swept the room with a grim look that promised retribution, “follow.”
Vlad’s voice was cold, and sent chills racing down my spine. I almost felt sorry for the asshole that blew up my house—almost. Ryder turned me in his arms and planted a firm, gentle kiss on my lips before sifting out with the others. I looked around the club and blinked, everyone except Adrian and a few humans had left.
Chapter Twenty Two
I turned to Adrian, who moved swiftly to embrace me. “Are you okay, Syn? I know how much you loved that house.”
“I didn’t love the house, Adrian. I loved the memory of my parents that I had inside the house before it was turned into something darker. It’s gone now. Everything I had of them was inside of it. I don’t even know if Ryder’s men made it out alive.”
“No, Syn, you have them inside of you. Here,” he said, placing his hand over my heart. “They can’t touch how you feel, or the memories you made with them. No one can tell you to forget that, or even replace it with something else. You choose what you remember.”
I blinked at him. He’d gone off topic, and I had a feeling he was referring to us. “I need some water, please.”
I walked to a booth, as he moved to the bar to grab the bottle of water I had asked for. My hands shook with the realization of just how close I’d come to being nothing more than a pile of ashes. Had it not been for Ryder, I would be nothing right now.
Tears rolled down my cheek as I considered the fact that he’d gone back to the house, and he was in danger there. I had a feeling that Adrian wasn’t quite sure what to do with me. He had a frown marring his beautiful bronzed skin, and the crease between his eyebrows showed he was trying to figure out how to make me stop crying.
“I’m sorry,” I cried even harder, unsure how to make myself turn off the waterworks. It was just too much, and everything was crumbling around me yet again. I kept getting knocked down, and it was getting harder to get back up each time.
Adrian smiled, and pulled me to my feet. He wrapped his cold arms around me, and whispered that it would be all right. I buried my head in his shoulder and hugged him back, as the reality of what had just happened overwhelmed me.
Adrian was a vampire.
Adam was the Dark Heir of the Fae.
Larissa was dead.
Alden was facing danger to help us.
I was homeless, jobless, and attracted to the one thing that would surely kill me in the end.
The reality set in that I had even lost my dog, and now my life was just one tragedy away from becoming a sad country song.
Reality sucked.