“Excuse the fuck out of me?” I snapped, opting to lean into the anger and avoid the disturbing images my hormones were conjuring. “Since when did our friendship turn into you bossing me around?”
“I am truly sorry, Liv,” he said, and he sounded it too. “I am sorry I pulled you into my world. I thought I was careful, but I was only selfish. I should have kept walking when I saw you in that bar, but I…” Warin looked down, his voice faltering for a moment. When he looked back up, there was steel in his eyes. “But regrets are useless now. I am the cause of your current predicament, therefore I am responsible for your continued safety. You will accompany me to this meeting, and you will allow me to ensure your continued safety until the threat has been eliminated. What you wish to do thereafter… will be your decision. I will not make any further demands of you. But this, Liv… this will happen.”
If he hadn’t sounded so anguished, I’d have kicked him straight out of my home. But as I glared daggers at Warin, the regret on his marble features took the edge off my anger.
Drawing in a deep breath through my nose, I reined in my hostility. “What do you think ‘claiming’ me will do to these witches? I mean, if they try to kill me just because they’ve seen us hang out together, wouldn’t putting attention on our friendship just make things worse?”
“There are… certain procedures in my world,” he said, and the hesitance in his voice made it clear he was anything but comfortable with the topic. “Certain rules every supernatural being will adhere to, if they do not wish to suffer… serious consequences. I am the vampire Lord of this territory. Should anyone harm my claimed companion, I would be honorbound to hunt them and their kin to extinction. Even witches would be hesitant to touch you, once you are truly mine.”
I bit my lip as I looked at Warin’s perfect profile, trying to fight back the roil of conflicting emotions in my gut.
Normally, this would have been simple. I’d picked up and moved for a lot less in the past. I never stayed long enough anywhere to form lasting bonds with anyone. The smart thing—and what the panicked clenching in my gut told me was the only rational choice—would be to tell him thanks, but no thanks on his “special companion” offer. And skip town.
Let’s stay in touch. I’ll email.
But…
If that was really what I wanted, then why hadn’t I done so already? Why had I gone to visit the slaughterhouse? Gotten myself tangled up further in crazy-ass supernatural mysteries?
The answer was glaringly obvious… and currently sitting on my couch with a a faraway expression of gloom painted across his features.
I’d never felt so… connected to another being as I did to Warin. Maybe it would have been easier to shrug it off if it was just sexual attraction, but it wasn’t. Not even close. Sure, he was smoking hot, and if things had been different I’d have happily dragged him to bed for a few rounds of commitment-free sex. I had eyes.
And ovaries.
Only I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the moment I fucked my vampire friend, things would be completely and irrevocably changed between us.
And I’d lose him.
Like I would if I high-tailed it out of Chicago with a big “no-thank-you” to dealing with any more of this mess.
That’s why I stayed, I realized.
For reasons I didn’t understand, reasons that made no sense, this man—this nightwalker—I’d known so shortly meant more to me than the very real threat to my life.
More than the panic in my gut at the realization that I’d let someone all the way in.
“Okay. I’ll go with you to the meeting,” I said, clearing my throat at the tremor in my voice. “If it means we can keep being friends, I’ll go.”
Warin nodded, and his shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch. “Thank you.” His voice was soft.
14
I woke up the next morning with the unmistakable woolly sensation of having gone to bed without brushing my teeth. I rolled over with a groan and realized I was still wearing my clothes from last night, apart from socks—and that I didn’t have any memory of going to bed. The last thing I remembered was sitting in silence while drawing Warin, neither of us being in much mood for talking… and then my eyelids feeling very heavy.
Had he carried me to bed?
I grabbed my phone to check the time—half past nine, but luckily I had a late shift—and saw one unread text. When I swiped my thumb over it, Warin’s name flashed up.
Roy is in front of your building. He will stay with you until I return tonight.
Yup. He’d put me to bed and gotten me a babysitter. I probably should have been annoyed—or at the very least embarrassed, because judging from the way my hair stuck to my cheek, I’d been drooling in my sleep—but I couldn’t help a smile from hiking up one corner of my mouth. For something as serious-sounding as a vampire Lord, he still bothered with as small a thing as removing his zonked-out human buddy’s socks before tucking her in. It was kind of adorable.
* * *
An hour later, I walked out the door with two coffee mugs in hand.
Roy accepted my offering with a short nod of gratitude. “Going out?”
“Yup, back to work. You my ride again?”
He nodded again and held out an arm toward where his truck was parked. “Your car is currently at the mechanic’s, but as long as Mr. Waldlitch has me watching you, I’ll drive you anywhere you need to go.”
I blinked. I’d been too out of it to remember my broken-down car, what with the skinwalker attack and everything that’d come with it, and I most certainly hadn’t had the presence of mind to call a mechanic. “Did Warin call a mechanic for me?”
“Yes, ma’am. He asked me to take care of it.”
“Huh, that was really nice of him. And of you. How much was it? We might have to go to the bank on the way.” I looked over my shoulder at the big guy as he shepherded me to his truck, trying not to cringe at the thought of how barren my bank account was. I didn’t really have a choice on whether or not I should get my car fixed.
Roy gave me a weird look as he waited for me to climb in so he could shut the door. “It’s been taken care of. Mr. Waldlitch paid in full.”
I frowned at him as he walked around the front of the truck to get into the driver’s seat. “Yeah, but I still have to pay him back.”
He blinked, opened his mouth as if he was gonna say something, but then thought better of it.
“What?” I asked as he turned his focus to the car, twisting the key and undoing the handbrake.
“It kinda defeats the point, doesn’t it?” he said, voice gruff and eyes never leaving the road. “Paying for your own shit.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, not following at all.
“Nothing. Forget it,” he said, and from the tense set of his jaw, I could tell he was regretting this entire conversation.