Reborn Yesterday

by Tessa Bailey

  “Roksana was unsuccessful?” Elias’s entire demeanor had been almost bored until now. His energy was instantly alert. “Where is she now?”

  “Training apparently,” Jonas said. “I don’t know where.”

  Ginny was backed up against the wall as Elias thundered past, his booted feet whapping on the floor. She only managed to catch a flash of angry forehead above a flipped overcoat collar, before Elias threw open the front door of the apartment.

  Tucker was standing on the threshold with brown paper bags in his arms, the cigar trapped in the corner of his mouth. “Aw, honey.” A puff of smoke went up. “You came to help me carry the groceries?”

  “I can smell it rotting,” Elias grumbled. “Is this going to be a regular thing?”

  “It was kind of nice playing human,” Tucker said, striding into the room and setting the bags down on the couch. “Where you headed, El?”

  “Roksana,” he growled.

  The door slammed behind Elias a second later.

  “He’s even more chipper than usual,” commented Tucker, shifting items around inside the bags with his hands. “Hey, prince. Look at this shit.” He held up a circular baked good wrapped in plastic. “They make pie crusts out of Nilla Wafers now. Where was this kind of thing when we had a working digestive systems, right?”

  Jonas slowly let her out from behind him, but kept her tucked to his side. “Did you get anything practical?”

  “Peanut butter and Ritz crackers. That’s all I remember eating when I was human.” He took out a six pack of Miller Light. “And beer to wash it down.”

  Ginny perked up. “I’ve never had beer.”

  Tucker gyrated his hips, apparently dancing to music only he could hear. “Well hot damn. This calls for a party, sweetheart.”

  “I’ve never had a party, either!”

  “Call her sweetheart again. I dare you.” Jonas tossed her face down over his shoulder and continued down the hallway. “No one enters my room under any circumstances while she’s here.”

  “Party pooper,” Tucker called, then to himself, “Nilla Wafer pie crust. The human race might make it after all.”

  A smile bloomed on Ginny’s face—and only partway because she was eye level with Jonas’s flexing backside. “I like Tucker.”

  He grunted.

  Her world turned right side up again when he settled her feet flat on the floor. A light came on—the bedside lamp, she turned to find.

  Jonas’s room was nothing like she expected. His regal bearing had her picturing expensive bedding, thick oriental rugs and possibly a butler. What she saw instead was sparse, functional. Almost empty.

  There was a small bed, devoid of anything but a fitted sheet. An antique dresser with glass knobs. The walls had been painted a melancholy silvery blue and she could almost picture him holding the paintbrush, stroking the wall in lonely silence. A chair sat in the corner by a closed closet door and there was a single shelf hanging in the center of the largest wall, small and out of place, like a single freckle in the center of a pale back.

  On it sat a gold picture frame.

  She was too far away to make out the photo, so she ventured closer, feeling rather than seeing Jonas’s tension mounting.

  Ginny slowed her progress and sent Jonas a questioning look. “May I?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Inside the frame was a faded sepia photograph of two people who appeared to be in their fifties, sitting at a table with a half-eaten birthday cake in front of them. Jonas stood behind their chairs, smiling. “Is this your family?”

  His nod was uneven. “By blood, yes.”

  “What do you mean, by blood?”

  He sat down on the corner of the bed, his fingers loosely hooked together. “Those are my parents.” His stare was far off. “Once I became…like this, I couldn’t have any contact with them. After hurting them so badly, I’m not sure I deserve to call them my mother and father.”

  Ginny set down the picture from and sat down beside him on the bed, noting the way his nostrils flared at her closeness. The way his whole body seemed to constrict. “You don’t seem the type to hurt them if you could help it.”

  “At the time, it seemed like it couldn’t be helped. You know what they say about hindsight, though.” He looked down at his loosely clasped hands. “Another lifetime ago, I was an entrepreneur looking for an investor in this invention of mine.”

  “What invention?”

  His lips jumped. “Super glue.”

  She bashed him in the shoulder. “Get out of here. You invented super glue?”

  Jonas nodded slowly.

  “So obviously you found the investor.”

  “If only I’d known I was going to live forever.” He winked. “I would have negotiated a royalty deal.”

  “This is bananas.” She buried her face in her hands, dropping them away. “What does this have to do with you becoming a vampire?”

  Based on his facial expression, she could see he was recalling memories and playing them back. “I wasn’t getting anywhere. Steel was the big industry. Cars. Manufacturers didn’t want to hear about a different version of something that already existed. The name alone sounded like a gimmick. I had to find a way to produce and market it myself. That took money I didn’t have.” He was quiet for a beat. “My father wasn’t able to work after a factory accident. My mother was…entertaining men to make ends meet. I needed to help, Ginny. I thought I was helping. But I went looking for capital in the wrong places. One loan shark referred me to another and another until I was face to face with him.”

  “Him?”

  “My sire, Clarence. The man who created what I am. I impressed him with my tenacity, I believe he called it. He…” His laughter lacked any humor. “He took a liking to me. Which is pretty damn ironic when you think about it. Liking someone so much that you barter money for their humanity.”

  Ginny swallowed the lump in her throat. “You did it for your family.”

  “Mostly. I also liked someone telling me I was good at something. I’d never…had that. By the time I realized I’d sold my soul to the devil, it was too late to get it back.”

  “No,” she whispered, aching in the center of her belly for what he must have gone through. “You still have it.”

  His gaze shot to hers. “I’ve learned some hard lessons about being selfish, Ginny. I won’t repeat them.”

  Even as he said the words she was positive were meant as a reminder to keep a heathy distance, Jonas’s body gravitated toward her slightly, pushing a wave of cloves and mint in her direction and muddling her brain. Her lips parted in response, tiny explosions going off at every pulse point. Was he going to kiss her, despite his iron willpower and what he’d revealed about the past?

  Lord, she wanted that so bad. When his face was right in front of hers, cloves and mint wafting around them like smoke, she could only think in terms of moments, not forevers or consequences or right and wrong. Only that her senses, and maybe even her soul, told her to move closer and hold on for dear life.

  “Ginny?” he breathed.

  She could practically hear the jazzy boudoir music simmering in the background, the way it would right before the two onscreen leads had their first dramatic kiss. “Yes, Jonas?” she all but whimpered.

  His eyelids drooped and suddenly the bed behind them was a giant, magnetic place, despite it’s lack of comforter or decorative throw pillows. What would it be like to have Jonas on top of her when the last of his self-control crumbled?

  Divine.

  Earth-moving.

  Inevitable.

  “Yes?” she prompted again, leaning closer.

  A curse escaped him. “I’ll get you some crackers and peanut butter.”

  He was off the bed and halfway to the door before she processed her first wave of swamping disappointment. She fell backward on the mattress and threw an elbow across her eyes. “Bring the pie crust, too, please.”

  Jonas was back within moments, with Ri
tz box in one hand, peanut butter in the other and pie crust tucked under one arm. He kicked the single chair from the corner of the room into a perfect position in front of the bed and took a seat.

  Ginny sat up, ignoring Jonas’s amusement when her stomach growled. “Is it against the rules to use your speed to your advantage?”

  “It’s implied, since it could lead to discovery.”

  “Has anyone ever gone blurry and gotten caught?”

  “Gone blurry.” Chuckling, he took a knife out of his pocket and set it on his thigh, going to work on opening the peanut butter. “You should always be suspicious when you hear about a string of nighttime bank robberies or a major natural disaster that only claims one life. Oftentimes, someone has broken the rules and…gone blurry.” He spread peanut butter on a cracker and handed it to her, watching closely as she chewed. “The High Order treats the offense the same, whether it’s used for good or bad.”

  “Even if lives were saved and no one saw?”

  “We’re not meant to be heroes, Ginny. Sometimes, we’re the opposite.”

  Deep in thought, she ate her cracker. “You said you help new vampires—the Silenced. Do some of them turn out to be…the opposite of a hero?”

  “Frequently.” He paused in the act of making a sandwich out of two crackers with peanut butter layered in between. “That’s where I plan to start asking questions about who’s hunting you. Among the vampires I’ve helped. If there’s a malignant being nearby, it would be hard for them to completely avoid detection. Someone has to know something.”

  Her dry mouth had nothing to do with the snack she was eating. “Will you be safe, Dreamboat?”

  A crease formed between his brows. “Someone’s put you in danger. They should be worried about being safe from me.”

  “You’re the tiniest bit arrogant, aren’t you?” She tried to hide her fangirl-esque reaction behind a smile. “That’s why they call you the prince.”

  “That’s one of the reasons,” he muttered.

  Ginny wanted to prod that statement, but he put a Ritz in her mouth and gave her a pointed look. In other words, don’t go there. She wrinkled her nose at him while she chewed. “How often are people…Silenced? It must be a lot if you’re continually having to train new vampires.”

  “It is. And that’s my main objection with the High Order—they enjoy loopholes just as much as your human government.” A beat passed. “You see, killing a human outright is not permitted. It’s one of the rules. But Silencing them is allowed.” Every line of his hard body vibrated with irritation. Yes, she’d definitely found a sore spot. “There is no guidance for the freshly Silenced. No resources or education. They’re just thrown into the streets and expected to acclimate to an entirely new lifestyle on their own.”

  “Do you think vampires should be allowed to Silence humans?”

  “Never.” He held her gaze. “It’s tantamount to murder.”

  Ginny said nothing.

  Slowly, he went back to being relaxed. “You want any more?”

  “Whatever keeps you sitting next to me.” She covered her face with her hands, but not before she watched the emerald kindle in his eyes. “That was supposed to be inside my head.”

  His laugh made her heart boom so severely, she had to clutch her chest. And he obviously heard it, because he quieted, his expression at once sad and pleased.

  “I’ll leave everything here,” Jonas said, standing and setting the food on the chair he’d vacated. “Sleep now, Ginny. You’ll be safe here tonight.”

  “Okay.” She nodded. “I know.”

  Jonas started to back toward the door, but detoured to his closet instead, taking out an armful of jackets. He returned to Ginny and set them on the mattress, scratching at his jaw with a frown. “Tucker forgot a blanket, a fact which surprises no one. Will you be warm beneath my clothes?”

  She forced herself not to dive nose first into the pile. “I suppose.”

  Lips twitching, he leaned down and spoke beside her head. “Remember, I can hear your pulse.”

  “Highly inconvenient.”

  “Not for me,” he said, on his way out the door. “Good night, Ginny.”

  “Good night, Jonas.”

  Perhaps it was the utter feeling of safety. Or maybe it was the fact that she ate an entire pie crust without taking a breath. But Ginny dropped into sleep like a boulder into a river. She couldn’t say for certain what woke her hours later on high alert. She also couldn’t stop herself from getting up to investigate.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Open the door.” Still in shock to find herself locked into Jonas’s bedroom, Ginny jiggled the door handle. “I have to use the restroom.”

  Tucker groaned. “Come on, Ginny. Jonas is going to be back in fifteen minutes. I was told I could only open this door in the event of an apocalypse. Can it wait?”

  “I’m afraid not. Where did Jonas go?”

  “To buy a hot plate, I think. To cook eggs on.”

  “I wish you hadn’t told me that,” Ginny grumbled, pushing the hair out of her eyes. “I’m trying to stay angry about being held prisoner. And suspicious, too. Why does this door lock from the outside?”

  “Sorry, what was that?” Tucker made a crackling noise that was clearly just him making Donald Duck sounds into his cupped hands. “You’re breaking up on me…”

  “Oh, stop that. Open this door. Or aren’t you offended that Jonas doesn’t trust you to guard me while he’s gone?”

  “Very clever playing us against each other, sweetheart. I won’t fall for it.”

  Ginny shifted on the balls of her feet. “I can’t hold it anymore. Please.” There was a click and then the door opened, revealing Tucker with a cloud of smoke obscuring his face. Ginny ducked around him into the hallway. “You fell for that, though, didn’t you?”

  Tucker blinked. “You don’t have to pee?”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “Sorry.”

  His laugh echoed off the hallway walls. “Women. Dead or alive, you’re a tricky breed.” He moved past her toward the front of the apartment. “Since I’m already courting the prince’s wrath, you want that beer?”

  “Yes, please,” Ginny called after Tucker. Instead of following him, however, she turned and tiptoed down the dark hallway, stopping in front of the door across the hall from Jonas and opening it. Clearly this was Tucker’s room. The pungent smell of cigar smoke hung in the air, dumbbells the size of Ginny were situated in the corner and rap album vinyls were stacked on top of a high-end stereo.

  She closed the door quickly behind her and moved on.

  The next door was locked. Elias’s room, perhaps? He’d come from this general direction earlier, but she couldn’t be sure from where.

  The snick of a bottle cap being popped off almost made Ginny abandon her Scooby Doo-like investigation. What was she even looking for? She wasn’t totally sure. But there was a driving need to gather knowledge, to remember the tiniest details about her time with Jonas. If she gathered enough information without him knowing, the less likely he would be to make her forget every little thing, if he erased her memory.

  She wanted to at least have the option of piecing these moments in time back together if she woke up one morning with gaping holes in her timeline.

  There was one final door at the very end of the hallway and she power walked to it now, a shiver climbing her arm as soon as she curled a hand around the knob. A sense of foreboding made her hesitate, but she shooed it to the side and opened the door. She only caught a glimpse of metal shackles attached to a filthy brick wall before a hand shot out above her head, slamming the door closed.

  Tucker sighed. “Jonas is never going to let me humansit again.”

  Ginny whirled on the stocky vampire with wide eyes. “Why are there shackles and chains in there?”

  “Would you believe Elias is a kinky bastard?”

  She blushed, unable to meet his gaze. “I-I…well, I…”

  Tucker barked a laugh an
d fell silent. “So you’re brave enough to go sleuthing through a vampire crash pad, but dirty jokes turn you bright red.” He handed her a beer and gestured for her to precede him toward the living room. “It makes more and more sense why my roommate is out trying to find a hot plate at three in the goddamn morning.”

  Unclear of his meaning, Ginny frowned and took an absent sip of her beer—and promptly choked on the bitterness. “Maybe I’m a fruity drink person,” she said, following Tucker into the living room. “This is terrible.”

  “If I’m remembering my debauched youth correctly, beer tastes better every time you take another sip. Best to keep going.”

  Ginny took another cautious pull. “Oh! You’re right. Not so bad this time.”

  Tucker executed a bow.

  “Now can you tell me about the shackles?”

  “Not much for small talk, are you, sweetheart?” He leaned a beefy elbow on the mantle beneath the television. “I’m not sure what I should tell you.”

  She shrugged and took another long sip of beer. “I’m going to forget all of this, right?”

  “Right,” he drew out, sighing. “Every once in a while Jonas comes across a freshly Silenced and they require some…time to adjust. Where they can’t harm any fragile humans, like yourself. Jonas keeps them put in silver chains. They’re impossible for our kind to break free of.” His smile reminded her of a jack-o’-lantern. “Having an angry, bloodthirsty rookie chained in silver down the hall makes for some interesting living conditions. You’re a much better house guest.”

  “Thank you.”

  He plucked the cigar from the corner of his mouth, gesturing at her with it. “You finished your beer.”

  “I did?” Ginny covered her mouth to prevent a hiccup from escaping. “I did.”

  “Want another?”

  She took stock of the light, fizzy sensation in her head and fingertips. “Yes, I think I do.”

  Laughing under his breath, Tucker crossed to the refrigerator and opened the door, glancing back over his shoulder at Ginny. Probably to gauge her reaction at the abundance of plastic pouches filled with blood. A finger of disbelief trailed up and down her back and all she could do was stare, trying to imagine Jonas drinking from a plastic pouch.