Haven

by Celia Breslin

  Tessa and Thomas ignored me, addressing Alexander.

  “We leave her in your care, Youngling,” Tessa said. “Stella will remain as chaperone, but I trust you will not require her assistance.”

  “We don’t need a babysitter,” I snapped.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Alexander vowed.

  “I can take care of myself,” I grumbled.

  Tessa kissed my cheek. “Farewell, my darling. You are quite like your father when you are in such a mood. It is both pleasing and troublesome.”

  “I—”

  She cut me off with a finger to my lips. “Hush now. We love you, my little star. Please trust us in all things past, present, and future. Can you do that?”

  My anger slipped away, forced out by the love shining in her beautiful eyes.

  “Bene,” she approved. “Now, spend some time with your new love then come to us well before dawn. We will discuss what is to come.”

  “Alexander. A word.” That from Thomas. He swept Tessa off her feet and leapt over the railing.

  Alexander strolled to the railing, squeezing my arm as he passed. “Be right back.” He vaulted over the rail, landing below with a soft thud.

  I was tempted to follow him, but no one had mentioned superhuman jumping power as one of my newly awakened vampire traits. I’d have to save the flying through the air like a Hong Kong action hero for another day, preferably under super-powered supervision. For that, I wouldn’t mind a vampire babysitter.

  But only for that.

  Eighteen

  Alexander disappeared less than a minute ago and already I—the newly bonded vampire-human hybrid—was twitchy, needy, and bored.

  I wanted him now.

  I leaned over the railing, saw no one, but Alexander and Thomas’s conversation floated up to me.

  “Convince her to tear down the barrier in her mind. We cannot hear her thoughts,” Thomas complained.

  “That’s the point, old man, she doesn’t want you in there.”

  “Now is not the time for her childish tantrums. She needs the connection to us.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her.” My guy’s confident tone brought a smile to my lips.

  “I have little doubt you will try, but as we have already experienced, you alone cannot protect her from our enemies.”

  “Relax, Thomas. Between Stella and me, we have it covered. Besides, we’re just going on a nice, normal date. Maybe go to a restaurant, drink some wine, have a conversation. You remember those, don’t you? Oh, forget it, you’re way too old to remember what that’s like.”

  “Careful, Youngling.” Thomas’s tone sounded stern, but not menacing.

  “Easy there, gramps, don’t burst a vein,” Alexander joked.

  How confusing. They sounded like friends, but Thomas occupied the top of the vampire food chain along with Tessa. They’d made it clear my hot, young boyfriend-slash-husband lived at the bottom, so how could these two be so chummy? Wasn’t that against vampire code or regulations or something?

  My cell phone buzzed. I fished it from my pocket, expecting Faith calling to say I was late for our clinic rendezvous. It was Mark.

  “Hey, Rina.”

  “Don’t you hey me like you’re Mister Chill,” I replied with a smile. “Where are you? You guys better be at the clinic. And how are you? What are you doing calling me? Shouldn’t you be resting?”

  “We’re home. I feel great. I already sent you a text about that.” He sounded like his usual strong and confident self.

  “Right.” My grin faded as I remembered why he felt so great. “What are you doing at home?”

  “We checked ourselves out of the clinic.”

  “You what?” Concern for my friends constricted my chest.

  “That’s not important right now. I—”

  “Oh, I beg to differ. You might feel good right now, but you have no idea what kind of changes are happening in your body since you decided to let my vampire uncles chew on you.”

  Mark was silent for a moment. “Is Faith there?”

  “What?” It took effort on my part to let his subject change slide.

  “I called because we’re looking for Faith. She with you?”

  “No, she’s not here.” Worry wavered through me. It was beyond rare for Faith to disappear without telling one of us, especially Kai.

  “Her cell is going straight to voice mail. She isn’t responding to text messages, either.”

  “The GPS tracker?”

  “Not working.”

  “Okay, that’s weird.” I took a steadying breath. Don’t panic. Yet. “Well, what did Tony say? Has he seen her?” Surely her brother knew something.

  “What?” Mark sounded confused.

  “Tony. He’s at our house.”

  “No he’s not.”

  “Yes he is,” I insisted. “Did you check my bedroom?”

  “Hang on. Yo, Kai.” Mark switched to Mandarin and conversed with Kai. I heard Ren in the background.

  I bit my lip and pushed back another wave of worry. Wait. Breathe and wait. That’s what Faith would tell me to do right about now. Breath goes in. Breath goes out. Calm in. Worry out.

  Mark returned. “Kai says Tony’s not in your room.”

  “Are you sure? Did you check everywhere? What about downstairs? Tony loves to play video games after partying. And he loves to sleep a lot, so he should still be there somewhere. Have you checked all of the rooms?” My worry made me babble. Talking about where Tony should be wouldn’t make him magically appear there. I wasn’t a witch, after all.

  Oh. Witch. “Has anyone called the witch?”

  “Who?”

  “Brigid. Thomas’s witch. She’s part of his clean-up crew, I think. Hang on a sec.” I called over the railing. “Hey, Thomas?”

  “Yes, cara mia?”

  “I need to find Faith. Do you know if she’s still with Brigid?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  The tension in my shoulders eased. Well, okay, mystery solved. Sort of. One more to go, though. “Uh, do you know where Tony is?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, thanks.” I resumed my phone chat. “She’s with the witch.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Mark paused. “Still odd she hasn’t checked in.”

  “Agreed.”

  Silence ensued.

  “Where are you?” Mark asked.

  Heat bloomed on my cheeks. “Alexander’s house.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Mark was amused.

  I wasn’t. “Shut up.”

  “Didn’t say anything.”

  “Dude, shut up!”

  He laughed.

  My face grew hotter.

  The conversation downstairs stopped. “Carina? Stai bene?” Thomas called.

  “Si. Sono al telefono,” I called back.

  “You’re not alone,” Mark observed.

  “No. We have way too many chaperones,” I replied, knowing Thomas heard me. Take the hint, Thomas. Hurry up and leave.

  “Ha, bet you’re pissed.”

  “Who, me?” I grinned and changed the subject. “Anyway, you and Ren are okay now?”

  “Yep.”

  “You know I’m glad you’re both feeling so fine, but I’m still not happy about you getting marked by my vampire relatives in the first place.”

  Mark didn’t reply.

  I paced between the bed and the wall where not so long ago I’d curled up like a fetus while visions of a bloody feeding frenzy danced in my head. “You’re not going to defend yourself? Justify your decision to make such a crazy ass move?”

  “Nope.”

  “Do you truly understand what you’ve done?” I pressed.

  “Yep.”

  I shut myself in the bathroom for privacy. “Cut that out. Do you get there’s no do-over? This isn’t a video game, Mark. There is no pause, no replay, no game over. Once you’re in, you’re in.”

  “Yep.”

  “Stop that.” The gray slate floor chille
d my feet as I padded past a large glass shower next to an oval, red stone tub large enough for two people. Like me and my man. I bypassed a toilet more modern organic sculpture than plumbing fixture, and stopped at the red stone sink atop a slim, black wood vanity. “Wow.” As with the rest of his modern home, my new guy’s taste in interior design impressed me.

  “Rina? You okay?”

  I shook my head. Way to be distracted from the heavy topic. “Yeah, where was I?”

  “You were yelling at me about the marks.”

  “Right.” I hesitated. Did I want to yell? Would it change anything? Nope. “There’s no going back now. For any of us. You understand?”

  “We get it, Rina.” Confidence and conviction colored his tone.

  “Okay fine, enough said, I guess. But did Faith tell you?” I ran a finger along the edge of the cold, stone sink as nerves dive-bombed my stomach.

  “Tell us, what?”

  Do you know I’m a freak of nature? A half-breed? A volatile, blood drinking human-vampire hybrid? “Did she tell you about me?” Perfect. Vague much?

  “We know everything,” he replied, voice even.

  I tensed, fingers curled into a fist and pressing into the vanity’s smooth wood surface. “How do you feel about that?”

  Mark was quiet for a moment. “I think we’ve already answered that.”

  My fist bumped the vanity, once, twice. “What do you mean?”

  “We accepted the marks, Rina. All in. We’re your fucking kick ass kung fu warriors. Forever. If you’ve got a problem with that, get over it.”

  My fingers uncurled and I laughed, releasing the tension from my body. Mark made no sound on the other end but I knew he smiled, too. On that high note, we rang off.

  Ambient, electronic music filtered through the bathroom door. Mellow, down tempo. Relaxing, sensual. Good date music. I hoped that meant Thomas and crew were gone at last. The feral vampire cavewoman in me was ready to locate and jump Alexander, but my saner human side needed to make more phone calls. I rang Tony and it went to voice mail. I left a brief dude-where-the-heck-are-you message and dialed Lorenzo. Again my call went straight to voice mail. I left him a message about our missing brother. Tony had probably hooked up with his new pals, my regulars Shane and Bobby, but I wanted to be sure.

  Next up, Adrian. He answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Hi.”

  “Okay spill it. What’s wrong now?” Adrian demanded, tone sharp.

  My brow furrowed. “How do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Know there’s something wrong when I haven’t said more than hello. You’re no psychic.”

  He snorted. “No, but I know you. Every inch of you, remember? I’ve got your number.”

  “I suppose.” I caught my reflection in the oval mirror above the vanity. My dark hair was a disheveled mess, face extra pale and creamy, lips extra full and red. I understood the crazy bed-head hair, but the latter two—was I changing? Was my inner vampire leaking out all over me? What next, pointy teeth? I opened my mouth to check my canines. No fangs. Yet.

  “Besides, Jonas is here.”

  “Wow, that was fast, and, wait. He actually told you what happened at Alexander’s?” Surprising that Jonas would share that.

  “Not in the detail I’m sure you’re picturing in your head right this minute. I believe his exact words were, ‘We tested Carina. She survived.’”

  I grimaced at my reflection. “Of course he said that.”

  “Anyway,” Adrian prompted.

  “Anyway,” I echoed. “I guess I don’t know why I called. Well, Tony is AWOL and Faith is still with Brigid and that can’t be fun for her, but I’m sure they’re both ok. Maybe I just wanted to hear your voice. Or something.” Okay, lame. But Adrian didn’t mind.

  “Aw, how sweet,” he mocked.

  “Shut up.”

  “Sorry, couldn’t resist. You coming to Sanguine tonight?”

  I ran my free hand through my tangled hair. “Yes. I think that’s the reason they’re leaving us alone for a few hours.”

  “Us?”

  My lips curled upward. “Do I need to fill in that blank?”

  “Nah, just pushing your buttons.”

  I abandoned my attempt to tame my tresses. “Oh, please don’t. I’ve had way too much of that already today. And I have new and dangerous buttons too. Trust me, you don’t want to push those.”

  “You’ll be okay, babe.”

  My reflection sobered. Serious dark eyes stared back at me. “You’ve been saying that a lot lately.”

  “Because it’s true.”

  I sniffed. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I know you. You’re part cat.”

  “No, part vampire,” I corrected.

  “You know what I mean. Shit happens and you land on your feet. You always have. You will this time, too.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “See? This is why you called me. To tell those little doubting voices in your head to shut the fuck up. So shut up already.”

  “I don’t think that’s why I called,” I mumbled. But he was right. I’d called on reflex without an agenda. Of course it was for a pep talk.

  Adrian chuckled. “Right. So, I’ll see you and Alex later?”

  “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

  “Okay, later ba—”

  “No, wait!” I interrupted. “Don’t let Jonas drink too much tonight, okay? I didn’t like seeing you half dead in a chair the other night in Heaven.

  “Oh, that’s rich coming from you, after Alex almost drained you dry.”

  I ran my fingers over the bite marks on my neck, last night’s wounds now healed pink flesh, the newer set fresh, but healing as I watched. Trippy. “You’re exaggerating.”

  He snorted. “Barely.”

  “But point taken, so humor me, okay?”

  “I can handle it, Rina. This isn’t my first or even second or third time around the vampire block.”

  I tilted my head. “You’ve known about the vampires for a long time, longer than your relationship with Jonas. And I don’t mean just my vampire family and their crew. I mean all of the monsters.”

  “You see a lot of weird shit when you’re a party promoter,” he confirmed.

  “You never told me.”

  “You don’t talk about it, babe. Not good for business or your health.”

  Hard to argue with him, there.

  “Are we done?” Adrian continued. “Go play with your new boy toy, already.”

  My eyes widened and heat flooded my face. “Don’t call him that.”

  “Right, sorry. I meant your husband.”

  “Stop.” If my face got any hotter it would burst into flames.

  Adrian laughed. “Can’t help it, you’re too easy.”

  “Fine. Hanging up now.” I tried to sound pouty.

  “I love you, too, Rina.” He rang off.

  I pocketed the phone and turned on the faucet, splashing cold water on my tomato face. I intended to remain in this bathroom until every speck of pink faded from my skin.

  A soft knock on the door made me jump. “Carina?” Alexander called through the door.

  His presence upstairs suggested we were finally alone. Stella lurked somewhere, but my lethal shadow would stay invisible unless things went critical. Hopefully, they wouldn’t. Then again unpredictable was my new middle name.

  I ran my fingers through my hair again, and adjusted the huge shirt I wore. I was like the awkward, post-coital teenager in her boyfriend’s shirt. Shy, embarrassed, worried, excited. Primarily excited. The memory of last night washed over me. Alexander’s mouth on my breasts, his thumb teasing me, fingers sliding in and out. I gripped the vanity, my body shivering from an echo of last night’s orgasms. Then our most recent interaction crashed into me. Alexander at my neck, hips grinding into my most sensitive parts.

  My breath left me in a rush. I bent over the sink, body trembling. Lust for sex—and
blood and violence—rode me hard. Hot, hungry power stirred in my gut.

  Crap. No control. Must calm down, think of something else. Think calm, boring thoughts.

  Calm. Boring. Thoughts.

  I was quiet for too long.

  “I’m coming in.” Alexander strode into the room, took one look at my face and pulled me into his arms. “It’s all right, Carina.”

  My body stopped shaking and the storm inside me calmed at his touch. Relieved, I wound my arms around him, slipping my hands under his shirt. “You’re so warm.”

  “Happens when we’re well-fed.”

  “You’re breathing.”

  “Yes.”

  “Your heart is beating.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you stop it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t.” I liked the beat of his heart, the rise and fall of his chest. I snuggled closer. My stomach growled.

  Alexander smoothed a hand up and down my spine. “When did you last eat?”

  “I’ve had an ocean’s worth of blood since I came to your house. Does that count?”

  “No, I mean food. You’re human. You still need to eat.”

  “Right. Then it was breakfast, at Adrian’s, early afternoon.”

  “That was several hours ago. C’mon.” He led me out of the bathroom.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Out.”

  “But where?”

  “How about Banzai?”

  I halted in the middle of the bedroom. I loved sushi, and Banzai was my haunt, but, “Are you serious?”

  He released my hand. “Sure.”

  “Can you eat?” I had no memories of vampires eating actual food.

  “No. Well, I could, but I shouldn’t. It’s not very pleasant.”

  Interesting. “Can you drink? Alcohol, I mean.” Only memories of blood drinking came to mind.

  His lips curved upward. “Yes.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure, let’s go get some sake and sushi.”

  “Okay, but I should change.” I glanced around the room. “Where’s my shirt?” I vaguely recalled it flying over my head during our bed antics. Another flood of color painted my face.

  Alexander’s gaze wandered over my body, possessive. “I like you in my shirt.”