“You’re not a bachelor,” I reminded Tristan. “And you have a family. You have to be mature now.”
“Ah, just a little…and just for a few years. Then you and I can go back to living like young newlyweds.” He grinned and gave me a squeeze.
And that’s when it hit me—the whole not-aging thing. I was changing over and that meant I would look and feel like I was perpetually in my mid-twenties, based on how I looked right now. Experience would develop my mind and my emotions, but my body would never change. I’d always thought I would be like Mom and Rina— mature yet timeless. Owen and Tristan had a great outlook on the situation, but…they were male. What male ever wants to grow up? They had a life men dream about—to know what they do at sixty-eight, or even two-hundred- sixty-eight, but be allowed to live the life of a twenty-two-year-old. Of course, I had a man every woman dreams about—worldly and wise, considerate and loving, yet forever young. And devastatingly gorgeous, of course.
“Hmm…we don’t ever have to stop living like newlyweds,” I said, smiling impishly at him. And nearly forgetting Owen was even there.
“Oooh-kaay…time for me to go,” Owen said, pushing himself away from the table. “Thanks for the steak, Alexis. I have to admit, I was a little worried. I’d forgotten you even knew how to cook.”
Tristan looked at me with his eyebrows raised. I just shrugged. I hadn’t cooked anything except hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and eggs since he had left. I’d been a little worried myself as I prepared the steaks and roasted potatoes, hoping I hadn’t forgotten how to cook a real meal.
“What? Did you think I’d burn the house down or something?”
“Nah. Just food poisoning. But I’m still alive. And it was even delicious.”
I threw my arms around his waist. “Thank you, Owen. For everything.”
“It’s good to see you happy again,” he said, hugging me back.
“Am I forgiven then?”
“Hmm…yeah, I guess.” He chuckled. “It’s not like I could hold a grudge against you. Just, uh, do us all a favor—don’t ever do that again.”
I frowned. “Sorry, but I can’t promise that. Considering the circumstances, I’d do it all over again, even if I knew the outcome would be different.”
Owen shook his head. “You like making my life difficult?”
“I thought I kept it interesting,” I teased.
“I don’t like that kind of interesting.”
“Well, I might have saved an innocent girl from a horrific ending.”
They both looked at me expectantly, so I quickly gave them the whole story. I shivered at the thought of what would have happened to her if I hadn’t been driving by that particular alley when I did. Then I realized those vampires had probably had their meal anyway, maybe not with her but with someone. My stomach rolled with that thought.
“If it’s the girl I think it was, she’s not so innocent,” Owen said.
“What do you mean? They were pushing her around, treating her like…like dinner. She was scared to death.”
“Oh, she was scared, all right. But she was one of them. They were pissed at her for…” Owen clamped his mouth shut, pursing his lips together. Then he shrugged and finished. “For whatever reason they think they have.”
“But she wasn’t a vampire.” I stopped to think about it, but now found it difficult to know for sure. After all, these things were still new to me. Maybe I hadn’t seen her as clearly as the others. “I don’t think, anyway.”
Owen shook his head. “No, not a bloodsucker. A Were.”
I inhaled sharply and blew the air out with an “Oh!” and then “Wow!”
“Yeah. That rampage they all went on—they took most of it out on her.”
I stared at him, blinking several times. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the girl now or not. I couldn’t believe the Daemoni would turn on their own kind, but then again, they were evil. How could I ever understand them or explain their actions?
“Just wait until you’ve changed before you try to be a hero again,” Owen said, his hand on the latch of the screen door. “For my sake.”
“I can promise you that. But I sure wish I’d known if I had any powers, like you think. I really would’ve loved flattening that bitch against the wall after what she said about my mother.”
Owen still laughed as he walked out to the brush and disappeared.
Chapter 12
After Owen left, Tristan and I sat on the balcony while I caught him up on my life. I told him about being bed-ridden for several months while pregnant and he asked about the delivery. I explained as best as I could. Dorian had been a preemie, arriving after a long, painful labor and birth—I passed out for part of it—followed by the heavy disappointment of no baby girl. Tristan pulled me into his lap and held me while I cried about it again.
I’d cried a lot today for someone who was supposed to be so happy now. My emotions ran wild, almost like Swirly still messed with me from a distance. But I had a feeling that either the situation or the Ang’dora itself really caused the havoc.
Once the tears dried, we talked about my books—he said he’d read them all in the week he’d been back in the real world—and all the events that went along with them. I couldn’t tell him a whole lot, but he asked questions to jog my memory.
“Your fans love you and the books. There are tons of sites on the Internet,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, I guess. I haven’t paid much attention to them in a long time. Sometimes they were rude and insensitive and I couldn’t take it. There was this one girl, though—her name is Sonya, if I remember right—and she was my ‘biggest fan.’” I wiggled my fingers in the air to mark the quotations. “She followed us to every signing, release party and interview. I never had any particular bad vibes from her, but she worried my agent and publicist, so they took out a restraining order against her.”
“I saw her posts online. She doesn’t hold it against you. She’s still very fond of you.”
“Really? Well, that’s a relief. I always felt kind of bad about the whole thing.”
“Don’t feel too badly. She is a little…fanatic. Her posts greatly outnumber everyone else’s, which is why I remember her. And she’s determined your characters are real. She’s more fascinated with the lore than you are.”
I groaned. “I hope she doesn’t dig too deeply and find out just how right she is.”
He chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry about it. People have been interested in vamps for centuries. The bloodsuckers tend to stay away from them.”
“Really? Why? I thought it would be the opposite—they’d want to get rid of the curious.”
He shrugged. “They can’t get rid of them all and they tend to be friends. So as soon as there are signs one has been the victim of a vampire, there are humans out looking for them, either wanting to become one or wanting to kill them. They make life a little difficult for the vamps…the hunting is easier, but that just brings more attention.”
“Oh. Well…I guess that’s good for Sonya.”
He nuzzled his face against my neck. “Can we change the subject back to you?”
I thought for a minute. “I don’t know what else to tell you. My memories are all pretty dim.”
“Then stop talking.” He kissed me on the mouth to make his point, his lips warm and delicious, and I responded immediately.
I moved around in his lap to straddle him. He took my face in his hands and crushed his lips to mine. I opened my mouth to let his tongue in, tasting his deliciousness with my own. My pelvis ground against his as his hands made an electric path down my sides, to the bottom of my dress. He lifted it over my head and dropped it on the ground. His hands circled my breasts, gently squeezing while his thumbs rolled my hard nipples. He leaned down and I arched my back as he took a nipple into his mouth, sucking a line of pleasure straight from my groin. I rocked my hips against his hardness, still imprisoned in his jeans. He finally stood and carried me inside.
