Hours later, I woke and looked at the clock. It was only two a.m. which was my favorite time of the night. I checked on Romeo, watching him sleep peacefully, and then slid out of bed, pulling on a pair of boxers before taking the elevator upstairs. I was more anxious than I knew I should be as I went to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of ketchup, downing its entirety and chucking the empty in the trash. I walked to a large picture window and looked outside before going over to the front door and unlocking it. When I stepped onto the porch, I breathed deeply before settling into one of a pair of Adirondack chairs to listen to the woods.
The musical sound of the stream that ran behind the house was peaceful and the scent of night blooming jasmine trailing over the railings on the porch was incredibly beautiful. My home was tranquil, and I couldn’t help but wish for a life other than what I’d always had. I’d lived in many places, faced many dangers, but truthfully, hadn’t had many joys. There was the occasional man who held my interest for a time but in the back of my mind, I always knew not to get attached.
My life in one place could never last long…a few decades at the very most…before people began to look at me suspiciously. I never grew any older and unless I starved myself or threw caution to the wind and got myself killed, I never would. Perhaps it was my training as a knight of the realm, but I had a ferocious survival instinct. Since becoming a vampire, I’d been forced to move often and therefore never allowed myself the hope of keeping anyone long term.
Perhaps my life will be different with Romeo.
My mate was a unicorn. I had no idea how long unicorns lived… I’d always thought them creatures of myth or at least nearly extinct if they’d ever lived at all. That was…until meeting Romeo. Other shifters lived longer lives than humans, several decades over a century, but in my experience, they were not immortal like I was. I sighed. There was nothing I could do about how long he’d live or how many centuries we’d have together. I only knew I needed as much time as I could possibly have with him. I’d referred to him as my true mate and I honestly believed if there were such a thing, he was. He was certainly much more than a lover.
I stayed on the porch for hours, listening to the sounds of animals in the woods, always aware that predator shifters might be hunting close by. I watched the moon sink as the sky began to brighten with the coming dawn as Romeo slept on in my basement room. When the first rays of sunlight pierced the trees, I got up and went back into the house and did last night’s dishes and set the coffee to brew before taking the elevator back downstairs.
Romeo greeted me as I stepped into the bedroom. To my surprise, he was already awake and dressed. He smiled widely and turned from where he’d been making my bed, walking over, and taking my hand.
“I didn’t know if you were going back to bed for the day, but I have a thing about a clean house,” he said, sounding a little embarrassed as he looked back at the made bed. He turned back to look at me. “I even feel guilty for not doing the dishes right after dinner last night. It’s kind of a military thing.”
I smiled and slid my hands around his body, pulling him close. “And I think it’s very sweet that you worry about such things. I was up early so I did them. Not to worry, love.” I kissed him softly, holding onto the safe world we were in for as long as I could. I knew what I needed to tell him was going to most likely worry and anger him, but I’d put it off long enough. He needed to know the danger Sergio, Justine, and Harvey posed not only to the town but also why he was now in danger…as if werewolves weren’t enough of a problem. I let his lips go and stepped out of his arms, letting mine slide slowly down his muscled arms to his hands.
“Is that coffee I smell?” he asked, lifting his nose to the air.
I nodded, knowing that he shouldn’t have been able to smell the coffee I’d put on all the way down here. A thought occurred to me as I stared at him, a slow smile spreading across my face.
“Your sense of smell is improving, Romeo. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to scent animals from a mile off and know exactly what kind they are and whether they are shifters or not.” I let go of his hands and reached into a set of drawers to pull out my favorite freshly washed loose fitting jeans. I stepped into them.
“Do you think my sense of smell is improving? That’s something that happens?” Romeo asked, sounding utterly surprised. “I thought maybe I wouldn’t have the same ability to scent a vampire or shifter as you or other prey animals would by virtue of my unicorn breeding.”
I shook my head, pulling a T-shirt over my head. “In my experience, all shifters have enhanced olfactory glands,” I said, “and, though, I can’t be sure, I think it takes training to improve your supernatural sense of smell just like it does to be able to control your light. Maybe it comes down to narrowing your focus like it did when you were shrinking the size of the light orb in the field the other night.” He was listening to me closely, judging by the way he’d cocked his head to the side.
“I suppose that makes sense.”
