Haven (34 page)

“No, Rina. You’ve always known him. Look beneath the surface. He has always been the one.”

Some of my giddy girlie excitement faded. “Okay, you’re losing me now.”

“He’s your soul mate. Together you’ve created the foundation for what’s to come.”

“Would that be one of those things you said I won’t like much?”

“Yes. And no.”

I let out a good-humored groan. “You know what? Keep your secrets for now. You told me the important bit. I promise I won’t freak out now.”

“No, you won’t,” she confirmed.

I shook my head and stepped into the stall. “You know, sometimes I wonder why we even bother having little chitchats when you already know how it all turns out anyway,” I teased, but she sobered.

“You know it doesn’t work like that. I don’t know everything and in fact, I can’t see—”

I cut her off. “Kidding. Now let me shower already. I’m starving and in desperate need of caffeine.” I closed the shower stall, ending our conversation. The bathroom door closed a moment later.

I knew Faith had more to tell me, but for now, I wanted to enjoy happy Alexander thoughts. Anything else was immaterial. For the duration of my shower, anyway.

~ * ~

I dressed in a red lace bra and panty set, the jeans I’d worn briefly yesterday, a red baby-doll T-shirt, and my shiny red sneakers Faith had brought over. She also remembered my favorite outer layer, the long black hooded sweater-coat by my pal Naoki. But I didn’t slip it on yet. Instead, I dug out my phone.

Alexander had indeed left me voice mail.

“Hi Carina. Alexander here. Obviously. Uh, I wanted to touch base with you about what happened. I don’t regret any of it. Well, I’m sorry I drank so much of your...you know...but the rest of it was important. You’re important. To me. I’ll call again when I wake up. I hope you’ll meet me later and we can have that lesson I promised you. Bye.”

His message sounded almost as awkward as the one I’d left him yesterday. Almost. I ran my hand over the soft fabric of my sweater-coat, wishing it were smooth male skin over rock hard muscle.

My lips curled upward at the thought of my new guy and that now all-too-familiar teenage giddiness flooded me. Am I crazy to be this happy? I’d recently learned my uncle was my father and a vampire, that I had a predilection for blood and a deadly power to master, and bad vampires and the boogeyman were out to get me. Yet despite it all, here I sat, excited, like a girl after her first date with the hottest guy in school. I giggled like one, too.

Adrian entered the bedroom. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

“You look happy.”

I gave him a faux frown. “What’s your point?”

He handed me a large black cup. “Coffee. Heavy on the cream and sugar, of course.”

I took a sip. “Yum. Thanks.”

“Sure. Come eat. Tony made you a frittata.”

“Oh. So he’s not mad anymore?” I followed Adrian downstairs.

“Nah. Like I said, he’s worried. Didn’t he leave you a message? I saw him texting when he left.”

“He’s gone?”

“He left while you were dressing. Paolo and Greg drove him to your house.”

My jaw clenched. Why were Paolo and Greg still hanging around? There should’ve been a changing of the guard by now. I needed to call Lorenzo and have him order off those particular bulldogs.

“He didn’t sleep at all last night,” Adrian offered as we entered the kitchen. “You know, since he was keeping an eye on you. Practically falling asleep on his feet by the time he finished cooking. I suggested he go to your place. It’s nearby and quiet, too, with all of you elsewhere.”

“Oh. Good. I guess.” I joined Faith at the kitchen table. Adrian served me frittata while I hunted for Tony’s text. I discovered one from Mark, too.

Tony wrote,
Sorry sis, but u were in bad shape last night. Stop scaring me like that. Love u. l8tr.

Yay, forgiven. My mood lightened and I dug into the frittata wedge. Egg embedded with the last night’s leftover pasta, diced red pepper and mozzarella. Adrian had sprinkled fresh grated Parmesan and chopped parsley on top. I took a bite and almost purred. My brothers were such good cooks. In fact, all of the men in my life had awesome cooking skills. Good thing, since I had none.

After a few bites, I checked Mark’s text.
Don’t be mad. We feel great. Better than great. Worth the pain. c u soon.

I polished off my food, eyes on the text. Why would I be mad?

“Seconds?” Adrian plopped another sizeable piece on my plate.

“Thanks.” I frowned at Mark’s text.

“Sure. What’s with the face? You okay? Did Tony text you?” Adrian took a seat and attacked his food.

“Yeah, we’re good. Got a weird text from Mark, though.”

“Oh yeah?” Adrian’s tone was too casual. I glanced at Faith. Clearly I was the only one in the dark here.

“Yeah, care to explain it, Faith?”

Faith shifted in her seat to face me. “Please don’t be angry. I know you wanted to be there for the next time, but I saw—no, I can’t see and that’s the problem. I tried to tell you in the bathroom. I experienced one moment of clarity with your Key, I mean Alexander, but other than that...”

Her hand fisted. “I’ve seen nothing but darkness, as if a huge black veil dropped over the world. Jonas doesn’t like it, nor do I. We agreed it was necessary to do it immediately, so...” Her eyes pleaded for understanding.

“They marked you again,” I finished for her.

“Yes.”

“All four of you.” I touched her wrist.

“Yes.”

I unsnapped her cuff. A rectangular bandage covered the wound, the white gauze taunting me as I pondered what to do with the anger boiling in my gut. Should I aim it at Jonas and Thomas? My friends? Adrian? All of the above?

I stroked the gauze. “Did it hurt?”

“Of course.”

“Now?” My fingers pressed harder.

Faith sucked in a sharp breath. “Yes.”

I dropped her arm and shot to my feet.

“You’re angry,” she observed, donning the cuff.

“Hell yeah, I’m angry. You went behind my back and let them mark you. Again!” I strode to the doorway and smacked the frame. “Do you have any idea how serious this is? What kind of danger you’re getting into?” I stalked back to the table. “You had no clue what would happen when you let them bite you yet you did it anyway. You could’ve fallen into a coma like I did or maybe even died. Do you get that?”

Adrian cleared his throat. “You sound like Tony, babe.”

My mouth snapped shut. Damn. I did sound like Tony and even worse, my brother had a point. We all made some dangerous moves last night, moves pushing us further into this new, dangerous life none of us understood. This was fine for me, given I was already part monster, but for my full-on human friends? No.

Faith replied to my thoughts. “Where you go, so do we.”

I sunk into my chair. “No. I know we’ve already covered this, and I thought I was okay with it, but I’m not.”

I grabbed her elbow and squeezed. “You don’t have to do this. None of you do.”

“It’s already done.”

My eyes burned. “I won’t let you guys get hurt because of me. I’m a half-breed, I’m half vampire.” God, it felt weird to say that out loud. “But you guys are all human. I love you and I don’t want you to die because you followed me into this mess.”

“It’s the path we were meant to take,” was her patient reply. “All of us.”

I shook my head, angry tears threatening to fall. I hated crying. I was tougher than this. Okay, maybe not. Especially not with my newbie vampire issues. Heightened senses, wacked out emotions, lack of control.
Argh
. My eyes squeezed shut but the tears leaked out.

A chair scraped on the hardwood floor. Adrian pulled me into his arms. Faith hugged me from behind. I let them sandwich me and listened to the hum of the fridge, the twittering of birds in the cherry blossom tree out back, and my heavy breathing. Several seconds—or maybe minutes—later, my tension eased. Faith stepped out of our embrace.

Adrian cupped my face and kissed my forehead. “I know this shit is messing with you and your Type A nature. But you’ll get through this. And you’re not alone. Whether you like it or not, we’re on the trip with you. Got it?”

I stared at the ceiling and huffed
.
Accept and move on. Tough action for Type A me. “Okay. Fine.”

Adrian grinned. “Aw, Rina, look at you, accepting my superior wisdom. My little control freak is growing up so fast.” He wiped away a pretend tear.

“Dude, shut up.” I slugged his shoulder and cracked a grin.

He chuckled.

The doorbell rang.

I rolled my eyes. “Great. Now what?”

Adrian shrugged. “No idea. I’ll get it.”

I held up my hand. “No. I’m the control freak here so I’m answering the damn door.” I winked. They laughed. I answered the damn door. A delivery guy awaited me and in his hands, a red vase containing a dozen pink stargazer lilies.

“Wow.” I put the flowers on the entryway cabinet and opened the accompanying tiny envelope addressed to me. The card inside read,
‘Yours, A.’

A romantic gesture from my hot new beau. Awesome. My giddy smile about cracked my face.

I rushed to the kitchen, flowers in hand. “Hey, Faith, want to shop at Naoki’s? I need to get Alexander a prezzie. Look what he sent me.”

“Yes, let us shop. A wonderful idea, my darling,” a velvet voice declared.

Through the flowers, I spotted Tessa near the mudroom doorway. She was a chic vision in a fitted, turquoise mini dress, the color making her blue-green eyes glow. Stella, in black, shadowed her.

I placed my vase on the counter. “Great dress, Tessa. Hey Stella.” I kissed Tessa’s cheeks.

Adrian greeted her in the same manner, his stick-straight, bleached surfer-blond hair a stark contrast to Tessa’s golden tresses cascading around her shoulders in loose ringlets.

Tessa was almost as tall as Adrian and myself at the moment thanks to high-heeled slingback pumps. She slipped her hand in mine. A single, gold bangle embedded with diamonds adorned her wrist and an emerald-cut diamond ring graced her ring finger both catching light from the open windows. Small, white, and delicate, her hand gave the impression of fragility, but immense power pulsed there. Such a formidable force in a tiny package. She’d scare the hell out of me, were I not her little star.

“Would you ladies care for a drink?”

“No, thank you, my dear boy. We are well fed and ready to take my lovely
young charge for the afternoon.”

“Maybe I should change, first.” I felt far from lovely
in my jeans, T-shirt and sneakers when compared to the vision that was my surrogate vampire mommy.

“Nonsense. Come, let us spend ridiculous amounts of our Thomas’s money on overpriced designer fashion. I have his credit card today and he owes you twelve years of birthday presents. As do I.”

I grinned. “Well, when you put it that way, sure, let’s go. You coming, Faith?”

Faith glanced up from her phone. “Brigid called. I need to meet with her. She may have answers about my problem.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes. “What is the matter, young Seer?”

“The second mark changed nothing. I still can’t see.” Faith swiped at an imaginary window. “I feel stronger, but there’s still a veil of black obscuring everything. And the harder I look, the thicker it becomes.”

Hmm. That sounded all too familiar. “That happened to me last night, too. Sort of.”

Stella advanced on me. “When?”

I shrugged. “Before we went to the club. When I was out back talking to my brothers.”

“You said nothing of this to me.” Her eyes flashed with disapproval.

“Didn’t think it was important in the grand scheme of things.” I was too embarrassed to admit I’d wanted to go party at the club and pretend the yucky stuff hadn’t happened at all.

Stella crossed her arms.

“Besides, Alexander chased it away, no problem.”

“Please explain further, dearest,” Tessa requested.

“I was telling my brothers what I remembered about our father, I mean, their father’s death. Someone else was there besides the vampire attacking me, but I couldn’t see who it was. The harder I tried, the blacker the memory became until it felt like the darkness was trying to suck me in and drown me. Then Alexander touched me and it disappeared and I was fine.”

Everyone stared at me with wide-eyed concern.

Tessa broke the silence. “Interesting. Seer, seek Brigid’s counsel and convey your findings to us
immediately
.” She gave me an admonishing look. “In our world, darling, every detail, no matter how small, usually holds much significance. It is best to make light of nothing.”

I shrugged. “Fine.”

“I’ll do as you bid, Contessa.” Faith’s formal tone, made me shoot her a
what’s-up-with-the-stuffy-language
look. She ignored it. “Bye.”

“Aw, c’mon, Faith,” I complained. “Shop first, Brigid second. We haven’t had a girl’s day out in forever.”

Tessa patted my arm. “Let her go, my darling. Her task is urgent.”

“Everything is so dire with you vampires,” I pouted, but caved. “Bye Faith. Oh, wait, are Mark and Ren still in the clinic?”

She nodded. “Yes. Kai is there, too.”

“Good. Let’s meet there later.”

“Okay.” She gave me a half-hearted smile, eyes pinched with worry.

“It’s buggin’ you isn’t it? Not being able to see. You’ve always wanted a moment or two of peace and nothingness, but now that you have it, you’re not happy about it at all.”

She touched her temple. “I should be careful what I wish for. The quiet would be nice, were it not so wrong.”

“You’ll figure it out,” I assured her. “You always do.”

Faith looked unconvinced. Her worried expression constricted my heart and I pulled her in for a fierce hug. “Forget shopping. I’ll come with you. We’ll sort this out together.”

She stepped away. “No, you need to go with the Contessa.”

“Agreed,” Tessa added. “Farewell, Seer.”