My Shadow, My Vampire

Chapter Seven / END

I wake up to copper and wood. My mind is surprisingly quiet, as if it doesn't feel like going through the effort of stressing me out this morning. I stretch languidly, burrowing deeper into the warm covers, finding, to my surprise, cool flesh. It moves in response, and I look upward to meet lidded brown eyes. "Hi."

"Hello, love." One of his hands snakes around my waist and pulls me closer to him. I'm not wearing the jeans and t-shirt I'd been in when the accident happened; instead, I'm wearing a soft pair of sweatpants and a crew-neck sweatshirt that positively swamps me. I realize whose clothes they must be, and I also finally recognize the blue of the bed. The gentle care of last night comes back to me in glowing, fuzzy memories.

"Your bed this time," I mumble, smiling to myself.

The arm around my waist tightens. "I wasn't about to put you in the same bed as the other one," he mutters petulantly.

"Silas? He's okay?"

Rhett groans and nuzzles his head into my shoulder. "Yeah, he's fine."

I relax into his embrace, letting the calm of his company and the warm bed sweep over me again. "Be glad he is," I say into his hair, which smells like very regular shampoo. "I'm still mad you didn't take him first."

Rhett comes back up, propping himself on an elbow so he can look down at me seriously. "You will always be first," he says firmly. "I won't apologize for that." His hand drifts from my waist to my chin. "Do you need any more?" He doesn't need to specify of what.

Do I? I take a quick mental stock of my body. I feel fine, actually, if a little hungry for regular human food. But Rhett doesn't have to know that. I make my eyes a little bigger and nod.

I can't quite tell if Rhett knows I'm lying—the corner of his mouth twitches and he doesn't move to bring his wrist to his mouth. "Good. Go ahead and take it then."

What? My stomach drops. I know exactly what he means. He hasn't got a shirt on, that much I've been hyper-aware of. I try to stop myself from smiling. "Bastard."

"Oh, come on." Rhett, unable to hold back, grins. "It's not like you haven't bitten me before."

He's right. My stomach twists, excited, at the memory. It has never been this easy to get under my skin—certainly not with anyone I've been with before. Rhett can say just about anything and leave me writhing with want. It helps that he also makes me feel safer than I've ever felt, and to boot, he's surprisingly game for my humor.

Thinking about safety sends my mind back to the bridge. "Rhett, what happened to Eugene? And was that Ava and Beau fighting that guy on the bridge?"

Rhett pouts. "Now you're just stalling, Sev."

I am, but I don't let him know that. I want to know where I stand with Rhett and the others before I let him act on that hungry twinkle in his eye. I stay expectantly silent. Rhett seems unperturbed, his hand sliding from my jaw and into my hair to massage my skull as he speaks. I fight the urge to purr. "Ava and Beau tracked the Mason not long after he found me," he explains. "We might have our...eccentricities...but we don't let any outsiders fuck with us. Ava and Beau are very old, and I'm sure that bastard regrets laying a hand on me even now." He pauses. "But it was you who saved me, you know. He really had me for a second. And if I died, it would make the whole family look bad. I'm basically a liability because I'm so young."

I think back to the huge blonde-haired man. A Mason. It sounds about as mysterious as it should. "Is he what made me—the deer..." I find it suddenly hard to articulate what happened.