Page 6 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

“I think it’s a little different for everyone,” I replied. “But yes.”

“No wonder they were always touching,” she said to herself as she relaxed into the seat.

“Even after the bond has been completed,” I explained. “The urge to be close to your mate doesn’t go away. It gets easier to manage, but it’s never fully gone.”

“I can see the draw,” she said. “Who wouldn’t want someone literally unable to leave you?”

“It’s more than that,” I countered. “You’re my other half. The reason humans ever heard the word soulmate.”

“I don’t even know you.”

“You will.”

“You seem pretty sure of that.”

“Anything else is unacceptable,” I replied before I could think it through.

Lucy just huffed.

The rest of the drive was mostly quiet. With my hand on Lucy’s thigh, my mind had quieted enough that I felt able to think through exactly what we were dealing with.

The men we’d encountered when Beau and Reese were attacked in her apartment were all human, so the conspiracy didn’t spread far enough that they’d had enough Vampires to do their bidding.

My gut told me that the group of Vampires who knew what was going on was small, probably only a few.

There had always been plenty of infighting between Vampire factions.

There’d even been wars hundreds of years ago, but even then, mates had been off limits.

For the most part, Vampires with mates hadn’t even been participants in those wars.

It went against everything we lived for to squander that gift.

The Vampires responsible for the death of my brother didn’t have mates. The sudden belief was unsubstantiated, but it felt right. No one who’d gone through that jolt of recognition, of knowing, would’ve been comfortable taking it from another.

It was still pretty early when we pulled up to the old farmhouse and climbed out of the car. Chickens pecked in the grass under an old oak tree, and the sound of children playing out back made a hundred memories drift through my mind. It was like stepping into a different time.

I rested my hand on the base of Lucy’s spine, both for the connection and what the move represented, as the front door opened and a familiar face came into view.

“Renn,” I greeted.

“Ambrose Boucher,” Isaac Renno replied, taking measured steps toward us. “It’s very good to see you.”

“You too, old friend,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “I hear you have a houseguest.”

“He’s still in bed,” Renn told Lucy, jerking his head toward the door.

Without a word, Lucy raced past us and disappeared into the house.

“Ezekiel?” Renn asked quietly.

“Gone.”

He was silent for a moment. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”

“How’s Charles?”

“To be expected,” Renn replied, leading me around the back of the house. “Every day he grows worse.”

“I’m going to bring them back to my parents.”

“Yes. That would be best.”

“Thank you for taking them in,” I said softly as we came to a stop behind the house. Two children were completely oblivious to our presence as they exited the small chicken coup and headed toward the barn.

“It was a privilege,” Renn replied, sitting down on a bench. “You know that.”

“How are things?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

“Quiet, mostly.”

“Not a lot of people to hide anymore?”

“There will always be those who have nowhere else to turn,” he responded. “The monsters are just more easily hidden now. It is mostly mothers and children these days.”

“Do you need anything?—”

“The Lord provides.”

“You’re a stubborn old goat.”

Renn scoffed.

“How are your wife and the children?”

“Well. Your parents?”

“Grieving,” I replied with a sigh. “Angry. Scared.”

“Trying times.”

“Has Charlie said anything to you about what’s going on?”

“No,” Renn answered. “And I do not ask. Better for everyone that I do not know.”

“If there was any way I could’ve kept you out of this mess, I would’ve. Zeke trusted that you’d keep them safe. That’s why he sent them here.”

“Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” Renn replied calmly. “I have no regrets.”

“Ephesians,” I mumbled.

“You remember.”

“I could recite the entire thing from memory,” I said dryly, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees.

It was peaceful here. Quiet, except for the wind blowing through the trees and the occasional farm animal.

It was the perfect place for Renn to do what he’d been doing for longer than I’d been alive, sheltering and protecting those who needed it for as long as they needed it.

If there was anyone in the world who deserved recognition for the good they’d done, it was Renn, but he’d never accept it.

He believed that he’d been called upon to be a shepherd in a world of wolves, and he’d never wavered in his dedication to the cause.

“Ambrose,” Lucy called as she stepped out of the back door.

I rose to my feet as a slender man followed her outside.

He was thin to the point of being delicate, with a sharp chin and dark brown eyes that matched his sister’s.

It looked like he’d attempted to tame his hair and only been half successful, but he was fully dressed, complete with shoes, as he strode toward me and reached out his hand.

“Hello,” he said, his voice low and raspy.

“Charlie,” I greeted. I couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at my cheeks or the ache in my chest. “I’m Ambrose.”

“I would’ve recognized you anywhere,” he replied with a nod.

He was perfect. It was easy to imagine him sitting with my baby brother, scolding him for dropping his shoes near the door or warning him that marshmallows would rot his teeth out of his head.

“It’s good to finally meet you.”

“I wish it were under better circumstances,” Charlie said, his voice cracking as he let go of my hand. He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

“I told Charlie that we’re going with you,” Lucy announced. “To your parents’ house, right?”

“That’s right.” I nodded. “It’s the safest place for you right now while we get to the bottom of all this.”

“That is a wise choice,” Renn told Charlie as he stood. “There is no safer place for you than beside Erik Boucher.”

“I’m standing right here,” I joked, glancing at him.

“A babe in swaddling cloth,” Renn replied, smiling gently at Charlie. “But he’ll do.”

“Thank you so much for everything,” Charlie told Renn, his eyes welling with tears.

“Say nothing of it,” Renn replied. He gathered Charlie to him, one arm wrapped around his back and one hand resting on the crown of his head as he prayed over the younger man.

“Erik is your dad?” Lucy asked me softly as we took a few steps away to give them some privacy.

“Yes.”

“And he knows about Charlie?”

“He knows. He’d be here too, if he could leave my mother for longer than a few days.”

Lucy nodded. “I’m going to go get Charlie’s bag. Tell him I’ll meet you guys out front.”

She went back inside just before Charlie turned back to me.

Someone screeched inside the barn, and Renn twisted to look over his shoulder.

“It was good to see you again, Renn,” I said as wailing commenced inside the barn.

“You know where to go next?” he asked.

I nodded.

“God go with you, Ambrose,” Renn replied as he strode away.

“Lead the way,” Charlie said, waving me ahead of him as we rounded the house.

“Lucy said she’d grab your bag and meet us out front.”

“She doesn’t like goodbyes,” Charlie replied. “Never has.”

I couldn’t stop looking at him. This man held the other half of my brother’s soul.

He was Zeke’s perfect match in ways that I would never understand.

He was responsible for the happiest moments in my baby brother’s life.

The immediate sense of protectiveness I felt shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.

“You look a lot like Zeke,” Charlie said softly.

“We both got my father’s eyes.”

“Around the jaw and mouth too,” he said with a small smile. “Strong genes.”

I tried to put myself in his place, but I couldn’t imagine it. I’d only met Lucy hours before, and I still couldn’t fathom losing her and then coming face-to-face with her lookalike brother. It must’ve been a complete mind fuck for Charlie and painful as hell.

“I got your shit,” Lucy announced, bounding down the front steps. “You ready?”

“You didn’t have to do that, Luce,” Charlie said as she tossed him his bag.

“I didn’t mind. You take the front seat.”

“Back,” Charlie countered as we reached the car.

“Your legs are longer,” Lucy argued.

“I want to lie down. Take the front.”

I watched the two of them in fascination.

Lucy seemed bigger when she was near Charlie.

She hadn’t been some wilting flower when we’d found her in that motel, but it still seemed like she’d grown a couple of inches just by the way she was holding herself now that her brother was present.

She was more sure of herself and more assertive than she’d been before.

Her gaze softened as she reached out and squeezed her brother’s bicep. “All right, but we’re waking you up for lunch. No sleeping through it.”

“Deal,” he said, throwing open the back door.

I rounded the hood as Lucy climbed into the passenger seat. By the time I sat down beside her, Charlie was sprawled out across the back seat with his head resting on the bag his sister had thrown him.

“Where are we going?” Lucy asked, her body twisted in the seat so she could watch the farmhouse disappear behind us a few minutes later.

“West,” I said dryly. I knew she’d gotten my reference to her earlier reticence when she shot me a look before settling back into her seat.

“Ha. Ha.”

“Oregon,” I clarified.

“Or bust,” she said with a sigh. Reaching back without looking, she rested her hand on Charlie’s knee.

Twenty minutes later, Charlie was snoring softly in the back seat when Lucy finally brought her hand forward. I didn’t react when she silently reached for my hand and pulled it to her thigh, but I felt it in every millimeter of my body.