Page 26

Roman

R oman knew he looked suspicious, prowling the alleys around the hospital in his dark coat, but he was hoping to lure another suspicious character out of the shadows.

Goddamn Luc.

Roman should have known the bastard would seek Danny out, even with the hospital security cameras.

Roman had thought it would be enough—dropping Danny off and picking him up, keeping him from stepping out of the hospital alone—but it was too tempting for the psychopath, finally having someone Roman actually cared about to mess with.

To what end though? That was the question.

Roman wasn’t quite sure exactly what Luc wanted with Danny. He hadn’t attacked the boy last night, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t.

Who knew how his mind worked anymore?

Roman could feel his demon itching to come out of his skin at the thought of Luc lurking around Danny with unclear intentions. It was restless, wanting to get back to their mate, to have him in their sights.

Me too, mon monstre. Me too.

Roman hadn’t liked dropping Danny off at work that night.

He had wanted to wrap himself around the boy and refuse to let him go.

Roman had even asked Danny to take the night off, but his stubborn mate had refused, insisting he wasn’t going to let “one puny, little threatening encounter” interfere with his duties.

“We’re often short-staffed as it is. I’m not doing that to my coworkers,” he’d argued.

And apparently Roman wandering the hospital halls for twelve hours would have security called in an instant, according to his mate.

And Danny had worried a direct confrontation with Luc on hospital grounds would lead to patients getting hurt in the crossfire.

So Roman was having to make do with circling the area around the hospital, lurking in the shadows.

That was Roman’s lovely mate though. Caring for others at the expense of himself seemed to be deeply ingrained in his nature.

As were the insecurities he had confessed to Roman the night before.

Roman shook his head at his own obliviousness.

He should have realized the scars that would have been left by his mate’s past. Abandoned by his father to death, his mother to illness, his brother to denial.

He needed more reassurances than Roman had been giving him, that was clear.

Yes, Roman may have mentioned forever to the boy.

But perhaps that simply sounded like platitudes when he had not specified what “forever” would mean.

Roman was afraid.

He was afraid to bring up the prospect of turning to his mate. He was afraid the very idea would horrify Danny, a man who valued human life so much.

And underneath that fear was the crippling doubt.

The thought that Danny might turn and they would both find that the myth of fated mates was wrong.

Roman hadn’t even believed in mates until meeting Danny, and he’d never met a fated pair himself.

What if he’d been right all along and his mate woke up with a demon that was not soothed by Roman’s presence at all?

Maybe Roman would ruin Danny’s life forever.

His sweet mate would become feral like Luc and be doomed to an eternity of violence and misery. Or maybe vampire Danny would realize the world was his for the taking and that he didn’t need or want Roman after all.

Roman felt an ache in his chest at the very thought of it.

But what was the alternative? Allow his mate to grow old and die, sit by and watch while Danny slowly decayed each day?

Yes , Roman thought. If it came down to it, he would stay by Danny no matter what—vampire or human.

Danny was his mate, his person, for as long as they had, be it a few years or forever.

Had he not been making that clear enough?

It was ironic that the one person who could perhaps help Roman think through this dilemma, the one person who had experience in this arena, was the very same one intent on making Roman’s life a misery.

“You don’t believe she’s my mate, do you, Roman?”

Luc was lounging across from him in the bar’s booth, all graceful ease and dapper elegance.

Many eyes at the bar—both male and female—were on him, and Roman knew, despite his friend’s apparent nonchalance, that he was not unaware.

Luc’s dark hair had been sprinkled with gray at the temples already when he was turned, but it did nothing to detract from his appeal.

The man reveled in his own attractiveness and pushed Roman to do the same.

Luc knew the allure they had as a duo, tall and dark and predatory.

Roman gave his friend a smirk. “I do not believe in mates at all, Luc. I think they are a fairy tale, a myth you and Soren have taken to because it gives you hope.” He cleared his throat.

This was not a conversation he particularly wanted to have, but if Luc was going to push him to it, so be it.

“I believe you are infatuated with your pretty human. You may even love her. She certainly has some sort of hold on you. But do I believe she is the magical solution to your fate?” Roman shook his head, taking a sip of his wine.

“No. We are what we are. There is not some fated person who is coming to fix you. You are a vampire. A demon. Driven by blood and sex and violence. You have been since you were turned. As I have been since you turned me.”

Roman watched the guilt flash across Luc’s face.

Perhaps Roman had gone too far, but he was tired of this obsession with mates.

It was making his friend agitated, unstable.

“I do not mean it as censure, mon ami,” he consoled.

“You saved my life. I am grateful. Turn her if you like. Create another monster like yourself to fuck and love and maybe even be happy with until you both lose yourselves to the demons inside you. But do not expect her to tame you.”

Luc stared at him for a long moment, green eyes flashing in a way that made Roman think perhaps his friend would leap over the table to wring his neck.

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d come to blows.

Two people couldn’t have a friendship last as long as theirs without getting on each other’s nerves every few decades.

The tension grew until, finally, Luc laughed. “You just don’t like her, Rome.”

Roman shrugged. “I like her fine. It is because I like her that I think she should go into this with eyes wide open, Luc. She is not like I was. She is not dying on some battlefield. Turn her and you are taking away her life. Her human life.”

“Your self-loathing is showing again, mon ami.”

“I’m not self-loathing. I’m realistic.”

“And what is my other option, Rome?” Luc asked, eyes hard. “An eternity alone?”

Alone forever. It was Luc’s biggest fear.

Roman leaned forward over the table, clasping his friend’s hand. “You are not alone, Lucien. You have me. Always.”

Roman knew it wasn’t enough. Luc wanted a guarantee, a fated promise that he wouldn’t end up a mindless beast, driven to madness by the creature inside him. Friendship wasn’t enough for him anymore. He viewed Victoria as his salvation.

Luc gave a small sigh, eyeing Roman’s hand on top of his. “To us, then.” He raised his glass to Roman.

“To us.” Roman took a sip, trying to ignore the feeling of dread building in his stomach.

Luc had said nothing more on the subject that night, but Roman knew afterward that the discussion had had an impact. It had been part of why Luc waited so long to try to turn Victoria.

Roman had thought Luc was grasping at straws. His friend had been a more pious man than Roman when he’d been human. Luc had struggled in the beginning, he had told Roman, with what they were, with the things they craved.

For most of the time Roman had known him, he had hidden it well under a guise of exuberant debauchery, but Roman knew underneath it all, Luc’s conscience still plagued him.

And then they had met Soren, who had told them the hard truth—they didn’t have an eternity after all. They only had as long as they could cling to their humanity, and who knew how long that would be. Unless, he had said, they found a soul to tether them…

Victoria had seemed like a lifeline to a drowning man.

Was Roman the same as Luc had been? Grasping at straws with Danny?

No , his demon growled.

Something deep within Roman recognized something deep within Danny.

It was different from anything he had ever felt—Roman knew it was different.

With every fiber of his being. What came next he might not be sure of, but he knew Danny and he belonged to each other, and that was not a thought Roman had ever expected to feel about another soul.

Not when Roman wasn’t even sure he had a soul left.

The thing was, he was still not sure he had been wrong about Luc and Victoria. That might be arrogant of him, to assume his situation with Danny was different—maybe a means to assuage his internal guilt—but Roman had been there when she’d died.

Her thoughts had not been of Luc. They had been of fear . Her fear of death, yes, but even more her fear of becoming like them. Roman had seen then for the first time what she truly thought about them, underneath the surface fascination and attraction, and it had been nothing good.

And how could someone feel that way about their fated mate?

Because as much as Roman might fear the thought of Danny not wanting to turn, he did not fear what Danny felt about what Roman was .

He knew there was no contempt or disgust hiding underneath the surface.

Roman had seen the way Danny had reacted to Roman’s compulsion of his mother, all wonder and gratitude.

Danny saw him, both his human and demon side, and he liked what he saw, Roman was sure of it.

They needed time for their bond to strengthen, to better understand each other, yes, but it was there, the seed of something real and true. What they needed was a break from the drama and distraction.

They needed Luc gone.

Speak of the devil, and he will appear.