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Danny should tell him that, right? People deserved to know when they were loved.

But he was so tired he couldn’t even make his mouth form the words.

He’d tell Roman tomorrow.

It was well into the afternoon when Danny finally woke up—apparently his exhaustion had finally caught up with him—and he was a bit disgruntled not to find any sexy vampire lover cuddling with him in bed.

There was a full glass of water next to his bed, though, and a note taped to Danny’s phone : Drink this. I went to run some errands. There is also a quiche waiting for you in the refrigerator. Please eat. —Roman

Danny found it ridiculous and maybe a little adorable that, instead of just texting, Roman had gone to the trouble of taping a physical piece of paper to Danny’s phone. What a dork.

He brushed his teeth quickly and jogged downstairs, feeling refreshed after sleeping for practically an entire day. He found Soren at the kitchen counter, looking down at his own phone with a grim expression.

“Everything okay?” Danny asked.

Soren looked up, and Danny was mesmerized to see the switch when his familiar maniacal grin fell into place in less than an instant. The blond vampire must have been feeling more like himself, then.

“Everything’s peachy, human.”

“Roman’s not back from his errands?” Danny went straight to the fridge to find this quiche he had been promised.

“Not quite. But I was instructed to take you to work and to make sure you were fed and watered beforehand.”

Danny snorted at that. “Fed and watered? I’m not a horse.”

Soren hummed. “Close enough, you high-maintenance mammal. But if you get a move on, I figured we could head to the hospital a few hours early and see your brother.” At Danny’s expression, he hurried on, “I won’t go in. I’ll just drop you off.”

“Thank you, that’s very…thoughtful.”

Danny didn’t know what to make of Soren apparently following his brother around.

He wasn’t exactly angry anymore, now that he’d had time to process.

He knew that no matter what Luc had said about Soren being part of his reason for the attack, the psychopath still wouldn’t have targeted Gabe if he hadn’t been Danny’s brother.

Still, it was a little…unsettling. Soren had been helping him and Roman out, and Danny liked the other vampire, even if he was a bit strange.

There was an undercurrent of wildness to him—as if he played by his own chaotic rules of right and wrong.

And while Danny knew Gabe was handsome—his brother always had both men and women at his heels—Soren was a knockout in his own right, all ethereal male beauty.

Danny wasn’t sure why he would be so fixated on Danny’s straight-laced, all-American brother.

But Danny had decided he was going to focus on one thing at a time, in order to prevent his brain from exploding.

And right now that thing was getting to work in time to visit with Gabe.

Later, when Danny was done with work and Roman was back, that thing would be brainstorming ways to deal with Luc. So…priorities.

Danny crammed bites of quiche into his mouth—it still didn’t seem fair that a vampire that didn’t need to eat human food could cook so well—and hurried off to take a quick shower.

He had half expected Soren to try to sneak his way into the hospital after all, but after pulling up to the hospital entrance and booting Danny out, he only waved cheekily and sped off without a word.

Danny dropped his belongings off in the ER staff locker room, then rushed to the room where he’d found his brother the day before.

Gabe was sleeping in his hospital bed, with a new dressing on his arm and an antibiotic running through his IV. He’d had his surgery already, then. Nobody had called Danny to let him know. Was Danny even listed as Gabe’s family contact?

He sat down in the chair next to his bed and studied his brother. Gabe looked so much softer than usual, sleeping like that.

“Hey, Gabe,” he said when his brother’s eyes finally opened. He found himself keeping his voice soft in that way people couldn’t help when they were in a hospital room.

“Hey.” Gabe’s voice was thick with sleep. “You’re okay?”

Danny laughed. “I’m supposed to be asking you that.”

Gabe sat up with a little grimace. “Oh, I’m just dandy. They said I can go home tomorrow, after my rounds of antibiotics are done.”

Danny grinned at the news. “I can take you home then. I’ll get the night off tomorrow, take care of you.”

Gabe frowned down at his arm. “You don’t need to do that.”

“Yes, I do. You’ll need help while you’re getting the hang of using just one arm. I bet you’re not allowed to bear weight or lift with it, right?”

Gabe nodded reluctantly.

“You could even come home with me, if you think you can tolerate the presence of my monstrous boyfriend.”

Gabe ran his hand through his hair. “I thought maybe I hallucinated that conversation.”

The thought was tempting, to write the whole situation off as some kind of trauma-induced fever dream.

This wasn’t how Danny would have wanted to initiate his brother into his new world—with pain and anger and bloodshed.

But it was too late for anything else. “No such luck, I’m afraid. ” He tried to keep his voice light.

Gabe studied Danny’s face. Danny wasn’t sure what his brother was looking for this time, but after a full minute of silence, Gabe sighed and said, “I can maybe give him a chance. For you. One chance.”

Danny couldn’t have contained his grin even if he tried. “How gracious of you.”

“Mmph. Doesn’t it—doesn’t it gross you out though?”

“What?” Was his brother about to say something rude about gay sex? No, Danny knew for a fact Gabe had hooked up with more than one guy in the past.

“The whole drinking blood thing.”

Oh, right. That thing.

“No. I mean, it doesn’t hurt. They have this thing where they can make it feel really good actually, but—” Danny broke off when he saw the horrified look on Gabe’s face. “Oh. Shit. You just meant, like, in general, didn’t you?”

Gabe’s face was turning an interesting shade of red. That kind of stress couldn’t be good for healing. “You let him drink you? Your blood ?”

Danny knew he shouldn’t laugh, it was definitely not the time, but he just couldn’t help it. “You really shouldn’t get worked up in your condition. Your body needs to heal.”

“That bastard!” Gabe shouted. It seemed they were back to yelling.

“Gabe,” Danny placated, stifling his laughter. “I asked him to do it. I wanted to know how it feels. Blame my overcurious mind. And no, it doesn’t gross me out. We see blood all the time. If I didn’t have a strong stomach, I wouldn’t be an ER nurse.”

“There’s a difference between seeing blood and drinking it, Danny.” Gabe still looked horrified, but the volume of his voice dropped, at least. “You’re being awfully blasé about this.”

“Who’s drinking blasé blood now?” A familiar feminine voice came from the doorway, and both brothers turned their heads to face the new guest.

“Chloe!” Danny was so happy to see his friend. He knew it hadn’t been that long in reality, but with everything going on, it felt like it had been forever.

“Sorry to interrupt. Came by to see my favorite ICU doc. Heard you’d been in a fight. I didn’t expect to walk in on such an…interesting…topic of conversation.” She raised an eyebrow at Danny.

He grinned back at her. He figured she couldn’t have heard much or she wouldn’t be acting nearly so casual. “Oh, we were just discussing different fetish communities. Gabe’s thinking of branching out.”

Gabe glared at him, while Chloe gave a delighted laugh. “Dr. Kingman, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I hate you both,” Gabe muttered, an impressive scowl on his face.

Chloe waltzed further into the room, raised a tinfoil-wrapped bundle, and shook it at him. “Even if I brought you homemade banana bread?”

Gabe’s glower dropped immediately, and he reached out with his uninjured arm, making a “gimme” hand.

Danny couldn’t blame him. Chloe’s husband was an amazing baker.

All the staff lived for the days she brought in treats from him.

She shook the bundle again at Gabe, keeping it just out of his reach. “Now, now. What do you say?”

“I hate you…less…” It sounded like even that much pained Gabe to say.

“There’re those magic words.” She handed the baked goods over to Gabe, who graciously allowed Danny to have a piece in exchange for unwrapping the bundle.

“Mm,” Danny hummed around his bite. “Heaven.”

Chloe looked pleased. “I’ll tell Marcus you said so.”

The three of them spent the next half hour chatting about various hospital gossip, but when Gabe began yawning atrociously, Chloe and Danny left him in peace to get coffee from the cafeteria before their shift started.

Danny hugged his brother goodbye, taking extra care not to bump his injured arm. “Text me when you’re officially discharged. I’ll come get you. No arguments!” He pulled Chloe out the door before Gabe could voice any more objections.

They grabbed their coffees—Chloe choosing, as usual, to put way more milk than should be legally allowed in hers—and found their favorite cafeteria booth empty.

“Danny, Danny, Danny.” Chloe started tutting at him as soon as they sat down.

Danny froze with his coffee to his lips, racking his brain for any offenses. “What?”

“I’ve been getting complaints, you know?”

Danny’s stomach dropped. Had his work been subpar? He knew he’d been a bit…distracted, but he didn’t think it had been bad enough for his coworkers to notice.

Chloe nodded at him, her expression giving nothing away. “Yep. ‘Fraid so. People are saying that Ol’ Reliable Mr. Always Takes Your Shift is suddenly refusing everyone’s requests for coverage.”

Oh. Oh . It was true. Danny had been, for once, not taking every extra shift that came his way, focusing instead on spending time with Roman, enjoying real food and nights of full sleep and mind-blowing sex.

But Chloe had always been telling him he was working himself to the bone.

It wasn’t like her to scold Danny about working too little.

“Um…”

Chloe pointed a finger at him. “Now, this might be considered forgivable, if this same person hadn’t been guilty of giving me absolutely zero updates on a certain Mr. Handsome he recently bumped uglies with.”

“Oh my God.” Danny covered his face with his hands. “I’m sorry, I’ve been a bad friend.” He peeked through his fingers to find Chloe smiling at him.

“So it’s going good, huh? I get it. We’ve all been there. Sucked into the good dick vortex.”

“Chloe!” Danny groaned in embarrassment.

“Alas,” she sighed dramatically. “I miss those days.”

Danny giggled. “Yeah, right. You and Marcus are sickeningly in love.” It had made Danny feel beyond lonely more than once, watching the two of them together. But he didn’t feel that way anymore. He removed his hands from his face. “It is good with him. More than good, really.”

“But…?” Chloe prompted him, sensing he had more to say.

“He just has some…baggage…that’s been getting in the way a little bit.”

Chloe laughed not unkindly. “Who doesn’t? You’ve definitely got your own. Is he being open and honest about it?”

“Yeah, he is. Although, I might have gotten tipsy last night and harassed him about handling it before we start thinking about a serious future together.”

“Good for you, Danny Boy!” Chloe held her hand up for a high-five, one Danny couldn’t help giving her. “You deserve the best, and sometimes you have to set boundaries to get it.”

“Also…it’s possible that at some point—not right away, maybe after my mom…um—well, I might be…leaving with him? For a while. Maybe a long while. He’s traveled a bunch, and he wants to show me some of where he’s been.”

There, that sounded better than, My boyfriend may at some point turn me into a newbie vampire who becomes crazy with blood lust and needs to leave the city to isolate from friends and family for a while , right?

Chloe was giving him a look Danny couldn’t quite read. “Oh, so it’s serious , huh?”

Danny took a sip of his coffee, avoiding her eye. “It’s getting there, maybe.”

Chloe smiled broadly. “Well, I think that would be amazing.”

“You do? You don’t think it’s crazy I just met him? You wouldn’t be mad if I left?”

“Crazy, maybe, but who isn’t when it comes to love.

And mad ? Daniel Kingman, in all the time I’ve known you, I’ve hardly ever seen you make a decision just for yourself.

If your first one is to run off with your dream man for a while, I’m all for it.

I can’t say I won’t miss you, but you are allowed to live your life. ”

He was, wasn’t he? Danny could stay in town to see his mother through to the end, with Roman at his side, easing her mind as much as he could. And then he would get to actually live his life . His life with Roman.

Adventure and travel and mystery, all Danny’s for the taking. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

His happy daydreams kept Danny company his whole shift, and it wasn’t until work was over and he saw Soren in the driver’s seat of his car to pick Danny up that he realized something was wrong.

Where was Roman?