Page 184 of Vampires of Eden

After I woke up and fed from him, he ran and brought Amber to check on me. I’ve visited her clinic before in the hopes that she might have some supplements to help with my slow regeneration. Unfortunately, my case was too severe and she couldn’t help.

When Amber came back to the room with Alexander a few hours ago, she checked my blood-pressure and pulse. Then theinside of my throat and the burns on my arms, which were mild but not quite healed. Amber re-wrapped the wounds and told us to try and get some sleep.

Before he passed out, Alexander told me that he and Leoni suspect Lord Cherrington is behind the fire. Leoni saw someone driving away from the cottage as she approached, and her description matches one of Lord Cherrington’s manservants.

That fucking evil, ancient-ass haughty-ass vampire really has it out for me, doesn’t he? Holy shit. I expected society’s reaction to our bond to be pretty bad, but not “Let’smurderDaniel” bad.

A steady buzz registers across the room atop Alexander’s suitcase. It’s been doing that all night.

Alexander shifts onto his back, adjusting and groaning softly. Trying to speak was hard when I first woke up, but I want to give it another shot. We need to talk and I have questions.

This time, I clear my throat, swallow and attempt a whisper. “Rabbit?” It comes out hoarse, but already better than a few hours ago. A good sign.

Alexander’s head turns toward me and his eyes are suddenly alert and open. Like he’s been hit with a high-voltage shock. “Yes?”

“Your phone… it’s ringing.”

Frowning, he waves a hand. “Fuck that thing. How are you feeling? Does it hurt to talk?”

“I’m okay.” I start to push myself upright and he’s there, assisting me until I’m comfortable with my back against the headboard. My hair feels scratchy and strange on my neck so I lift my fingers to grip it. The texture is wrong. Too dry and brittle. When I pull my hand back toward my face, it breaks and several strands crumble in my palm. Everything inside of me lurches with disbelief as I draw in a horrified breath.

“Try not to panic,” Alexander says, shifting so that his body faces me. He takes hold of my free hand that isn’t covered in burned hair. “Stressing won’t help you heal. You’re alive, Danny. That’s all that matters.”

Is it? I clench the ruined hair in my fist and close my eyes, breathing and trying not to scream—which I can’t even do right now if I tried.

“If you want, I can call my barber to make a special trip out here. He can fix it. It’ll grow back, you’ll be okay.”

Given everything that’s happened in the past forty-eight hours, logically, I know that my hair is trivial. But it’s just one more thing, isn’t it? Haven’t I been through enough?

Bristling, I settle my shoulders and open my eyes. I don’t want to talk about my hair. “What happened… with your mother?”

Alexander groans. “It was a disaster. She said all kinds of horrible shit to me, then sheslappedme like we were characters in a fucking telenovela.”

“She slapped you?”

“Yes,” he exhales heavily and drops back against the headboard. Across the room, Alexander’s phone finally stops buzzing, but within seconds, it starts up again. “She’s out of her mind, Danny. She wouldn’t listen to me at all—or Father. But he barely said anything. He told me that he supported us, but then he didn’t say a word when she was berating me! What’s the use of trying to talk to them when they act like this?”

The emotion and pain in his expression nearly rips my already aching heart into pieces. “And someone hurt you,” he goes on. “Literally, some insane vampire put you in danger. I’m done with this. Fuck all of it.”

His distress weighs heavily in the room like a morose and angry fog. I feel it and yet, it doesn’t drag me down. “You can’t be done with it,” I say.

“Why not?”

“Because… you have important things to do here, Rabbit. The proposal. The Governing Board.”

“Someone else can do it. You and me can leave today. Everyone else is leaving. Maybe this place is beyond help. Let it die”

With his hand gripped in mine, we sit quietly for a longmoment. I hear energetic birdsong beyond the window, welcoming the start of a new day.

Alexander’s phone vibrates, again.

“Would you be willing to leave?” he asks, dipping his head to catch my gaze as I stare blankly across the room. “If it meant you’d be safe, would you come with me?”

“Yes, but…” I say, then swallow and take another breath. Talking is steadily becoming easier, like my voice simply needs more practice. It’s still scratchy, but getting stronger. “That’s not what you really want. You’re upset. I’m upset. We can’t make a decision like that right now. It’s too important.”

And it will ultimately impact the vampires that we leave behind. Vampires like me.

“I think you over estimate my importance in all of this,” he says. “If I leave, someone else will probably work things out. Eventually.”