Page 10 of Vein & Vow (The Bouchers #1)

Chapter 9

Reese

“H ow did you find yourself working at the bank?” Beau asked as I rolled to face him.

His head rested on the crook of his elbow, the wide expanse of his shoulders bare. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to how gorgeous he was.

“Nepotism,” I said, pulling the covers up to my chin. God, his bed was comfortable. “I’ve worked a lot of jobs and got paid okay, but I’d never really found anything I liked. When Noah started Accord, Mr. Miranda asked if I’d like to work there. The rest is history.”

“What do you like about it?”

“Beyond being a giant pain in Noah’s ass?” I smiled. “I like being able to work independently, just me and my music. Also…I don’t know, I like knowing that we’re putting out a product that you can’t just get anywhere, at least not that kind of quality.”

“Accord is well respected,” Beau replied. “Expensive, but that’s not a problem for most Vampires.”

“You get what you pay for,” I reminded him. “It’s not like Noah and Mr. Miranda are getting rich or anything. He’s still teaching asshole teenagers math.”

“You used to be one of those asshole teenagers.”

“I was a fucking delight.”

“I bet.”

“I think he always liked me because I said what was on my mind,” I mused. “He’s always been kind of quiet. So, what about you? Did you always want to be a commando?”

Beau scoffed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “It’s expected unless a Vampire is a genius or something and can serve some other way until they find their mate. It was part of the alliance that Vampires and humans made. I think it was originally set up to keep humans from looking too close at the Vampires who were mated. I liked it okay. I was good at it.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Live a life of leisure,” he teased. “Take up golf.”

“I can’t see you golfing.”

“I’d be excellent at golf.”

“Have you ever done it?”

“No.”

I snorted.

“I’m not sure what I’ll do,” he mused. “My parents run a couple of charities, and I could go that route. My brothers still haven’t found their mates—maybe something with that.”

“Like, research?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, his eyes unfocused. “I’m good with computers.”

“Just for your brothers?” I asked when his words trailed off. “Or would you help other Vampires search?”

“Just an idea,” he said nonchalantly. “I’m not even sure what kind of parameters we could use to narrow down the searches.”

“Noodle on it.”

“What?”

“You know, think it over.”

“Strange expression.”

“You’ve lived forever, and you’ve really never heard that expression?” I asked skeptically.

“I’ve lived a long time,” he said wryly. “I haven’t lived everywhere.”

“I bet you’ve been a lot more places than me,” I replied, tucking my hands under the pillow. “I’ve never even been out of the state.”

“Really?”

“Never had the money,” I replied with a shrug. “I mean, I make enough to live well enough, but it’s not like I’ve got the cash to go to London or something.”

Beau’s shoulders tensed before relaxing again. “Is that where you’d like to go? London?”

“London,” I agreed. “There’s a castle in Germany I’d like to see. The Colosseum in Rome. There’s so much history in Europe, you know? Everything there is old.”

“Ah, you like antiques,” he said, laughter in his voice.

“I see where you’re going with this,” I replied, smiling.

“We’ll travel,” he promised. “Where do you want to go first?”

My mouth opened and closed like a guppy.

“We’ve already discussed that I can afford it,” he reminded me.

“I have to work,” I said finally.

Beau looked at me like I’d grown two heads.

“I mean, I’d have to get the time off,” I mumbled. “There are only two techs. It’s not like I could just take off.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that,” he replied carefully.

“I already told you I wasn’t going to quit my job.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Then what is there to talk about?”

“At this point, you’re still uncomfortable if we aren’t in the same room for more than twenty minutes.”

“Yeah, but that’ll fade.”

“It hasn’t yet.”

“Well, it has to because I’m going back tomorrow.”

“You think that’s wise?”

“I think I have a responsibility, and it’s shitty for me to leave Noah in the lurch because I can’t be away from my boyfriend for more than a few minutes.”

“Mate,” he corrected.

“Whatever.”

“Not whatever.”

“I have to go back tomorrow,” I repeated, a little flutter of panic rising in my chest.

I’d been taking care of myself my entire life. I’d had a full-time job since I was seventeen years old. The thought of taking days off of work without notice and, more importantly, using the paid days off I’d earmarked for an emergency made me sick to my stomach.

Beau sighed and nodded.

“Did you really just give up?”

“It’s your decision,” he replied. “You’re an adult.”

“You’re right, I am,” I said firmly.

“How do you feel when people say I told you so ?” he asked curiously.

I glared. “Try it and find out.”

“Noted.”

“So, how does this immortality thing work?” I asked after a few moments of quiet. “Because your mom doesn’t look twenty-two. I mean, she doesn’t look almost two hundred years old, but?—”

“Parents age as their children do,” Beau explained. “So, they started aging when Ambrose was born and stopped when Zeke hit maturity.”

I thought about it for a moment. “They don’t look fifty and sixty.”

“They don’t age at the same rate as humans,” Beau said with a chuckle. “But they do age.”

“Huh.” I thought about it for a few minutes. “But what if they had more kids now? Would they keep getting older?”

“Impossible.”

“I don’t know. Your mom looks pretty capable of having more kids. She seems barely older than us.”

“There’s a ten-year window after a mating bond is formed when Vampires and their mates can have children. After that, we’re no longer fertile.”

“Seriously?” I leaned up on my elbow.

“Yes. Biology is a strange thing. I’d imagine it was to keep some kind of balance. If someone lived forever and could potentially just keep having more and more children…”

“You could build your own army,” I joked.

“Something like that.”

“But what if you’re not ready for children?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I guess you have ten years to decide, and then you’re out of luck.”

“That sucks.”

“On the other hand, you’re immune to all human disease and live forever,” he replied dryly. “The trade-off seems fair.”

“I guess so. Do you want kids?”

“Yes.” The response was immediate.

“How many?”

“However many we get.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it again. “That isn’t as terrifying of an answer considering there’s a time limit,” I said finally.

Beau laughed. “Do you want kids?”

“I haven’t really thought about it,” I confessed. “I mean, there wasn’t really any reason to. I’ve been single most of my adult life, and being a single parent doesn’t appeal.”

“Understandable.”

“But I don’t want them now ,” I said quietly. “We just met, and I’ve already met my quota of impulsive decisions for the rest of my life.”

“We’ll wait,” he replied, reaching out to run his fingertips over my arm. “There’s no rush.”

“But there sorta is.”

“We have ten years. We could wait for a couple and then revisit.”

“Okay, yeah.” I sighed. “Yeah, that works. I’m on birth control, so?—”

“Human birth control doesn’t work on mates.”

“Fuck.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Condoms for the win,” I sang glumly.

“I can take a pill,” he replied evenly, his lips twitching.

“Men can take birth control pills?”

“ Vampires have medication that prevents conception, yes.”

“Whoa.”

“The idea that the female partner should shoulder that responsibility makes little sense if you consider that she’ll be responsible for actually growing the child should they choose to have one.”

“I agree,” I announced loudly.

“That’s good since there’s currently no birth control option for mates.”

“Oh, well.” I huffed and laid back down. “What if she doesn’t want one and her mate disagrees?”

Beau stared like I was crazy.

“What? It happens.”

“Not in our culture, it doesn’t.”

“That’s a pretty broad declaration,” I argued. “Do you know every single Vampire on the planet?”

“If a Vampire forced his mate to have his children, he would be ostracized. It’s not done.”

“I’m sure there’s someone?—”

“Fine,” he said flatly. “There could possibly be a Vampire somewhere at some point that went against his mate’s wishes and got her pregnant.”

“Both males and females should have the option.”

“I think—” He paused.

“What?”

“I think that mates don’t have birth control because they’re rare. It sometimes takes hundreds of years for a Vampire to find their mate, so once they’re found, researchers aren’t willing to gamble on trying medication that has the potential to make them sterile. And Vampires sure as hell aren’t willing to let their mates be guinea pigs.”

“Well, that’s annoyingly understandable.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“This is weird, right?” I asked, sliding my legs against the cool sheets. “I mean we just met and we’re discussing children.”

“Mating bonds are for life. Why wouldn’t we decide together what that looks like?”

“I just mean, it’s really soon to just be putting it all out there.”

“Human relationships are bizarre.”

“ We’re bizarre?” I widened my eyes at him. “Seriously?”

“The Gods chose you for me and me for you. It’s not as if anything either of us do will change that now. We’ll figure out the rest as we go.”

“As easy as that, huh?”

“I’d imagine being the one to choose a lifelong partner would be stressful. How would you ever know if you’d made the right choice?”

“A lot of people get it wrong,” I joked. “That’s why there are so many divorces.”

“Bizarre,” he repeated.

“You’re bizarre,” I grumbled.

“I saved you from a lot of uncertainty.”

I laughed. “Because this whole thing hasn’t been a complete mindfuck,” I replied sarcastically.

“That’s fair.”

“I know it is.”

“You always have to have the last word, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

Beau didn’t actually roll his eyes, but the expression of exasperation said exactly what he was thinking.

“What was it like growing up back then?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Dirty,” he replied with a huff. “Simpler. Scarier, at least as a kid. Back then only the highest levels of government even knew we existed. Humans were more superstitious, so anything remotely strange or different was suspicious.”

“The witch trials.” I nodded sagely.

“That was before my time,” he corrected with a wince.

“Oh, sorry,” I teased. “Did I age you?”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

“I’m twice as funny as I think I am.”

“It was slower,” he said, reaching over to pull me toward him. “We lived in town, so there was always a lot of movement, but at the end of the day, homes were quiet. We’d play, and my mom would make dinner?—”

“You didn’t have a maid?”

“We were trying to blend in,” he said, tightening his arm around me. “And contrary to every show on television, the average household didn’t have help.”

“Hmm.”

“We never went without, but we lived modestly. Our parents chose to raise us that way.”

“They clearly changed their minds,” I said, gesturing at the room around us.

“My father knows how to invest.”

“Obviously.”

“I do, too,” he said with a grin.

“Good to know.”

“We had friends we played with,” he said, leaning his head back on the pillow as he tucked me into his side. “Families from church we spent time with.”

“Your dad went to church?”

“Trying to fit in, remember? That was what you did back then. It was bad enough that he was covered in tattoos like some kind of pirate. We had to be careful with the face we presented to the world.”

“That seems overwhelming.”

“They tried to shield it from us.”

“Kids see everything.”

“Yes, they do. Plus, it was infuriating to an eight-year-old, knowing that we wouldn’t actually catch the measles that was making its way through all the children on our street, but had to stay inside like all the other children anyway. We knew that we could never say that we were immune, but the urge was there. Thankfully, we had built-in playmates that we didn’t have to pretend around.”

“Is that why your parents had so many of you?”

“Five isn’t that many.”

“Five is practically a litter.”

“I’m going to tell my mother you said that.”

“Please don’t.”

“I think my parents had five children because as soon as one child was weaned, she got pregnant again until she was no longer able to. Back then, our family was actually considered on the smaller side. Though, I think that the other mothers were jealous of our mom because she didn’t lose any of us in infancy.”

“She’d lost two before your dad, though, right?”

“It was a long time before she was willing to talk about them,” he replied with a sigh. “None of us knew about her previous life until we were older.”

“I can’t imagine how hard that would be, to have children that no one even knows existed.”

“But worse,” he said, running his fingers through my hair. “With no proof that they’d ever existed except the family bible.”

“She doesn’t have?—”

Beau shook his head. “She doesn’t have anything. They were buried on the farm, and all their things were burned. I’d imagine their markers were made of wood, which would be long gone even if there wasn’t a grocery store there now.”

“Holy crap,” I murmured, sniffling. I blinked away the tears in my eyes. Poor Mattie.

“That won’t be our life,” he said, sliding down the bed until we were nose to nose. “Our sons won’t get sick. They’ll be protected.”

“Sons, not daughters, huh?” I joked.

Beau just stared. It was a look that I was beginning to recognize. There was something he was nervous to tell me.

“Vampires are only male, Reese,” he said slowly. “I thought—I’m sorry, I thought that was common knowledge.”

I let out a snort of embarrassed laughter. “I did know that.” I just hadn’t considered that it pertained to me, to us. Of course Vampires were only male. Everyone knew that. Mates could be either male or female, but there’d never been a female birth recorded. “Right. Slipped my mind for a minute.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why the hell would you be sorry?”

“I know some women would like to have girls?—”

“Even if you were human, I wouldn’t know what I was getting until the deed was already done,” I pointed out. “I could’ve ended up with all boys anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“And we haven’t even decided if that’s something we’re planning to do,” I reminded him.

“Also true.”

“Your childhood sounded pretty idyllic,” I said, laying my head on his chest. “If we decide to have kids, we should shoot for that.”

“Your childhood wasn’t?” he asked, running his fingers up and down my back.

“I lived in forty-two foster homes,” I replied with a short laugh. “A couple were good. One was great. Most of them sucked. Didn’t matter, though. When my time was up, I was shipped off to the next one.”

His arm tightened around my back.

“My birth parents were the worst, though,” I said, tipping my head up to look at him. “And eventually, I met Rena. So, I guess it worked out in the end.”

We spoke long into the night about pretty much everything. I loved Thai food, but Beau’s favorite was Italian. He didn’t like wearing shoes and warned me that he was pretty much barefoot all summer, just like when he was a kid. I told him about the thrift stores that I liked to go to on the weekends, which stores were overpriced but worth it, and which ones were really cheap but didn’t have as much cool stuff. He informed me that his mother liked to go to the fancy estate sales that were invitation only, and he’d tell her I wanted to go with her next time. We discussed Rena and all of the harebrained ideas we’d gone through with over the years.

It felt good to get to know each other, even if it was mostly surface stuff, and I started to wonder if maybe accepting the mating bond hadn’t been the stupidest thing I’d ever done.