Noah brushed past her into the penthouse and dropped their bags on the living room sofa. Dust flew up everywhere.
“Oh dear God, what is that stench?” Sydney followed her reluctant nose into the kitchen. In the pantry, there were exploded cans of peaches everywhere. Her dad didn’t eat people food. This was definitely her mom’s food. “Shit, Mom, you couldn’t clean out the pantry when you relocated back to the compound?” she said to the empty room.
The building was worthy of being condemned but it provided shelter, and that was all anyone needed. Nobody needed a kitchen or bathroom. The wolves could go outside. There was a freshwater spring nearby for water and bathing. And they wouldn’t need heat for several months. But she wanted to live like a person, not an animal out in the woods.
She climbed the stairs to check out the rooftop. The water from the pool would have evaporated. Rainwater would collect and there would be algae likely growing on the bottom. But like everything else in this place, it could be fixed with some TLC and maybe a few incantations from Aunt Tam. Not that she’d seen Aunt Tam in years.
As she opened the rooftop door, strong arms pulled her back into the stairwell. Noah’s heart pounded against her back as he nearly crushed her.
“Are you insane? Attempting suicide to get me to fucking talk to you? Jesus, Sydney.”
“I-I wasn’t.”
Sunrise. Oh yeah. It had been a bit light when she’d opened the door. This not falling dead before sunrise thing was still hard to get used to. And she was even less tired today than she’d been recently. Even with traveling all night. She was too wired and hopped up on adrenaline and distraction. Even if she were exhausted, she had a feeling that if the sun didn’t force her body to shut down, her mind wouldn’t turn off and let her rest.
She’d resented the power the sun held over her all her life, the way it could command her to sleep with no argument allowed. Now she wanted it back. She’d never experienced insomnia. She didn’t understand the concept. Now the idea of not being able to sleep felt terrifying.
Noah growled and dragged her down the staircase and into the main living space. She wrenched free of his grip. The red mark healed as soon as she got free.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked. She rubbed her arm, even though it didn’t hurt. But it had hurt a second ago, and he should know it. He shouldn’t be able to get away with manhandling her like that without being subjected to some guilt.
“Me? I’m not the one who decided to experiment with vampiric sunbathing.”
“I wasn’t!”
“Could have fooled me. Are you blind? It’s light out, and you were just going right for the door.”
“What do you care? You’ve been weird since I got up last night. You regret it don’t you? It was just being locked up so long and seeing a familiar face. I’m not really her am I?”
“Her?”
“Your true mate. It’s not me.”
Noah growled. “Oh for fuck’s sake, of course it’s you! It’s always been you.”
“Then why are you acting like you can’t stand the sight of me? I’m sorry I’m a vampire. I can’t help it, Noah. I’m sorry I need blood. I won’t feed from you anymore if it disgusts you that much.” She turned to flounce off into the master bedroom to deal with whatever creepy crawlies had made their home there, when two hundred pounds of angry werewolf growled and shoved her against the wall, completely ruining her flounce.
His eyes glowed golden, his fangs fighting to push through his gums. “You will feed from me. Every day. I won’t let you be weak and sick again.”
He pushed away from her suddenly, as if she were diseased and started to back away.
“That! Right there. What is that? If you’re so insistent I feed from you, why are you doing that?”
“I can’t talk about it.”
Sydney’s eyes glowed red. Unlike Noah she didn’t fight it when her fangs burst forth. “Talk about it!” she shouted.
By now the sun was rising in the sky. It made her forehead feel prickly and odd. Her mind began to scream at her louder and louder about the sun’s growing strength. But she ignored it.
The tiny windows at the top of the walls only allowed small patches of light in. They were easily avoidable. She hadn’t even had a chance to see if the windows in the bedroom were still properly blacked out. And she wouldn’t get a chance to because the last thing she felt was Noah’s arms catching her as the sun claimed her.
When Sydney woke, she was in the master bedroom. Her dad’s Botticelli hung crooked on the wall, cobwebs covering it. She couldn’t believe he’d left it here. He’d always claimed it was a reproduction. But it was the original deal and priceless. Her mom had confided in her once about it. Yet he’d left it here to rot in the last fight when they’d retreated to the compound for good. He hadn’t bothered to retrieve it. Maybe he’d had more on his mind than old art.
The windows were still blacked out, keeping the room dark and safe. She had no doubt the sun was still up, given the pattern of the last few days. Noah’s wolf body curled around her. She could almost forget the last twenty-four hours of weirdness. Almost.
Sydney shoved her mate off her and got up. She carefully avoided the patches of light in the living room. All she wanted was to get out of here, but the sun still held her prisoner. She wanted to get the parental confrontations over with. She needed to warn them. She didn’t know why the magic users hadn’t come yet, but she felt certain it was only a matter of time. They knew exactly where Sydney had come from, and where she was likely going, and with the body count they’d left behind, they would surely want revenge.
Maybe they didn’t care. She was an oddity, a curiosity, but both she and Noah had proven to be too much trouble, and the humans wouldn’t worry the two of them might have an army to fight back.
If Noah and Sydney were more noble they’d want to rescue all the imprisoned preternaturals, but such a thing was like saying you were going to end world hunger. It was too ubiquitous. Even if they shut down that facility, there were thousands more, located in every city that had been taken over.
The smell from the pantry was starting to get to her. The cleaning products in the hall closet had all expired. And there was no running water. She stared at the exploded peach cans. Her mother had some homemade cleaning supplies at the compound. Even if Sydney thought she could avoid her parents forever, now she had to go. She needed to get this penthouse clean. The dust and smells and cobwebs were driving her slowly insane.
She jumped when heavy hands landed on her shoulders.
“I thought perhaps you’d made another suicide attempt.”
“Shut up, Noah.” Was that his attempt at a joke? It wasn’t even funny. It felt like they’d lost their way. As if the chemistry she’d believed they had had only been an illusion, like face-planting into asphalt after trusting the mirage of a lake.
“You need to feed.”
She shrugged out of his grasp. “I don’t want to feed from you. I’ll hunt an animal or something.”
“No! You’re feeding from me. You’re my mate. I have to provide for you.”
The penthouse grew darker, with only moonlight coming in through the tiny thin windows now.