“I lit the grill. It’ll be a minute or two until I start. I want to get it perfectly right, so I want to give you something that someone else gave to me.” He preheated the oven. Ace moved like he knew what he was doing in the kitchen. Caesar did too, but then again, they’d been feeding themselves for years. And unlike me, they had the means to spend whatever they wanted on food. I didn’t know how to cook because no one taught me, and what I could afford couldn’t be wasted attempting to make things that might not work out.
He pulled a salad bag out of the fridge next. It was one of the pre-made ones. “See why I don’t need your help making it? I let someone else do it already.”
That was cute, but he was being really hesitant with this giving-me-something-that-was-his thing. “Ace?”
“I want you to take my car when I’m gone.”
No. That was absolutely too much. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that. That would make me very uncomfortable.”
“Please listen to my reasons?” He was messing with the baked potatoes, putting them on a tray. “No one will drive it. It will end up in a garage, one of a hundred expensive cars no one drives. It’ll just die somewhere, with no one using it. I’d rather it go to you and be driven around.”
“Ace, you’re going to be awake in a year. I can drive it around to keep it going but leave it for you when you come back.”
His face fell. “Sweetheart, I won’t be awake during the day for years. Maybe fifty to a hundred of them. And once I’m up, I won’t be driving around for decades. I’ll be feeding and fighting. Or whatever. But not driving. Trust me, it will die.” He visibly swallowed. “Like I’m going to die.”
“Ace.” I put my head in my hands. “Let’s all run away tonight. Let’s go now. Get the others. Just fucking go. Where does the Betrayer live? We’ll go there. He can have a big win, the children of his enemy, with the stipulation he doesn’t make you change.”
“No one knows where he lives. They can’t track him. Or yes, that would be a good idea. I only know that much because my father talks. We can’t count on the Betrayer. Besides, with that name, he doesn’t seem real trustworthy.”
That was it. I let the tears I’d been holding fall. I gave up. All of it was too much. Ace rushed over to me, dropping the potatoes as he did. He had his arms around me. “Never mind. Don’t take the car. Forget it.”
I shook my head, definitely getting snot all over him, but when I would’ve pulled away, he stopped me. “It’s not the car. It’s everything.”
“I know it is.” He kissed my temple. “I’d take all of this from you, if I could.”
“Fuck. His cooking isn’t that bad.” Rowan entered, approaching us slowly. “Arguably, Caesar is better. And I’m not half bad, either, but he can handle this.”
I couldn’t help it. My tears turned to laughter. Ace followed me, and we were both soon hysterical. Rowan ran his hand through my hair.
“So I’m not going to apologize, because Griffin might show up and bite off my head. I’m simply going to ask…what can I do to help?”
I wiped at my eyes. “Nothing. That is very sweet, but nothing. I’m okay. Just having a moment. And I totally soaked Ace’s shirt.”
For his part, he shook his head. “Use me to cry on anytime.”
“Let me think about the car, okay? I’d rather we all get in it and leave. Right now.”
Rowan’s face fell. “Did you not tell her?”
“No, it seemed a little bit much. I wanted to give her steak and celebrate her, not make it even worse.”
I put my hands on my head. “All of the constant hedging is getting old. What didn’t you tell me?”
Rowan held up his arm. “I think they must have been getting worried that we were legitimately considering a run. The funny thing is we seriously talked about this a few years ago. Not currently. But they tagged us.” He pointed to the specific place. “Yesterday. Like we’re animals. So unless we dig it out of our skin—which I would be willing to do if I didn’t know it was pointless, since the vampire network is such that I’ll never really be able to get away from my destiny—they’ll be able to find us. We are completely trackable now.”
Not only now. “That will be after you’re vampires too. I mean…they could conceivably track you from this point on for however long you guys live. I guess I’m saying that is…intense. Is this because you’re carrying around the souls of some dead vampires? Or is there something else going on? Have they ever done this before?”
“Have they ever done what before?” Caesar entered, followed by Tanner and Griffin.
Ace winked at me as he walked to the fridge and grabbed the other steaks. Looked like he wasn’t getting his dinner alone with me after all. Was that something we could actually do? It seemed important to him, and I wanted to make it happen. In fact, I wouldn’t have said no to spending alone time with all of them.
However, I’d lived long enough to know most of the time what I wanted absolutely didn’t happen.
Besides, I didn’t mind all of them together as a group either. It was so normal, so comforting, like we had been together like this a hundred times when we absolutely hadn’t. Internally, I shook my head. Would I ever understand any of it?
I just loved it. That was all there was to it. Every moment I was with them, I loved. The thought should have scared the shit out of me, but it didn’t. It hadn’t, and I doubted it ever would.
Oh man.
It looked like we were having steak.
It was delicious, but I liked the company more than the food. I loved the laughter. The quiet moments that didn’t last long because one of them would usually fill the space. And when they sang happy birthday to me, it ranked among the happiest moments of my life.
“Gotta go.” Caesar sighed. “Griffin and I have a task to take care of at Wanda’s. I’ll see you all later.”
“Yep.” Griff jumped up, kissing me on the cheek as he passed by.
The rest of us cleaned up and ended up getting ready for bed. It was very quiet after that. I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but they all seemed to have things on their minds. That was fine. How could they not?
I put on some new pajamas, which earned me a grin from Tanner before he pulled out his guitar. “Good taste there, Rowan.”
I touched the strap of the pink tank top I wore. “You?” I asked Rowan.
“I thought you’d look pretty in the matching set. I was right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know it’s technically my turn, but you’re not a toy we’re passing around. You can decide who you sleep with. You can also decide to sleep alone. What would you like for tonight?”
I gestured toward the bed. “Please. Join me.”
His smile was huge, and it lit up my soul. Rowan so rarely grinned like that. I wanted to roll around in it. We climbed into the bed together, but it wasn’t really time to sleep yet. Ace flipped on the television, and a movie came on that I didn’t recognize. But while Tanner strummed quietly on his guitar, we watched a story about a man who had to solve a mystery even though he couldn’t remember what happened to him.