Chapter 14

As the car pulls into my driveway, my house looks just as I left it. The light on the front porch is still on, and the same slightly run-down furniture sits unmoved. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. It’s the same house I was raised in, the same house that my parents gave to me—after they moved to Florida without a second thought about leaving their daughter alone mid-mental breakdown. My same old lonely house that I plan to seclude myself in for the rest of my days. After tonight, I never want to leave it again.

Before getting out of the car, I think about Elijah. Although a lot of the car ride was spent turning over all of the new knowledge that I have, I also spent a decent amount worried about my best friend. I hope he got home okay. He’s probably worried sick about me. I just left and didn’t say anything to him because I was being kidnapped by my insane ex-boyfriend. Honestly, I’m surprised he isn’t here, waiting for me to get home. I turn to Chris, who’s just watching me intensely. I don’t think he has actually taken his eyes off me once during the entire car ride. “Did you happen to see Elijah before you guys left?”

I asked Chris, but Bash speaks up first. “I compelled him to go home. We made sure he was safe before we left. He should be at home in his bed, sleeping off his hangover.” He… what?

I blink—an automatic reflex in response to a series of words that made sense individually, but not so much when strung together as a sentence. “Sorry, can you try plain English next time? What does that mean, that you compelled him to go home?” I’m starting to get annoyed, simply because I just don’t understand any of this and it’s frustrating as hell.

He just chuckles at my response and explains. “It means that I made him go home. Vampires can pretty much make any human do whatever we want, with a little bit of eye contact. It’s kinda like mind control. But the effects are usually temporary. I just told him that he needed to go home and sleep, so he did. And when he wakes up, it will be like nothing ever happened.”

My jaw drops. I stare at them, stunned at what I just heard.

“And he won’t know that you did that?” I’m stammering, but this is way too much to process. Vampires. Mind control. Strange powers. Dark, misty teleportation. I’m sure there is so much more I don’t know. And whatever. I don’t care to find out.

Chris answers this time. “No, he won’t know that he was compelled. He’ll wake up with no memory of what happened. He’ll think he went home of his own accord and went to bed.”

I immediately think back to the moment at the party when Oliver told me to look at him—forced me to look at him. And then I woke up on the tour bus. He must have compelled me. That’s how he got me to go with him. And I had no fucking idea. The fire of fury within me is starting to ignite once again. “I think that’s what Oliver did to me at the party. He forced me to look at him, and then… then I woke up on a tour bus.” I shudder thinking about it. If that’s only one of the insanely powerful things that vampires are capable of, and I don’t even know the sum total of it, I’m really not safe around them, more so than I initially thought.

“Yeah, he definitely compelled you. He was probably just trying to avoid making a scene so that it seemed like you went with him willingly,” Chris says with a low rumble in his chest.

I reach to push a loose strand of hair behind my ear when I realize that I still have dried blood on the side of my face. I can’t even imagine the terror that I look like right now. “My wound… How did it heal? I felt the wound close underneath my fingertips when I tried to find where the bleeding was coming from. How is that possible?”

“Our blood heals, Dani. Among other things…” Chris trails off, looking away from me. He inhales deeply. “You drank Oliver’s blood. It was still in your system after the crash, and whatever damage it caused you was healed by his blood.”

“Yeah, our blood is some strong shit. We can save a human on the cusp of death, or give them a high so good that-”

Chris cuts Bash off before he can finish that intriguing sentence. “Enough, Bash.”

Bash grins sheepishly and shrugs his shoulders. “Anyways, that’s the general gist of it.”

“Interesting.” Realization strikes that I’m surrounded by three vampires that exhibited a truly incredible amount of power even over other vampires. “Anyways, thanks for the ride home. I really need to get inside… away. So goodbye.” I give Chris a weak smile that doesn’t meet my eyes and reach for the door handle.

Benji and Bash nod their heads, but Chris just looks astounded.

“It was nice to meet you, Danica. Sorry, it all came out like that. Be careful, though. Oliver’s gonna be coming after you, so just… pay attention,” Benji says.

I shrug. Yeah, I’ve already been warned, and I still don’t care. “I’m not worried about it. Enjoy the rest of your tour.” And then I get out of the car and don’t look back.

But I want to look back. God, I want to look back so badly. As I walk to my door, my heart starts pounding in my chest. I can’t breathe. It feels like a part of me is being stripped away, like I’ve just lost something. Shaking and breathing hard, I turn slowly to see that the car is still there. They were all watching me, and upon seeing Chris’ eyes resting on me, I immediately feel like I’m okay.

Breathe, Dani. It’s just early-onset Stockholm Syndrome. You escaped. Just walk through your door, and this will all be over. The small delusional part of my brain, the part that’s making me stare at Chris like he’s everything I’ve ever wanted in this life, whispers to me that maybe I don’t want this—him—to be gone from my life.

Trying to slow my breathing, I turn back towards my house and walk up the front steps. I place my house key into the door and swing it open. Almost as if the movement was a trigger, my breathing goes ragged once more. I’m frozen in the doorway. I can’t bring myself to take a step into my home without the deep feelings of cataclysmic loss washing through me. There’s a tiny part of me that thinks, if I stay on this side of the door where I can still feel Chris’ eyes resting on my back, those feelings of loss won’t break me.

The next thing I know, a hand is on my shoulder, gently urging me to turn around. I complete the spin to face Chris, who’s standing in front of me, breathing just as uneven as myself—just as breathless. His lips part as he searches my eyes, and he wraps his big hands around my upper arms, rubbing his thumbs along the sensitive skin . A small surge of pleasure explodes through me at his touch. “Please come with me, kitten. You’re not safe here, but I can protect you if you come with me. Please, Dani.” His thumbs are still making small circles along my upper arms. It’s magnetic, and the way he touches me is electrifying.

The moment he touched me, my breathing slowed. I could think again. The world didn’t feel quite so overwhelming or overstimulating. I want to believe this beautiful man. I want to go with him, but I just can’t. I would be such a fool if I did. But I refuse to be the laughingstock again. I won’t be humiliated and broken by a man ever again. I know these things as well as I know my own birthday. But I still don’t move away from him and his burning touch. For some reason, I just can’t. “I’m not going with you, Chris. You saved me tonight, and I’m grateful that you did. But this, all of this? This is just too much for me. I-I can’t.” I try to turn away, but his grip firms on my arms. It doesn’t hurt, though; under the right set of circumstances, it might even feel good.

“What can I do to make you reconsider? I’ll do anything.” Everything about him, from his piercing stare to the lean of his body into my space, is pleading with me to change my mind.

“Why?” I whisper. “Why do you care so much what happens to me, Chris?” I think back to what they told me in the car—about the compulsion. “You could just compel me. That’s what you vampires do, right? Force humans to do whatever you want. ’Cause that’s the only way I’m getting back in that car with you. You’ll have to make me go, against my will.”

He frowns and drops his arms, and I can tell he’s upset at my words. When he meets my eyes again, his expression is sincere. “I told you I would never take your free will from you. I meant it.”

“Then just go away. I want to be alone. I don’t want to think about vampires, or Oliver, or any of the weird shit that’s happened to me in the last twelve hours. I want to go back to my miserable life, and you should go back to… whatever your vampire life is, I guess. I don’t want any part of this world.”

“Dani…” He stops mid-sentence as he tries to walk through my door and rebounds. It’s like he hit an invisible barrier. “God fucking damn it.” A disgruntled sigh erupts from him.

“So that myth’s true then? About vampires, I mean. You can’t come in, unless I invite you in?” I take a step backward over the threshold into my house. My vampire-free house. My gaze remains locked on this agonizingly beautiful man who makes my heart beat fast in his presence, and break at the thought of not seeing him again.

“Yeah, that one’s true. I can’t come in unless you invite me.” His lashes lower as he pushes his hands through his jet-black hair. “Come with me, little kitten. Please. I want to, no, I need to keep you safe.” He lifts his eyes and gives me a look that could make my heart stop. My knees are weak, my breath hitching as I stare at him. If he keeps looking at me like that, I think I’ll do almost anything. I pause. Almost.

Stop it, Dani! You’re not going with the extremely handsome vampire who makes your heart stutter. Shut the door. “If you can’t come in, then neither can Oliver. I think I’m perfectly safe. He can’t get to me here.”

He just keeps looking at me with that heart-stopping, panty-melting stare. After a second, his lips stretch into a smirk. “There are other ways to make you come out. He doesn’t need to get in.”

The feelings of desire licking along my skin quickly dissolve into anger at his cryptic statement. “I said I don’t care. Now go. Go on your tour. Just forget about me. I’ll be fine.”

He frowns. “You can’t be serious, Dani.”

“As a heart attack, little puppy.” With that retort, I slam the door in his face.

* * *

I sit in my shower, legs pulled up to my chest, water falling around me. I feel like I’m drowning. Completely empty. Lost. Utterly shattered. A broken sob escapes me, and I let it—let all of the pain consume me.

How could I have been so stupid? In a moment of weakness, I gave into Oliver and let my ex touch me in ways he didn’t deserve to, but I desperately needed. That’s the sick part. I wanted to feel him. I needed to feel him, to take advantage of the experience of feeling something other than grief and misery for the first time in years.

And then he was going to kill me. Of course he was. Oliver has been alive all this time. When he finally came for me, he kidnapped me, lured me into his clutches, seduced me, and almost killed me—hell of a return. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if Chris never showed up. Would I even still be alive? I don’t know if I actually care, given everything I’ve experienced. At least if Oliver killed me, I wouldn’t have to continue feeling this bottomless pit of anguish. It’s insufferable. Consuming. Mind breaking.

Everything that has happened since arriving at that concert has wholly altered my brain chemistry. It’s still hard to fully comprehend that this all happened to me, that vampires are real, and that one wants me dead. Not just any one. The vampire that wants me dead is Oliver. I don’t understand why, though.

Then there’s Chris. He came to save me with Benji and Bash, but I’m not sure why he felt like he needed to do that. Yeah, he flirted with me. He obviously likes me. Or—my lower lip pulls between my teeth—maybe he’s just a good person. Vampire. Whatever.

I snort loudly. Yeah, right. He’s probably just as fucking crazy as Oliver, and I just haven’t seen his true colors yet. But now I will never have to. I told him to leave, and he did. I watched their car leave my driveway.

The water is turning cold around me, and I’m shivering, but I can’t stop thinking about watching them—watching Chris, if I’m being honest with myself—drive away. As he left, that overwhelming feeling of loss came back to me. I couldn’t move or breathe. I was suffocating in the open air, my chest feeling like it was being cracked open with me left to rot. It was almost like I was grieving. I don’t fully understand what it means or why it happened. The feeling dissipated after a short while, but the sense of loss was still there, lingering in the background.

After an hour, I finally get out of the shower and towel-dry my hair before throwing it up in a bun. I tug on a white tank top and a baggy pair of pink sweatpants and quickly clean the residual makeup from my face. Finally, after hours of bad decisions and trauma, I crawl into bed—after making sure to place my phone on the charger so that I can call Elijah when I wake up. Oh god. I don’t even know where to start with that conversation. What am I even going to tell him? I can’t tell him the truth. He would really think I’ve lost my mind once and for all if I told him everything that happened. I’m sure I’ll come up with something on a whim, but I hate lying to him. I guess I’m going to have to get okay with it, though, because he would have me locked up in a mental institution if I told him that vampires are real. I can’t tell him the truth.

I let out a long sigh, pressing my fingers against my closed eyes, before popping them back open to stare at the ceiling. All of this throws me back into my usual routine. It doesn’t feel so usual, though, now that my mind is swimming with everything that happened last night.

This feels so unreal. Life altering. But I’ve made my decision. I don’t want any part of that. I want to enjoy my life of solitude, and just become a hermit. It’s a simple existence. No vampires. No scary ex-boyfriends who want to kill me. I’ll just forget it all. Or, at least, I’ll pretend.

I’m committed to this plan, but as I let my eyes drift close and sleep consume me, a little voice in the back of my head bucks at the idea of letting Chris go.