Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
I didn’t know how to help him. I didn’t think I could help him. If Lucy hadn’t been there, pushing her way into his consciousness and making him see her and hear her, I didn’t think we would’ve ever found him at all. He would’ve already been lost to us, along with Zeke.
Hours later, long after the sun had set, we finally stopped at a hotel right off the freeway. I wasn’t sure how we’d made it so far without any issues, but it was beginning to make me twitchy. We still had two days on the road before we made it home, but the closer we got, the more careful I became. The group that had killed Zeke and was probably searching for Charlie at that moment would’ve been fucking ecstatic to know that they’d get two mates for the price of one.
I was just thankful that the heat seemed to be staying at a manageable level as long as Lucy and I were touching. At any moment, that could change, and then my attention would be split much worse than it already was, and we’d be fucked. I needed to stay focused for just a couple more days.
“I’m getting my own room,” Charlie announced as we got out of the car.
“Oh, that’s real nice,” Lucy replied, throwing her arms up.
“Share with your mate,” he snapped.
“It’s not like I chose this,” she sputtered, her eyes wide with hurt.
Charlie sighed tiredly. “I didn’t say you chose it, Luce. Just share with Ambrose, all right?”
He led the way into the office. Lucy fell in beside me, practically vibrating with suppressed emotion. It had been a tough day for her, and I wasn’t sure why. She’d been off since she woke up that morning. More quiet than usual. Thoughtful. She’d also been more demanding of Charlie, and I wasn’t sure why. It was almost as if she was embarrassed by how he was behaving.
When we got to our rooms, Charlie closed himself inside his without a word, and Lucy was near tears.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I locked us in for the night.
“He’s—” Her mouth snapped shut, and she shook her head angrily.
“He’s in pain,” I finished for her.
“That doesn’t mean he gets to treat other people like shit,” she blurted, throwing up her hands. “That doesn’t mean he gets to treat me like shit or you like shit. Charlie doesn’t do that.”
“He hasn’t treated me like shit,” I argued carefully.
“You followed us to Europe,” she spit out. “You found us, and you’re driving us across the country because I refused to tell you where Charlie is, and your brothers had to fly home without you…and he’s so ungrateful. He doesn’t even care.”
“I don’t want him to be grateful.”
“Well, he should be anyway.” Her voice rose. “You lost Zeke too! Charlie doesn’t get to act like—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I interrupted carefully. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but I don’t expect Charlie to do anything or act any certain way.”
She just stared at me.
“Did you know that it’s legal for Vampires to end their own lives?” I asked, moving toward her slowly. “Not only legal—accepted. There’s no shame in it.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“No, it’s not. It’s compassion.” Cupping her face in my hands, I leaned forward so all she saw was me. “Because the grief of losing a mate is so all-encompassing that it would be tortuous to force an immortal to live forever without them.”
Tears welled up in her eyes and dripped unhindered down her cheeks.
“He can’t kill himself,” she whimpered, her chest heaving.
“I don’t think he will,” I assured her. Charlie may be lost in a sea of grief, but I had no doubt that Lucy was his tether to the world. He’d never leave her on purpose, no matter how much pain he was in. “But I do think that you should allow Charlie to live his life however he needs to in order to survive. If that means he sleeps most of the day, then so be it.”
“I don’t understand it,” she rasped, shaking her head a little. “I just…I know that he loved Zeke, but—”
“You will,” I promised her, wiping her tears away with my thumbs. “At some point in the future, you’ll look at your brother and be amazed that he woke up at all, because just the thought of losing your mate will be that horrific.”
“Losing you,” she clarified dryly. She sniffled.
“Losing me,” I agreed.
“You’re pretty and all,” she replied. “But I doubt it.”
It may have been the most serious conversation we’d ever had, and none of it was funny, but I couldn’t help the chuckle that fell from my mouth. “We’ll see.”
“I’m not going to lie,” she said, her eyes crinkling a little at the corners. “I could go for a good kiss, though. With tongue. It’s been a shit day and—”