14
Nick and I had only been resting in my bed for all of a minute when his cellular phone began ringing. He had taken my blindfold off, and in the pale early morning sunshine streaming through the crack in the curtains, I saw him grimace in response to the shrill noise coming from his phone.
He then sighed, giving his eyes a slight roll. "Probably something having to do with the Dormios. Probably more of their spies getting caught. They seem to be awfully bold for some reason lately. They seem cocky, even. Like they think they're about to own this city or something, and they're just getting impatient to move right on in.
“What they don’t seem to get, and what they haven’t seemed to get for decades, is that I’ll never give this city up in a thousand years. I’ll never let it fall, no matter what. I’ve worked too hard to build it, and now it’s the home of my people…and now it’s your home, too, Tiffany. I’m determined to keep you and all my people safe, and I will.”
I said I knew that, and he answered the phone call, listened for a few moments, and then said that he’d be there soon, wherever “there” was. I could only guess it was the outskirts of the city, where Dormio spies had been frequently spotted. Although Nick and I hadn’t yet discussed it, I had a feeling that the spies were my fault, in a way. Nick had said that the Dormios and the government were now working together to bring Everglen down, and I assumed that Nick taking me to the city had only intensified their efforts.
After all, now they not only had the problem of taking down Everglen but reclaiming me as well, so that I could never have a child with a vampire and produce a hybrid were-vampire. I was starting to feel like the were-gene I possessed was something more like a curse, even though it was what had gotten Nick to rescue me in the first place. It wasn’t lost on me that I never would have even met him otherwise.
After putting his phone on the nightstand, he surprised me by stretching out next to me in bed again and taking me into his arms. “I wish that things could be easier for us, for your sake. I wish we could continue our new relationship in peace, with no fear of the Dormios or the government. They will never stop trying to end us. So, what else can we do but continue to fight them?
“Last night at the council meeting, everyone agreed with me on this. It’s best to just continue on with our current defense strategy until I can get you pregnant and gain the increased strength that will come with that. Then, I'll be able to take on John and all his fighters, and we'll be able to get rid of them all for good."
Thinking, I didn’t answer right away, wondering if I should even say anything. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, I thought. However, after a few moments, I just had to speak.
“Nick? Are you with me because you truly want to be with me, or is there some part of you that just wants me because of the increased strength you gain when I get pregnant? Are you really in love with me?”
When he answered, his eyes held unmistakable sincerity. “I wasn’t just telling you a line when I said that I’m falling in love with you, Tiffany. I truly am. I can’t deny that when we first met, my main goal was just to have a child with you, because you possess the were-gene.
“That’s what I was thinking when I first read your government file at the prison, anyway. But then, like I’ve told you before, I saw a certain fire in your eyes that captivated me completely. I think right then, maybe at that very moment, I started falling in love with you. It almost felt inevitable. I really hope you believe me about all this.”
I decided that I did, and I told him so. “I guess I just wanted to be sure.”
“Well, you can be sure. You can trust me, always. Maybe I don’t even need to say this, but I’m also not using you just for the increased strength I’ll get when you become pregnant. That’s going to be a very nice bonus, yes, in our fight against the Dormios, and like with you possessing the were-gene, it was one of my initial thoughts when I was considering breaking you out of the jail with me.
“Now, it’s so much more. I want to have a child with you because I want to share a life with you. The fact that our child will be a hybrid, and possibly the strongest supernatural creature the world has ever seen before, is just a bonus. The increased strength I’ll gain by you becoming pregnant is just a bonus. But they’re not the main things. They’re not the things that matter most to me. The new love that we’re developing together is. That’s why I’ll protect you with everything in me if and when the Dormios attack the city.”
“Well, what if I can also protect myself at the same time? What if I’m able to get my powers back by then? I don’t know exactly how I might be able to--”
“No, Tiffany. I’d never want you to fight. It’s far too dangerous. I wouldn’t want you to fight, even if you were to get your powers back full-strength.”
“But--”
“You’re a human woman…which means it’s just too dangerous.”
“But just listen. Avenging what was done to my coven is important to me. Now that I know the truth about what happened, I want to get revenge on the Dormios, if I can.”
“You don’t have to, though. I’ll take revenge on the Dormios.”
“But it was my coven…my family. I should be the one to do it, if I can. I should at least try to help.”
Nick sighed. “I could never let you. It’s far too dangerous, and I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you. Not to mention that none of this even matters. The fact of the matter is that you don’t have your powers back, and without them, there would be nothing you could really do against the Dormios. It would be pointless for you to even try.”
I knew he was right, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel a little stung by what he’d said. I at least wished that he’d take my offer of help more seriously. After all, there was still a chance that my powers could return. And if they did, I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to participate in a fight, if a fight ever occurred in Everglen. It was my home now. I felt I had a right to defend it, even beyond just getting revenge for what had happened to my coven.
I wanted to discuss things further with Nick, but at present, it seemed that my best course of action was to just remain silent. I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him for the time being. This didn’t mean that I wanted to just drop things, though, and I told him this.
“I want to talk about this again sometime…maybe after we’ve both had the chance to think things over a little more.”
Once again, he sighed. "Well...fine, but as for right now, I really do need to get going."
As if to make his point, he got up and began throwing on his clothes.
A little miffed, I turned my face away from him. “Fine.”
A short while later, when he was fully dressed, he asked if I was upset, and I didn’t answer. I really didn’t know what to say. On one hand, I could see that maybe I was being a little unreasonable. But on the other hand, I couldn’t help but wish that he wouldn’t act like my request to help was nothing more than an annoyance.
Probably sensing that he’d truly upset me, or at least had put me in a foul mood, Nick asked if he could show me something to “cheer me up.” When I again didn’t respond, he walked over to my windows, pulled the curtains open, and gestured to something outside. "Have you seen that thick piece of steel that connects this building to the next one over? And can you see it now?"
I had and I could, so I nodded.
"Okay, good. This steel beam is just for structural support until construction on the next building over gets finished, but right now, it's going to serve a different purpose for us. It's going to help me show you something that I think will make you smile, and it'll just take a few seconds. I’ll be right back. Just watch."
Even before I could blink, Nick had opened the window and screen and had leaped out onto the steel beam beyond. Extending from just below my window all the way to the roof of the unfinished twelve story steel-and-glass building just across the way, a distance of maybe fifty feet or so, the massive beam was about a foot thick, though only wide enough for a person's foot with maybe just an inch or two to spare.
Against a backdrop of clear blue sky, Nick waved at me from the beam, with his dark hair throwing auburn-toned sparks in the bright sun. "Be back in a flash."
I didn't even see him jump, or fall, or anything. One second he was there, and then I'd blinked, and he was just gone. I just stared out the window for several seconds. Then, just when I was wondering what on earth he was doing and if he was ever going to return, he came rocketing up through the air from somewhere, from wherever he'd been, although I wasn't even absolutely positive what I was seeing was him.
What I was seeing was just some dark, streaking blur that had soared up and beyond the steel beam. However, within a moment, this blur came to a dead stop in mid-air, and then began to descend slowly, and I could see that it was clearly Nick.
Not too far outside my window, he landed on the steel beam on one foot, with the other foot kind of dangling off of it, as if he wanted to show me that his landings didn't even require two feet. "What was that? Ten seconds? Twenty? I think it was something like that, and that was all the way down to the street and back up again. It’s just a little vampire show-off move, but I hope it was at least enough to make you smile, even for just a second.”
It had made me smile, and now I couldn’t help but smile a little again, just thinking about how Nick had just wanted to do something unexpected to make me happy.
Before I could even tell him that I’d liked his “vampire show-off trick,” he'd leaped back into my bedroom, where his phone was now ringing again.
Heaving a sigh, Nick answered the call, soon told the caller he was on his way, and then ended the call before leaning over to give me a quick kiss on the mouth. "I'm afraid we've got some real trouble with the Dormios today. But I'll be back to see you as soon as I can."
I nodded, full well knowing that that might not be for a long while.
After giving me another quick kiss, he began striding out of my bedroom; however, me suddenly shrieking stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Hey! What about the naked girl tied up to the bed? I realize the problem with the Dormios may be urgent, but could you take just five seconds to untie me before you go?"
Nick was at my side, unfastening one of the scarves restraining me, long before I'd finished speaking. "Jesus. Sorry, Tiffany. I'm so sorry. All this talk about the Dormios this morning has got me a bit...."
Untying a tight knot, he didn't seem like he was going to finish the thought.
I smiled, finding his flustered state somehow charming. "It's fine. You're untying me now."
Once I was free, Nick began heading to the door by walking backward, curving his lips in a sly half-grin that was absolutely devastating in its sexiness. "When we next meet, Miss Abbott, maybe I'll bundle you up and take you outside on the steel beam for a spring picnic with a full view of the city."
I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to eat eleven stories above the ground. I honestly wasn't sure that I'd even be able to breathe. However, if Nick would promise to stick by my side like glue, maybe I’d consider some sort of picnic on the steel beam at some point. I’d at least consider stepping a single foot out on it.
To my extreme disappointment, I didn't see him for the rest of the day. My anxiety about a fight with the Dormios grew, as did my desire to participate in any fight with them. I began to wonder what, exactly, Nick was so afraid of in regards to the scenario of me fighting with my powers, if I ever did get them back. I needed answers, and the longer I went without getting them, the more my anxiety began to feel like some breathing, living thing hell-bent on strangling the life out of me.