Bring Me to Life (21 page)

She scowled at him. “Finally, what?”

“Eat and I will tell you.”

*

Bryna never ate a horrid ham sandwich so fast in her life. “Now, make sense. Why did we have to figure out this out ourselves?”

Andy—or she guessed his real name was Zerek—shook his head and sat next to her on the couch. “Vincent is the Wraith, and a lot of vampires and demons and you name it will be after him and you. He’ll need to retain his memories if either of you have a hope to live past
your
eighteenth birthday. They know how to get to him, and it’s always been through you.”

“That’s why I wasn’t allowed to know about her,” Vincent said. Anger pulsed around him as he shoved up to his feet. “You’re so full of shit. Felix let her suffer for fucking two hundred goddamned years because he wanted me good and ready to fight for him.”

“Vincent,” Bryna said in a soft tone as she moved over to him. “Does it matter now? It’s not like we can change it, but we can save you. We can save us, and you will have the knowledge and power needed to keep this from happening to us again.”

“Her memories,” Zerek said softly. “All of them would return to her.”

“No,” Vincent snapped. “Then I fucking stay dead.”

“Vincent.” Now that she had all of his attention, she had no idea how she was supposed to calm him down and make him see reason. Life, all life, went to hell without him, and he needed to get that through his thick skull. “I’ll be okay.”

“No,” he snapped. “I thought you killed me. Do you want to relive that? Knowing I thought you killed me?”

She felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She sat on the coffee table, and then stood right back up when it moaned under her slight weight. She sat on the floor instead, and tried to catch her breath. She’d thought she’d killed him, too. Would it matter? Did it matter? She dropped her head back to look all the way up at him.

Self-loathing and misery marred his beautiful scarred face.

She thought back to that night. She’d seen his eyes when he saw her with a vampire sucking on her throat, and a beer can in her hand. She’d known it then. He’d thought she’d been cheating on him, but he’d still fought Draven. According to Zerek, he’d pulsed to save her life. That was what she had to hold onto, or she’d go mental. She was going to get her Vincent back. It didn’t matter how screwed up they were before this point. She forced herself up to her feet and placed her hand over his heart. “You thought I betrayed you, and you still saved my life and died in my place.” Tears burned in her eyes. How she ever managed to win that kind of love from anyone, she couldn’t say, but now it was her turn to save him. Damn it. She was going to do it. Vincent always gave her want she wanted. There was no reason to believe he’d be different now. “I want to meet Felix.”

Vincent’s arm was locked around her when they appeared in a long white hallway with gold trim.

“This is where you’ve been,” Bryna murmured, trying not to let the beauty of this place make her go stupid.

“Only when I talk to Felix. Are you sure you want to meet him? He’s a bastard.”

She wrapped her hand around Vincent’s, absolutely sure she did not want to meet Felix, but there had to be a way to save Vincent. This Felix guy was probably the only one who knew how. “Yes.”

He let go of her long enough to lock his hand around her wrist. “Stay behind me.” Then he started walking. Out of nowhere a door swung open, and they walked into a white office with gold trim. A man sat at a desk writing nothing on a clear piece of what looked like cellophane paper. Two chairs appeared in front of the desk.

“Sit,” he said in a curt voice.

Bryna went to sit, but Vincent didn’t move, and wouldn’t let her go either.

“Fuck you,” Vincent snapped.

Felix set his cellophane and white feather quill down on the desk and stood up. His jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed. “I like blondes, but thank you for the offer. Sit.”

Bryna tilted her head up and stared into Vincent’s eyes. “For me, please.”

His lip curled, but he grudgingly moved to the chairs, and let Bryna sit, but he did not. “Tell me what is going on.”

“You have a new assignment. The Argents and Zerek will accompany you.” He handed Vincent a new piece of paper. “Take care of this one.” He sat back at his desk and started writing again.

Bryna waited a beat and then leaned forward. “How does Vincent not go to Hell?”

A smile curved Felix’s mouth. “I can’t send anyone to Hell who isn’t already dead. Death for an immortal is a long way off. I am sure he can earn his place in Heaven before the end of his life.”

“He’s what?”

Felix stopped writing and looked at her with grey eyes. “He’s a time walker. Anyone who can pulse is one.” He looked down at his clear paper again. “You’ll have a long, eventful life with him. Go, Vincent has an assignment he cannot ignore.”

Vincent pulled her out of the chair. He stared down at the paper in his hand, and he looked at her with a mingling of hope and fear in his eyes. “Are you ready to be a teenager again?”

“With you?” A smile bloomed over her face. “Totally.”

His arm locked her against his strong body. “Let’s do this. Close your eyes.”

Bryna did as he asked. A wave of nausea hit, and the world felt like it was spinning away from her. When she opened her eyes, she was in the living room of Vincent’s old apartment. She wasn’t wearing what she put on this morning. Instead she had on a bright yellow sun dress and didn’t have any shoes on. She felt her hair. It was done in a side braid with a bow tied on the end.

“Holy fuck!” a younger version of Vincent roared from the bedroom. Bryna rushed in to see him in his standard death metal T-shirt and jeans, also without shoes. A look of horror was on his beautiful, unscarred face when he lifted his gaze to hers. “Bryna? It’s me, Wraith.”

She blinked once and then rushed to the mirror over the dresser. Holy fuck was right. There she was, her fifteen-year-old self, with a freaking ribbon in her hair. Maybe she wasn’t as ready for this as she thought. “We were supposed to be time walking, not turning into teenagers.”

He let out a breath and wrapped his arms around her. “This was going to happen, sunshine. If I don’t die, we have to become our teenaged selves, I think.”

It made sense, but she was used to running her own fucked-up life, and doing what she wanted when she wanted to do it, without having to answer to her uncle. Shit. She twisted in Vincent’s arms to look at the clock by the bed. “Uncle Ron is going to be here soon. You know what happens, next, right?”

The muscle under his eye started to tick. “The Argents and Zerek are supposed to show up, right? We just have to get through today. We can’t react the way we did the first time. I need to be with you when the vampires come.”

“Right, but Uncle Ron is going to be here in a minute. You can’t bellow at him.” She knew it was like telling the sky not to be blue, but in this time, at their ages, Vincent could be arrested.

“Damn it.” He let her go to pace the room. “I need my sword, and we need a plan. Where is my paper? I need it to contact someone who can help us.”

Bryna let him pace the room, and decided to look in the places where Vincent would have hidden that kind of thing when they were younger, or now. She was confused, but whatever. She checked the closet, under the bed, and under the mattress.

A knock came to the door before she could look anywhere else. She ran off to answer the door, and Vincent was right at her heels. She pulled open the door. Uncle Ron stood there with all the pissed-off bluster she could remember him having. “Bryna, you need to go home now.”

“No,” she snapped without thinking. “You don’t give a shit about me. You only care about what your fishing buddies think of Vincent. You know what? He has a job, and his own apartment, and he takes care of me better than you do. I am getting straight
A
s in all of my classes. Go on, make me leave and I will file for an emancipation. Do you think Mom will continue to send you and Aunt Jeni money if I tell her you let me stay at a boy’s house who doesn’t live with his parents? Do you think you’ll be able to keep me and still get money then?” She’d replayed this moment in her head so many times. What she should have said instead of standing there dumbly looking at him when this moment first happened. She’d said it.

Uncle Ron’s face turned red. “You will not blackmail me, child.”

Vincent drew in a breath, and she knew it was coming. Vincent picked her up, and gently moved her to the side. “You know, I always wondered, what did Bryna’s father do? His work, you know, where he was killed?”

Uncle Ron paled and he shook his head. “That is none of your business.”

“You know what I think,” Vincent pulled Ron into the apartment and closed the door. “I think those special powers Bryna has, the ones that knock you on your ass when she’s afraid, were inherited from her father.”

Uncle Ron swallowed and took a step back. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“My parents died when I was fifteen. Before that, they were always out, doing some kind of work they would never tell me about. I think I inherited their gifts. The same gifts Bryna has.”

“Mark Wildrose was a freak and a monster and should have never had a child,” Ron said through clenched teeth. “If you are the same kind of freak, you should not be near my niece.”

Vincent leaned against the wall, right next to the door, looking as if he was bored with the conversation. “Go on, take her, but it won’t be my fault when vampires show up at your house tonight.”

Ron gave a placating smile. “You know what, I’ll have to talk to Jeni about it, but Bryna is right. She’s doing well here with you. Perhaps letting her get an emancipation is the best option for her.” He stared at the door like it was an oasis in a desert.

“How do I know you aren’t going to call the cops on me the second you walk out that door?” Vincent countered.

Ron swallowed hard. “I don’t want any problems. My family has done nothing to be plagued with vampires. I’m more than happy to hand Bryna off to you if it keeps my wife and children safe.”

Bryna believed him. He was a jerk, but he did love his family, in his own, weird Uncle Ron way. “Vincent.”

Vincent shoved his hands into his pockets and a grin turned the corner of his mouth when he pulled out a nicely folded sheet of paper. He opened it up and wrote on it with his finger. “Have a seat,” he told Ron. “My lawyer will be here soon to get the paper work started.” He winked at Bryna. “Sunshine, why don’t you get dinner started. I don’t think you ate nearly enough today at school.”

Bryna blinked at him. Wow. He was awesome. She glanced at Uncle Ron sitting on the secondhand grey couch, and then she went off to the kitchen. Vincent right behind her. She let out a breath and peeked out at her uncle before looking up at Vincent. “See, it works so much better when you don’t bellow at him.”

“Two hundred years of maturity will do that.”

“How did you know to ask Uncle Ron about my father?”

He let out a slow breath. “It only made sense. I mean, it would have to be a hereditary thing, right? You had to get the ability to pulse from somewhere, and I was allowed to go back and look into my parents, so I know I got it from my mom.”

“I’m sorry we can’t go back and save them, too.” She closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain of her own father’s death. The wound was ten years old to her, but still so fresh to this body.

Vincent put his hand on her shoulder. “I know. It will get better.”

She opened her eyes and gave a wobbly smile. Was he always going to be taking care of her? “I know. This is all so strange. Now I have to figure out how to be a kid again.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Bryna, babe, what do you think about being a teenage bride?”

She blinked. “What?”

“Your mother, if she knew she was married to a time walker, she might consent to us getting married, and then you don’t have to worry about your uncle ever again.” He looked as if he’d just swallowed a bug.

Of course she’d marry him. After everything she’d been through and what she was willing to do just to be with him, she’d be a fool not to say yes, but he didn’t have to look so upset about it. “Only if you want to do it.”

His face brightened. “Really?”

“Yes. You big idiot. I’d die to be with you; of course I’ll marry you.” And then reality came crashing in. “Vince.” She hadn’t used that nickname for him in forever. “I’m not the same Bryna you fell in love with.”

He hooked his arm around her, and pulled her in close. “I’m not the same Vincent you fell in love with. I need you with me forever, Bryna, don’t let past”—his face screwed up for a second, and then he chuckled—“or is that future shit, get in the way. You asked me if we were meant to be together.” He captured her lips with his in a searing kiss, and didn’t pull back until they were both panting. “Babe, without you, I don’t give a shit about saving the world.”

She rested her forehead on his chest. “Jeez, Vince, we’re so sappy.”

He used a finger to tilt her head up. “Being alive will do that to a man.” He touched his forehead to hers. “We still have a Draven problem to handle.”

“And demons,” she whispered, but it was going to be okay. This man she loved was the Wraith of vampire legends. One step at a time. One battle at a time. Wasn’t it already going better? She pulled back and offered him a smile. “You asked me to cook, so, I should go try to do that while you entertain my uncle until your lawyer shows up.”

He snorted. “I only said that to get us into a different room. It will be one of the guys showing up with some kind of binding, all-powerful contract. Once your uncle signs it, you’re my dependent until we’re both adults.” His eye twitched, and he rubbed a wide-palmed hand over his chest. “This is fucking weird.”

She laughed. “It is, but I’m really twenty-five, and you’re two hundred and eighteen. We’re just in the bodies of teenagers.”

“I’m noticing,” he said and adjusted his pants at the crotch. “You always had me hard before, but damn.” His face softened, and he ran a finger down her braid. Then tugged at the ribbon. “I’d forgotten just how enchanting you were back in today.”