Release Me When the Sun Goes Down (6 page)

When we drew apart I caught his gaze, looking deep into his hazel eyes.  “As long as we still have this when we’re alone, I can get through all the times we’re apart.”

“And that’s all we can ask of now,” he agreed with a solemn nod before his expression lightened.  “
It’s your birthday today, I nearly forgot.  Happy birthday, Anja.”

I’d nearly forgotten myself, the birthday party back at the house seemed like a lifetime ago.  “Thanks.  It’s yours now too, in a way.”  Something else to share.  “I’ll have to think of something to give you to commemorate the day.  I didn’t plan ahead to get you a spiffy ring or anything,” I said, glancing down at Jakob’s ring on my finger. 

“You already gave me plenty.”

“Sure, but this is a pretty momentous occasion, don’t you think?  It’s not every day someone joins the undead club.  What do you think?  A fancy tie clip?  Cufflinks?”  Those would ensure he wore his suits more often, which I always enjoyed.  “How
about your own personal henchman?  I know a guy.”

“That could prove amusing,” he allowed, his fingers sifting through the golden strands of my hair, brushing the heavy bangs away from my eyes.  “Nothing but the pleasure of your company is wanted.  I’ve no use for anything else.”

I loved the way he looked at me with such adoration, the hint of a smile playing around his lips.  “What about a set of his and hers throwing knives?  I’ve always wanted to learn how to use them and that’d give us an excuse to spend more time together training.” 

“You might be onto something there.  Though I’ve plenty more to show you with hand to hand skills.”  The flat of his palm skimmed along the top of my thigh, disappearing under the hem of the short robe. 

“Oh, I’m definitely on board for more of your skilled hands,” I readily agreed, my legs parting automatically as he stroked higher.  “But maybe you should be taking it easy, just for tonight.” 

“And what if we’ve only got tonight?”

I couldn’t argue with that logic, I didn’t even want to try.  Pushing aside the fear that Laveda might walk in at any moment, I came into his arms when he pulled me close.  My hands slipped under the too tight t-shirt to the ridges of muscle beneath even as he parted my robe for better access himself.  Our mouths crashed together, lips parting, tongues sliding, desperate to devour each other in the time we had.  His movements became almost frenzied, frantic to touch me everywhere at once, and I was reminded how little self control he must be feeling with his heightened emotions. 

All of a sudden he pulled away, shaking his head as if to clear it.  “Something’s not right.  I feel wrong.  I feel like I’m sinking into the ground.”

I sat back to study him more closely, keying into the alarm in his voice.  Had something gone wrong with the transition?  What if he hadn’t had enough blood?  Or what if mine wasn’t strong enough to turn him properly in the first place?  But that didn’t make sense, I’d had less when I turned, I was sure of it.  And then it hit me.  That sinking feeling where you felt like you wanted to melt into the floor was perfectly normal, just way earlier than I felt it.   

“It’s okay, it’s the dawn coming.  I forgot you’d probably start to feel
it a lot sooner than I do, like Ellie did.  You’ll feel better when the sun goes down.”

“You mean I’ll feel like this every day?”  There was an edge of panic to his voice I’d never heard before and I realized he wasn’t quite so blasé about the new experiences as a vampire as he’d pretended to be.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t last all that long.  It’s a protective measure, really, letting you know you need to get somewhere safe for the day.  It’ll get easier to recognize in time and it won’t hit you so suddenly like that anymore.  Come on, we’d better get you into bed.”  Not that I couldn’t manage to get him in there on my own, but it’d be a lot easier if he went willingly. 

Knotting the robe closed again, I led him to the bedroom, stifling a smile as his shins cracked against the coffee table.  Been there, done that.  It was gratifying to see I wasn’t the only one to get clumsy as the sun
rose higher in the sky. 

“How can you stand it?  I feel like I’ve had too many pints.  M’tongue’s getting thicker too,” he scowled.

“It’s not like we have a whole lot of choice, is there?” I pointed out, pulling back the covers for him and tumbling him back onto the bed with a single, light push.  “It is what it is.  But the important thing is, I’m here to take care of you.”

“That’s my job.”
  Boy, did he sound disgruntled. 

“Well, it’s my turn.  That’s what people do, they take care of each other, don’t they?”  I scrambled into the bed on the other side, snuggling close.   

“I don’t like this,” he grumbled, and I knew it had nothing to do with my cold feet tucked up against his. 

“I know, I’m sorry.”

His arm wrapped around me instinctively, even as I heard him edging closer and closer to oblivion.  “Can’t protect you like this…”

“I’ll prot
ect you.  Now hush… I’ll see you when the sun goes down.”  It didn’t take long for his hand to grow slack in mine, the furrow between his brows easing, but never completely going away.   

Of course, I wasn’t the least bit tired, not yet.  There was still over an hour until dawn, but I lay beside him, watching him sleep.  After a while I got up to make sure the front door was locked and to tack an extra blanket over the single window in the room, not trusting the cheap blinds to do a good enough job against the morning light.  While I could withstand a fair amount of sunshine without burning to a crisp, I knew I owed that to my
Ellri
Sire, and Rob would likely be a lot more flammable.

The sun rose higher in the sky and I felt that sinking feeling take hold of my limbs, folding them around Rob to do my best to watch over him as we slept.  But I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were horribly exposed in Laveda’s apartment.  I couldn’t wait to get him home to our basement sanctuary
.  Though would I really be able to hold him like this? 

Some things were going to have to change, but I’d make it work. 
We’d
make it work.  The ties that bound us together were even more tightly wound now and I wasn’t ready to go back to pretending to be nothing more than friends.  How could I look at him without revealing the love that grew stronger every day?  And would he be able to do the same now that his emotions were likely to be all over the charts?

C
hange was on the horizon.  Surely I’d wake to find good news for once.  Jakob would take care of Lodinn and we’d get Hanna back, and then I could tell Jakob I didn’t want to date him publically or in private any more.  Maybe he’d even leave town.  In the sanctity of my own home I could trust Gunnar, Maggie, and Marcus to keep our secret, and I could compel them to if it made Rob feel better about it.  I’d show Rob how to be a strong, confident vampire and we’d have every excuse to spend all our time together.  Then, after some time went by, it would seem natural for us to fall in love and no one would question it.  Easy peasey.

Yeah, none of that happened. 

I woke up with a start, the edges of my dreams fading too quickly for me to interpret beyond a vague sense of unease.  On the plus side, there didn’t seem to be anything to worry about.  The bedroom was dark, the blanket over the window undisturbed, and there was no sign of movement anywhere else in the apartment.   

Rob lay in exactly the same position, dead to the world.  It was disconcerting lying there next to him.  I couldn’t help but miss the comforting beat of his heart and his cool hands felt foreign.  I
t made me sad to notice that he didn’t have that enticing smell anymore.  Not that he smelled bad or anything, he smelled like… nothing, and I wondered what he would taste like now. 

I rested beside him, contemplating everything and nothing until curiosity started to eat away at me and I climbed out of bed, not bothering to be careful when he didn’t stir
at all.  It was probably too much to hope for that Laveda had a landline, but luck was with me when I found her cell phone sitting on the dresser.  Not too lucky for her though.  Hopefully she’d managed okay without it.  I felt kind of bad about chasing her out like that, but honestly, it’d been for her own good. 

The first thing I did was call to check my voicemail, hoping there was a message there from Jakob or even Hanna, but the only thing I found were multiple voicemails from my parents.  Apparently I’d been identified as dead at the morgue and my parents had been notified before Marcus or whoever had gotten there to clean things up.  And then when they’d driven down, the hospital hadn’t known anything about it and now they were freaking out.  That wasn’t a phone call I
looked forward to.  How was I supposed to explain why I’d been dodging their calls all day? 

Only that’s exactly what I did, putting it off to call Marcus instead for an update.  “Please tell me you have some good news for me,” I said as soon as he came onto the line. 

“That depends on your definition of good.”

My heart sank.  “You don’t have a single shred of good news for me?”

“No, I didn’t say that,” he backpedaled quickly.  “We managed to get your name scrubbed from the hospital records and any mention of Rob’s body as well.”

“Just not before they notified my parents I was dead.”

Marcus cleared his throat uncomfortably.  “Oh, sorry about that.  We got there as quickly as we could.  Do you need me to see to it that things are smoothed over with your parents?  I could arrange for it.”

“No, don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of them.”  I’d rather not have their brains scrambled too much and hopefully I could smooth it over as a clerical error. 
“What about Oliver, did you get his body out of there?”

There was silence on the line for a half beat before he clued in to who I was talking about.  “
You mean the morgue guy?  Yes, we got him all taken care of.”

“How?  What did you do with his body?”

“Ah, I don’t know.  I didn’t handle it personally.” 

“Find out for me, okay?  And if they haven’t done anything final yet, can you please ask whoever is handling it to make it something not horrible?  Like no suicide and no unexplained disappearance.” 

“I’ll try, but…”

“It’s important, Marcus.  I want his family to have some kind of closure.  Did you find out anything about them yet?”

“Yes, he was married to a Sylvia Bassett, and they have a ten year old son, Martin.  They have a house in Sausalito, I have the address if you need it.”

“Oh.”  I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad to find out he had a wife and kid.  Was it better to have killed a man that no one would have missed, or better that he’d enjoyed family life even for a short time?  “Do they um, know yet?” 

“I don’t know, boss.  We’re still putting data together.  It’s requiring a little more effort since we don’t have the resources of the Order’s facilities anymore.  It used to be a simple call, and now it’s taking more of a personal touch.” 

“I understand.”  The mention of the Order sent a flash of worry over what Bishop would think of my turning Rob, but I tucked that away for another time.  “What about Hanna?  Has she been spotted anywhere?”

“No, not a peep from her or Lodinn, and Jakob is definitely missing.  He hasn’t returned to his building since he left last night.  I did get a report that the suite at Lodinn’s hotel was found thrashed and abandoned.”

“What do you mean thrashed?”

“We’re talking beyond rock star party thrashed.  Broken furniture, windows, the granite slab in the kitchenette was found cracked in half.  It sounds like they had a knock down drag out fight by all accounts.” 

“But there’s no sign of either one of them or my sister?”

“Not at all.” 

I had to
keep hoping that no news was good news.  I couldn’t help but think that if Lodinn had managed to kill Jakob, we would’ve heard the gloating by now.  And if Jakob had taken out Lodinn he would’ve returned home.  They were probably both off laying low, licking their wounds for a while.  “How about Mason?  How’s he doing?”

“He’s still out cold, but improving.  I’m afraid it’ll be quite some time before the scars disappear completely though.”

On the inside as well as out.  I’d found out the hard way that there were some things blood couldn’t heal.  “Thanks, Marcus.  I can see what you mean about the good news being in short supply.”

“I
did get your purse back and all your identification, does that help?”

“Actually, it helps quite a
lot, thanks for that.”  At least I wouldn’t have to keep borrowing Laveda’s phone.

“Also, I was able to procure those documents you needed for Rob.  I assume that’s still the case?”

I looked down to where Rob lay unmoving on the bed.  “Yes, he came though the change fine.”

“Good, good.  I’ll be sure to pass the news around, I know Gunnar and Maggie in particular were worried.”

“Tell them we’re both fine and we’ll see you soon.”

“Shall I send Gunnar to come and pick you up?  We’ve increased security around the house,
and there’s no sign that Lodinn’s watching the place at all.  I feel confident we can get you inside safely.”