Page 10 of Love Lives
"We’ve been caught up in this from birth," Jared responded. "We simply didn't know."
"Because we never listened to Dad." My tone turned wistful, wondering what our old man would say about all of this. "I wish he was still around. He would know what to do."
"He'd tell us to pull our heads out of our asses and think," Jared said in a gruff tone of voice.
"You're probably right." I closed my eyes, thinking back to easier times when all I'd had to do was whatever Dad told me. Too bad those were over. I was an adult now, with a job and... a vampire problem. Definitely not how I'd pictured my life going, but it was what it was. "I have to let my boss know I need to extend my vacation..."
"Elena handled it."
"Tell her thanks."
"Sure." The legs of the chair scraped over the floor as Jared rose. "Get better."
"Uh-huh." I gave my brother a small wave as he turned to leave, then closed my eyes again.
I found it difficult to fall asleep, though, until Aldrich stepped back into the room. He sat in his usual spot without saying anything, but his presence there let me sense that everything was right with the world.
I didn’t let myself examine that feeling too closely.
Chapter Five
Jared's visithad tired Remy out enough that he slept for a couple of hours. Aldrich didn't mind, though. The mortal needed to sleep to recover. As long as he wasn't burning up while doing so, everything was fine. Already, he looked a lot better than he had that morning.
Feeling a little more at ease, Aldrich got comfortable in his chair--or as comfortable as he could get in that damned chair anyway--and turned on the TV. The volume had been set low enough that it wouldn't disturb Remy, but with his vampire senses, Aldrich could still pick up on the sound just fine.
There were noFriendsreruns on today, but he found a similar sitcom that amused him for a little while.
Mortals could be so strange. They worried about the silliest things. Like who ate that yogurt in the fridge. Didn’t they have bigger problems than that? Supermarkets were full of yogurts. Just buy a new one.
As the sun started to set outside and the world beyond the hospital curtains grew dark, Aldrich started to get bored with the show he'd been watching, so he switched over to the news instead. Things had been quiet lately. Too quiet. Not long ago, witches had been out on the streets, letting lightning rain down on vampire covens. The vampires weren't going to tolerate that.
Neither was the High Council.
And yet, nothing was moving.
Not yet.
Aldrich didn't like it when things were quiet for too long. If the vampires were taking this long to move, they must be putting a lot of thought into their actions. Or a lot of preparation. Either could end up being deadly for him. And the people he cared about.
That last thought made him stop short for a moment.
He didn’t want to care about other people, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped.
His gaze sought Remy's sleeping face. He didn't want to see Remy die. He would have denied that to himself, under ordinary circumstances. He would have downplayed the sentiment, at the very least.
But he'd run through fire to save this mortal.
He couldn't deny that.
Sure, the man looked like he would be a fun lay, but a fun lay wasn't worth getting burned for.
Puck's words from earlier came back to Aldrich. About how this was dhampir magic. Aldrich didn't like to think that he was under some sort of spell, but it would certainly explain a few things.
Like why the hell he cared so much.
Just as he thought that, Remy's breathing sped up. It was a subtle change, but one Aldrich had come to recognize. Over the next few minutes, it would steadily get faster, then turn into low whimpers, and then the mortal would either quiet back down or wake with a start, depending on his level of exhaustion. Nightmares, plain and simple. Remy seemed to have a lot of them. Not just since the fire, either. Aldrich had noticed the deep rings under his eyes even before all that shit had happened.
What to do about it, though? Wake the mortal or not? On the one hand, nightmares were unpleasant. On the other, Remy needed his sleep.
