Davy Harwood in Transition

  "Oh." She sounded dejected as she sat on the couch. "What am I supposed to do? I felt like I lost my husband, like he was brutally murdered and slowly ripped to pieces."

  "Uh…" I saw some wine coolers in the corner and grabbed them. "Drink."

  She pushed it away. "That won't help. It'll make it worse."

  "Okay." Then I sat beside her. "What can I do to help you?"

  "I don't know. Take my pain away."

  Oh no. I swallowed tightly. I knew Emily wasn't serious. She didn't know I was empathic and her request was an actual possibility, but I didn't know if I wanted that madness in me. "How about a sleeping pill? You'll sleep right through it and wake up refreshed for a month?"

  I settled for a second best option.

  "I don't feel like that's a healthy thing to do. I feel like I should go through this. I should feel this torment."

  "You're crazy. Why would you want to do that? This isn't your fault. You're feeling this because of—" I clamped my mouth shut. "Because of the moon."

  "Yeah."

  I watched Emily and saw she was determined to feel this thing through. Sometimes she amazed me and other times she made my head spin around. Who would want to feel this type of madness? Emily would.

  She hugged a blanket around her. Tears coursed down her cheeks and she sneezed a few times. I handed over a tissue box. "You're determined to stay awake for this?"

  "Yes." She sounded determined, but I heard a waver in her voice.

  It was all the permission I needed. "I'll get you some juice."

  She looked at me with grateful tears in those eyes. "I'd appreciate it so much. Thank you, Davy."

  I grabbed one of the cups from our dirty bin and went to the door to wash it. Emily didn't spare me a look as she huddled into the couch and I grabbed my purse. When I went to the bathroom, I cleaned the cup and pulled out some sleeping pills Kates gave me awhile ago.

  I dumped three in Emily's drink and stirred it so the powder dissolved. And when I handed over the juice to her trusting hands, I felt no guilt. I was drugging my roommate out of love. If I left her alone with the madness that came when a love bite was broken, she would have tried to commit suicide. I'd seen it before and I wasn't going to let Emily do something stupid like that. "Drink all of it. Your body needs those vitamins."

  She guzzled it down and wiped at her chin. "Thanks, Davy. You're the best roommate."

  Well…the jury's out on that one. I popped in a movie, grabbed my blanket, and settled beside her. Emily's eyes kept watering through the movie until I reached over and grabbed her hand. She would quiet right away and I allowed myself to pull some of that pain out of her. I felt the madness trying to get through my barrier, lashing at me, snarling, but I kept it at bay. Emily's pain was pushed underneath the craziness and it streamed into me like a calm river. If I hadn't been the Immortal, I couldn't have separated the threads. An hour later, I opened my eyes and saw that she'd fallen asleep with both hands clenched on mine. There was a feel of desperation in her body.

  When my eyelids started to feel heavy and drop, I realized some of the sleeping pills must've gotten into my system too. Roane was at the Alexander and I wanted to see him, but my eyelids refused to stay open. After five minutes, I gave up the fight and moved to my bed. It wasn't long until I found myself dreaming of vampires with rabid purple eyes.. And then a voice screamed in my head, "Davy! Wake up!"

  I shot upright and banged my head on Emily's bunk. I rubbed my head, expecting to see someone in my room. There was no one and I started to lie back down.

  "Get up! Get up! You're needed at the Alexander NOW!"

  Alexander. Roane. Crap.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When I got to the Alexander, I wasn't surprised to find it filled to the maximum. It had always been the hotspot for the showy and shallow. And those were just the humans. The basement was filled as well, but with vampires.

  "Davina."

  I turned and saw Gregory. He stood by the bar with a drink in hand. His face was stiff and his thick square-like jaw seemed cemented in place.

  "Hi, Gregory." I held a hand out and the blond Viking vampire took it for a handshake. He had never warmed up to me, but as one of Roane's loyal followers he was forced to be nice. He smiled thinly and offered his drink. "Lucas is in his office. I'll take you there."

  As I followed him into a narrow back hallway, I was surprised to hear Roane's given name. I'd grown so comfortable thinking of him as his bloodline's name that I'd forgotten it wasn't his first name. As we continued through a few more hallways, I was surprised how Gregory fit though them. Then, at the end of one, he knocked on a black door. I would've walked past it and not known it was there, but it opened to Roane's office. He sat behind a massive mahogany desk. While the entrance was plain, everything inside the office was not. The desk was large enough for a king to lie on. Leather couches and chairs sat beside it while a painting was mounted on the wall. I watched the smiling woman in the painting and half expected her to speak to me. She looked too life-like for my own liking.

  Roane lifted his head and his coal eyes flickered when he stood. "Davy. You came. Thank you, Gregory."

  "Lucas."

  Roane gestured towards a chair when the blonde giant left. "I need a few minutes to finish some paperwork."

  "So I better get comfortable, huh?" I looked at the door as I sat down. "For being Hulk Hogan, he's quiet like a ghost. It's scary."

  "He's a vampire."

  "Again. Scary."

  Roane shifted some papers and piled them on a corner of his desk. "Vampires can't hurt you anymore. You can get that chip off your shoulder you have against us."

  I shuddered in my chair. "And yet, they keep coming after me."

  "Because some of us are dumb." Then he smirked. "We're like humans in that way."

  "Was that a joke?" I arched an eyebrow. "Where's this new Roane come from? I thought everything was serious, the world is ending, and the Immortal needs to be protected."

  "Maybe this is the real me? Maybe I'm a funny vampire underneath everything?" His hands paused as they shifted some papers into a folder. Then they continued and a smile flittered over his face. It was gone in the next instant.

  I narrowed my eyes as I watched him. He might be joking about being funny, but I'd felt inside of him. He was all resolve, determination, and death bended beneath him. Then I smiled. "You've missed me."

  His hands paused again and gripped the folder before he closed it and lifted his head. His eyes sparkled.

  I was across the desk in an instant and in his arms. He gripped me tight as I settled on his lap, straddling him in the leather chair. I clasped behind his shoulders and breathed him in. His neck trembled slightly and then I pressed a kiss against it. He groaned and stood up with his hands underneath my legs. He held me tight against him and lifted to carry me to a nearby couch. As he laid me down, he held himself above me and studied me. His eyes were intense. Something shifted in them when he traced my face with a finger, down my cheek, around my lips, and back up the other cheek to brush some hair from my forehead. It was a loving touch and my eyes started to water as I felt the tenderness.

  "What's wrong?" he asked in a gentle voice.

  I tugged him down on top of me and hugged him with all my might.

  "You missed me too." His voice was muffled against my neck. It teased my skin and shivers broke out over my body. I felt him smile as he added, "A lot."

  It was more than that. Something in me would always yearn for Roane. When I saw him again, that something woke up. It was as if I'd been asleep till he got back and now he was back, everything else woke up too. Did he feel the same? The old question burned in the back of my head…or did he feel it for Talia?

  Roane pulled away and sat up. "What's wrong?"

  "Talia." I didn't hesitate. I didn't see why I should.

  Roane shut down. His eyes had been open and alive. "What about her?"

  "You loved her. She held the Immortal thread bef
ore me. I can't help but feel that there's a part of her inside of me and that's who you want." Most girls wouldn't have managed the first words, but I was more now.

  Roane stood and crossed to a bar. After he poured himself a drink, he offered me one. I shook my head, suddenly cold. Roane moved back to lean against his desk as he regarded me. His eyes were dark. "I loved Talia. I won't deny that."

  There it was. I didn't flinch.

  Roane added, "I've never lied about that. I did love Talia, but I don't love her anymore."

  My eyes shot to his.

  "I don't know what you're really asking me, but I can guess. It's not the right time for that, but what I can tell you is that what's between us is between us. You may think Talia is a part of you, but she's not. There's nothing in you from her. She held the Immortal thread inside of her and gave it to you. You've taken the thread and you've become the Immortal. If anything, it should've been that Talia held something of you inside her when I loved her." He studied me when he was finished and then sipped his drink. His throat swallowed in a slow motion.

  I gulped. When those eyes were focused on me and intense. When he said words like that, I had to grip the couch to keep myself from launching at him. I wanted to beg him to take me then and there, but I didn't. Then I fought to calm my trembling voice. "Okay."

  Roane flashed a smile. "Okay? That's it?"

  Someone knocked on the door at that moment. Roane turned his back to me when it opened and I expelled a ragged breath. I tried moving off the couch, but my legs were jelly.

  Then Gregory spoke from the doorway, "We have an impending."

  Roane didn't move at all, but everything changed; danger emanated from him. An alarm bell went off in my stomach and my jelly legs were suddenly as sturdy as stone. I stood, but stayed by the couch. I wanted to go to his side, but Roane wasn't a vampire who enjoyed the comforting damsel. When he nodded with his jaw clenched, Gregory looked at me and then closed the door behind him. He said it all in that one glance. Something was wrong and Roane wasn't telling me any of it.

  "What's going on?"

  He took my arm and led me to the door. "It's time for you to go."

  Hello, I thought we were going to have sex. Now I really was alarmed. "What was that about? Gregory looked at me before he left. He felt bad about something. What is it?"

  I dug in my heels and looked directly at him. He had his shields up, he always had them up, but I went through them like vapor. His manner had been a show. He'd been flirting and forcing himself to feel relaxed, but it was the opposite. He had lied about Talia. He still loved her, but there was more. Something had gone wrong with the Roane Council and his insides were on edge, murderous edge, because of it. I slipped out and saw he hadn't a clue that I'd been there.

  "You never told me about the council meeting. What happened there?"

  His eyes flared in anger. "You stay out of me."

  "Then tell me the truth. Tell me what's going on."

  "You need to leave." He pushed towards the door, but stopped to grab two daggers and a 9mm. He strapped a sword over his back and when he turned back to me, I didn't recognize the hunter who stood in front of me. I'd seen him in fighting mode, but this was different. There was no emotion, just business. That business was killing.

  When he took my arm again, my head snapped back and I felt the Immortal rush through me. She coursed through my arms, toes, veins, and into my eyes. I knew Roane saw my silver eyes when he cursed.

  "Do you know?" he asked.

  I closed my eyes and lifted into the air. The room swirled around me. Everything moved around me as if I was in the eye of a tornado and then I looked out and saw who approached.

  They were a group of vampires. All were heavily armed with weapons, similar swords as the one Roane wore. Wren was with them, but two large Goliath vampires held her arms. Her wrists were bound in greenery. Her eyes were strained and teeth clenched against the pain. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew what side I stood with. Before the thought entered my mind, I was already behind Wren and the two giant guards.

  Everyone was in a time warp so no one saw me when I took a knife from one of the guards and cut through Wren's bandages. Her shoulders lifted up as if refreshed. The pain left her and she sprang into action. I pulled back from the group, watching her take the sword from one of them and plunging it into their heart. As they fell, she whirled around and decapitated both of them in one movement. Then she landed on her feet primed for attack as the rest of the group turned in shock. Only a few reacted. The rest paused a second to wonder how she got free. They paused too long.

  Roane was already on them. Wren saw him fighting and a crooked smirk flashed over her face before she began fighting with renewed energy. She fought freely without pausing as she sliced and diced through the vampires. Roane killed the same way. He cut down every vampire in his trail, but gave no feeling or thought to any of them. When they were both done, each stood in the middle of the wreckage and looked at the other. Wren smiled shakily as her body trembled in excitement. Her coral eyes looked wild, hyper. Roane felt nothing. There was no emotion in his eyes. Then he turned towards me and I vanished.

  I was waiting in his office when they arrived a few minutes later. Wren burst through the door and her adrenalin blasted against me. She was on a high, but when her eyes caught sight of me all that energy faded. It left her depleted and she snarled, "You."

  "Me."

  She looked the same. I hadn't noticed when she'd been held captive, but now her attention was focused on me. It was intimidating, or should've been, as I studied her in turn. She wore the same leather corset with silver snappings and leather boots. Her eyes snapped in disgust when she felt my appraisal and she flipped those long auburn curls over her shoulders to purse her ruby lips together. "Like what you see?"

  "You still look like a hooker." Disdain oozed from my pores.

  She drew to her full height and took a menacing step towards me. That's when Roane passed around her to his desk and murmured underneath his breath, "She can make you human…"

  It was all the warning she needed. She stopped, snarled again, and swept out of the room. The door slammed shut with enough force to shatter glass.

  Then I looked up and met Roane's gaze. Any smart comment I might've made about Wren's departure died in my throat.

  His eyes snapped at me. "You want to tell me what you were doing out there when we're still trying to keep your identity a secret?!"

  CHAPTER FIVE

  "What are you talking about?"

  "The Elders know that the Immortal is alive, but they don't know your name. Anyone who knows it's you is either loyal to me or dead."

  "Except Lucan and Kates."

  "Yeah," he sighed. "Except those two, but Lucan won't say anything. He'll want to keep that information to himself. And Kates is loyal to you, right? She is, right?"

  "Yeah." I gulped. "She's loyal to me." And now she'd left for some reason that she wouldn't tell me. He didn't need to know that bit.

  "You need to stay away from me."

  "What?" I cried out. "You told me to come here tonight. You told me that you wanted to see me and now you're telling me to stay away?!"

  Roane looked resigned. "I have to protect you and one way I can do that is if you have no connection to me. They might know the Immortal is here—"

  "Who?!"

  "Vampires, Davy! All the vampires." He sat now as if surrendering. "The secret's out. Everyone knows the Immortal exists and she's here. I tried to tell the Elders that you left, but they must not have bought it. They know you're here. They might not know who you are, but they know the Immortal is here."

  Oh. This was not good. "What does this mean for me?"

  He shrugged. "I have no idea, but it's not good for you. My guess is that they'll try to kill you first. When they realize that won't work, they'll capture you and they'll figure something else out. They aren't friendly, Davy. They're scared of you and vampires don't handle fear ver
y well. Everything else is supposed to be afraid of us, not the other way around."

  "They can't kill me. Can they?"

  "I don't know. Do you even know?"

  "No." I looked away. Saren hadn't been helpful with any information. Riddles. Everything was riddles. "So I go and do the normal thing that you wanted me to do before?"

  "I don't see any other way right now." Roane's hand rested on the desk and then he clenched it into a fist. "It'd be good if you