“He helped you with all this?” Roger nodded toward Darius.
“Yes. You probably know, but just like shifters, vampires want to be the king of the hill. Only they go about it differently. By helping me, Darius gained some choice information.”
It was true, and also something Roger would understand. There was no way I’d run around saying Darius and I were bonded and in love. I’d have a shifter follower immediately thereafter. They would never trust me again.
“If you’re lying…” Roger let the sentence linger, and I couldn’t tell if it was a threat, or if he was legitimately asking for me to assure him I wasn’t.
I chose the latter. “Look, here’s the situation. I created this mess by failing to snuff that demon in Seattle. I’m the one they would be after if they came to the surface. If I’m lying, it’s my ass that’ll be in a sling. I didn’t need to tell you any of this at all. I could’ve just let you wait forever. But you were upfront with me, so now I’m being upfront with you. We’re good. I’m safe. Now I’m going to lie low, keep to myself, and let the world turn.”
He surveyed me again before nodding. “Okay. Thank you for letting me know.” He paused. “I’ll forget about the incident in NOLA where you chased a few of mine.”
I paused in getting up and grimaced. “Ah. Yes. About that. I was going through something.”
“Clearly.”
“But they are pretty fast—” I paused, because now I was even faster. I could totally get that were-badger. Probably some of the wolves as well. “Anyway.” I let it go. It wasn’t a great idea.
Darius and I stood. Roger did so a moment later, playing a gracious host, even to a vampire. Tough but housebroken. The man had many layers.
“No more bounty hunting?” Roger asked as we walked to the door.
“No. No more.” I paused on the front porch. “I’m honestly going to lie low. I want people to forget my name.”
Roger huffed out a laugh, something that didn’t seem natural for him. “What will you do with your time?”
I sighed. I had no idea.
Epilogue
I wrung my hands as I waited on the wide porch of Callie and Dizzy’s house. It was the night of the big meetup, nearly two weeks since our return from the underworld. A terror-filled, cowardly couple of weeks.
“You need to ring the doorbell, love,” Darius said softly. I could hear the humor in his voice. He thought this was hilarious.
“I know, I know. Don’t rush me.” I had braced my hands on my hips and taken a step toward the doorbell when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I fished it out and read Callie’s text. You had better get here soon, or I will come and get you myself.
This was a pre-agreed time and date. I had made myself do it so I wouldn’t weasel out and put it off any longer.
I really wanted to weasel out and put it off.
The front door swung open and I jumped back, startled. Dizzy jumped forward with an “Ah!” and groped at an invisible satchel.
His eyes focused on me and he sighed. “Oh, Reagan, it’s just you.” He chuckled and put his hand on his chest, half covering a burned area. “You scared me. I wasn’t expecting you out here.”
“I was just about to ring the doorbell.” I showed him my pointer finger as though he had asked for proof.
“You don’t have to ring the bell, you know that. Just come on in.” He gave me a huge smile and stepped out onto the porch to wrap me in a bear hug. “Thank God you’re okay. We were worried sick! Callie was ranting and trying to figure out how to go in after you. We couldn’t, of course. Did the demon find you? Well, wait. Let’s get in the house so you only have to tell the story once.” He stepped back and jutted out a hand to Darius. “You went with her. You knew she’d go. Boy, am I glad you were the vampire she was hooked up with all those months ago. She got really lucky there.”
Darius shook Dizzy’s hand and nodded, before stepping back and moving to put his hand on the small of my back. He stopped himself and pushed his hands into his pockets instead.
If Dizzy noticed the slip, he didn’t let on.
“Come in, come in.” He motioned us in and stood by the door until we complied.
“Were you going outside for something?” I asked Dizzy. His car was in the garage.
“Oh.” He paused in closing the door and stared vaguely. His brow furrowed. Then he shrugged. “It’ll come to me eventually. My memory isn’t what it used to be. Come in!”
With a smile, he led us through the large, spacious house and into the kitchen. That was where we conducted business as well as casual conversations. Or, in this situation, groveling and possible violence.
Callie stood at the island with her hands on her hips, glaring down at her cell phone. She glanced up with an angry scowl when Dizzy entered. “She’s going to chicken out. Didn’t I tell you? She will. I’m going to go hunt her down.”
“Hon.”
Callie finally clued in. Her eyes went from angry to blazing. In contrast, her face lost all expression.
A shiver of fear worked through me. And I’d thought the underworld was terrifying.
“Reagan,” Callie said in an even tone.
“Hi. Look—”
“No, no.” She held up a hand to stop me. “Let’s get settled first.”
“I’m on it.” Dizzy brought out the whiskey, and a cognac for Darius. He poured large portions and passed them around the island. Darius and I took a seat. Callie remained standing. And staring. With that horribly flat expression and the raging eyes.
“Now, then. Where were we?” Dizzy said as he sat at the end of the island. Always the good cop, making everyone feel happy and welcome before the battle-axe came down.
“It was the only way,” I blurted. “I told you that.”
“You told me something, yes,” Callie said, ignoring her whiskey. “Then did something completely the opposite. I got a letter from a vampire telling me where you’d gone. A stuck-up, stubborn vampire at that. One who wouldn’t fill us in on any other information. Who practically ran out of here when I went for my satchel.”
“You were planning to torture the information out of him, hon.” Dizzy sipped his drink. “You can’t really blame him for taking off.”
“Oh, I can blame him for a lot of things.” She braced her hands on the island and leaned toward me. “Then you ran off into a world you were unprepared for without so much as a hasty plan.”
“I did have a hasty plan. Of sorts.” I grimaced when sparks went off in her peepers. It wasn’t a good sign.
“There is no way any of that should have worked. It was a fool’s errand, Reagan.” She took a deep breath and her eyes misted. “I thought I’d lose you, after only just meeting you again.”
“I know,” I said softly. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. I knew you wouldn’t want me to go. That you wouldn’t understand. But they were planning to come for me, and it would’ve been a slaughter if an army of them had come for me. Those demons were incredibly powerful. I would’ve been taken, and a lot of innocent people would’ve died.”
She took another breath, this one decidedly more ragged. “I know why you did it. And I knew you would, if I’m honest with myself. You’re just like your mother in that way. Purely bullheaded.” Her gaze shifted to Darius, and the anger rekindled. “You took the vampire in with you.”
“He said he’d help me,” I said meekly.
“You know what I mean.”
Yes, I did. She knew about the bond.
“It was the only way,” I rushed to say. “He had to share my power to get in, and I needed him. I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and he was my best, and only, bet.”
“Reagan, you are bonded to an elder. For life.” She sagged and pulled over a stool. “I don’t have the energy for all this.”
“Okay, but in my defense, he does actually love me. And he has put his life on the line for me more than once. He’s genuine. I know that’s hard to believe, and it’s not how this usually works. I also know he’ll try to keep things from me, because that’s his MO, but he is a good guy. Despite the fact that he is not actually a guy.”