Our new camp was larger than the
previous one, the cabins older but roomier. Instead of two rooms, these had
four. The lake itself was also larger, extending past the horizon. Mitchell
informed me that Drei had planned this location for his new camp, and had been
checking on it for the last several years, ensuring it really was abandoned.
While Mitchell and the other vampires
were settling into the new environment or returning the rental vans, Drei and I
were left to tuck everyone in. It hadn’t yet occurred to me there might have
been an intended purpose for that. Initially, I just thought it was accidental.
“What if we aren’t tired?” Mikael asked
from his room, quickly followed in agreement by Danny, Derek, and Josh—a newer
addition to the group who had fit in immediately.
“If you don’t sleep then I’ll have to
send some cold air this way until you’re all too freezing to get out of bed,” I
said with light humor.
They giggled at the mental image of
them blue with icicles dangling from their noses, but stayed put and made no
other complaints. Though I was joking, subconsciously, they didn’t want to risk
it.
“Good night,” I whispered, leaving
the cabin. They were my last group and, though it was chilly outside, I
realized Drei and I were the only ones around. I wasn’t sure if the timing was
ideal, but I knew I probably wouldn’t have another chance like it.
I caught sight of his silhouette
disappearing toward the cabins we hadn’t yet filled—some of them probably
reserved for the vampires.
“Drei,” I whispered, sending the word
to his ear.
He whirled around, startled at first,
but then beginning toward me when our eyes met. I met him halfway, feeling the
cold settle into my bones through my coat.
“Yes?” he questioned softly, glancing
around to guarantee no one else had stirred. “Is everything well?”
The words vanished from my mind and I
wondered if I had misjudged the moment. It didn’t seem like forgetting the
words would happen in the ideal moment, but I had to say something. He was
expecting it now.
“How did your sisters die? Ashlyn and
Avery?”
Drei looked away from me, the set of
his jaw revealing his refusal to reply, whether because of pain or just my not
needing to know. After a hard moment of silence—in which I doubted Valetta had
told me the truth—Drei said, “What do you really want to ask?”
And just like that, the words came. “What
are we?”
“How do you mean?” He gazed at me
again. His amethyst eyes were intense, as if he knew what he wanted me to be
asking, but wasn’t sure I was.
“Together;” the anticipation welled
in my chest. I couldn’t bear to meet his searching gaze; whatever information
they held, I didn’t want to read. I wanted him to tell me, to say it aloud.
In his logical voice, he began,
“Vampire law forbids any relationship between mortals and vampires, and lately
they have been less lenient in their rulings. Lily is the youngest of us,
turned in the 1920s, before the Council decided we needed more order to
survive.” He cast his gaze off to the half-moon wavering above; I couldn’t tell
if it was for strength or for locating those elusive words. “We are especially
barred from elementals, the risk of distraction too great to truly understand
until the damage is done.”
“That isn’t what I asked,” I
whispered, feeling the tears well in my eyes. I didn’t want to know we couldn’t
be together without him getting into trouble with this council, whoever they
were. All I wanted to know was if he loved me; if I had tortured myself trying
to forget him for nothing.
“You are shivering,” he said gently,
pulling me into his arms, wrapping his jacket around us both. I was hesitant to
wrap my arms around him, despite my longing to do just that. It wouldn’t feel
right or acceptable until I knew, and he was more than reluctant to let me
know.
“Why are you avoiding the question?”
I asked, looking up at him, struggling not to let his comforting arms or
familiar scent distract me. I wasn’t sure if either was on purpose, but, if
they were, I didn’t want them to succeed; all of us, it seemed, had suffered
too long from this omission. “What are you afraid of?”
Drei’s pale fingers brushed a wisp of
hair out of my eyes. He looked down at me with such a sadness in his amethyst
gems, I was certain he wouldn’t answer me, just as he hadn’t answered about his
sisters. He had a way of locking away anything painful, as though it would make
life easier for others to be ignorant of injury.
“Secrets hurt, Drei,” I said, resting
my head against his chest. “My whole life was a huge mystery I never knew
about. Please, don’t add to the pain my parents caused me.” My throat
constricted, stopping me from opening my heart further. Stopping me from giving
away everything before I knew if he would replace it.
He held me tighter, a hand tangled in
my hair. Before, he had always been so cold when we touched; now he seemed to
radiate warmth. In this wondrous whirlwind, that was the one thing I couldn’t
make fit in with something else I had allowed to make sense.
“I believe you are the one I have
been waiting for,” Drei whispered into my hair.
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