Page 73 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

“I know that.” He avoided my gaze. “But I’m okay, for now.”

I knew better than to push him, so I simply nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Whatever was between us now—it was raw and tender and fragile, but more real than anything else I’d ever felt. It had become the most important thing in my world, in fact. And we needed to talk about it and what it meant for our futures. But making sure that he was happy and kept safe was even more important than any of the fears or worries I had about tomorrow.

My phone rang while Bryan was still getting dressed.

I glanced at the screen and slipped out of the room, into the hallway.

“The hunters suspect what Bryan is,” Ethan informed me, without any preamble. “I’ve been watching them for a while now. They’re debating. One of them wants to just leave town and forget they met you, seeing as how you guys rescued them. The other one wants to—”

“He wants to hunt Bryan,” I finished, fear flooding through me. “To hurt him.”

“Yeah.”

“What did they decide?”

“Well, they haven’t yet. They’re actually kind of pissed at each other right now about it. But, um, you guys can’t cross paths with them again.”

“Why is that?” I gripped the phone so tightly that it was painful, tension rocketing through me. “What did you see?”

“Look, if you see them again, there’s a really good chance that Bryan will end up killing the pale one.”

“Michael,” I supplied, letting out a long breath. I crossed to the other side of the hall, lowering my voice. “You’re saying that Bryan kills Michael?”

“It’s a real possibility—the mirror is a little cagey on whether it actually does happen, but it was clear that it could happen.” He let out a sharp exhale. “Michael wants to check all the motels in town. He figures you guys will be holed up somewhere. He’s planning on roughing up the front desk workers to get them to give him information on where you guys are staying. He’s going to find you, no problem.”

“Fuck,” I whispered. “How much time do we have?”

“Not much—my suggestion is to pack up and leave town immediately.”

“Right,” I muttered, hanging up with Ethan.

When I turned around, I saw Bryan standing there, looking even paler than before.

“You heard all of that, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” he replied. He let out a little laugh that didn’t sound funny at all. “God, I’m such an idiot. Playing house here with you, pretending like I’m not the most dangerous thing in this entire fucking town. Pretending that I get to just fall in love like a regular guy and let you make it all better, after everything I’ve done.”

“Bryan, that’s not true. You are good. You’re—”

“No. Clearly it is true,” Bryan gestured to the phone in my hand. “According to a magic fucking mirror that’s never wrong. The hunters aren’t really the problem, are they? I’m the problem. Hell, maybe your vision only happens because I’m attacking them and they’re defending themselves. Maybe I deserve to let them stake me.”

“You know that’s not true,” I pleaded, horror flooding through me at his words. “Bryan, please just listen to me. We’ll leave town. We’ll find some other bad guy to vanquish. Or we’ll rent an apartment and live like regular people. Or we’ll do anything else you want. And I’ll come with you. I’d do anything for you. You know that.”

Bryan swallowed hard and something in his expression crumpled. He sucked in a deep, gasping breath and his eyes brimmed with tears. “Yeah, Tobias. I know you would.”

But the way he said it wasn’t reassuring. It was resigned.

Icy fear began to thread its way through my veins. The wall stood between us, cutting us off from each other. Bryan’s inner thoughts were a mystery to me. But his expression was brittle and ghastly, like he was barely holding himself together.

I took a step forward, wanting to draw him into my arms.

Bryan lurched back from me with so much force that his back slammed into the wall behind him. He stared at me, pain twisting his face into jagged and sharp edges.

“Let’s go back to the motel, then,” Bryan whispered, sounding miserable. “Look, can you pack everything up? I didn’t bring much. We’ll be in and out, ten minutes, tops.”

“I can replace everything you brought. We should just start driving.”

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