Page 67 of Roman

Roman vaguely registered Soren muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “told you so,” but he kept his focus on Danny. He knew he should have brought up turning to him already. He shouldn’t have let fear guide his actions when it came to his mate. Now he was left scrabbling to repair the damage.

“Danny, look at me.”

Danny kept his eyes on his whiskey. “And you haven’t put him down either. If you truly thought he was feral, with no sense of self left, wouldn’t you have done him that mercy? You’ve just been…running away.”

Roman was going to be forced to say it out loud, wasn’t he? Admit his faults and weaknesses to the two people on this earth whose opinions mattered to him. “I have been…afraid. Afraid of how he’s changed. Ashamed of my part in it. Facing that—that I did that to him. That I broke him.”

Danny winced in sympathy before downing another shot. Roman frowned. The boy was going to keel over before the end of this conversation if he kept going at that rate. But Roman had a strong feeling his mate wouldn’t appreciate that feedback at this time.

He kept his mouth shut.

He was rewarded when Danny’s voice softened with his next words. “I’m not saying what happened to him is your fault. I don’t think that. But he seems more pissed about the leaving than he does about Victoria. If you tried to talk it out. If you met with him. Could he kill you?”

The short answer was, of course,yes. Roman wasn’t invincible. But that wasn’t the reassurance his mate needed right now. “It’s possible, of course,” Roman hedged. “But very unlikely. He’s strong, but so am I. And we are hard to kill. Putting one of us down tends to take quite a bit of effort. Or an ambush.”

Danny had forgone staring at the whiskey to draw invisible patterns on the table with his fingertips. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. And I couldn’t bear it if you were killed. But I can’t consider an eternity with you with this…person…lurking in the background. Looming over our shoulders. It needs to be fixed somehow.”

Roman tried to ignore the warmth that filled his chest at his mate bringing up an eternity with him. Did Danny mean it? Would he be willing to put aside his humanity to be with Roman, to stay by his side? He forced himself to pay attention as Danny continued, oblivious of the effects of his words, “And I’m not so sure he deserves an execution.”

Soren cut in, “Aren’t you being awfully supportive of someone who just snapped your brother’s arm like a goddamn twig? And in case you forgot—the psychopathmurdershumans.”

Danny turned to Soren and raised a finger. “One—you do not get to talk about my brother. You are on a time-out from all things Gabe-related.” He raised a second finger. “Two—what do you know about the people he’s killed? Because I know of two in Hyde Park. One tried to mug me, and according to the police, it wasn’t his first, and not all his victims were fortunate enough to live. The other that I know of…the police told us about him too. At the hospital. About some of the things he’d done. He wasn’t a good guy, to say the least. And Luc said something that’s been on my mind ever since, about taking out some of the ‘trash’ around here.”

Soren scoffed. “You’re telling us you think he’s some kind of vampire vigilante?”

“I think in one night he lost the two things that made him hopeful about an eternity of living: the woman he loved and his brother. He’s been full of rage and pain, letting his demon call the shots. But what if underneath that, he’s still in there, mitigating the chaos by choosing his victims deliberately?” Danny sighed, losing some of his fire. “I’m not saying he’s right, and I’m definitely not saying he’s not dangerous. He’s clearly hell-bent on some sort of revenge when it comes to Roman. But maybe he’s doing what he can to not be a true monster.”

Danny finally turned to Roman, his big eyes imploring. “And you’re maybe the one person who has a chance of getting through to him. He’s fixated on you, for better or worse.”

“Clearly for worse,” Soren muttered. “How do you expect Roman to do that without it turning into a giant bloodbath?”

“I don’t know.” Danny sounded frustrated. “You two know Luc better than I do.”

They all fell into silence, contemplating the different paths in front of them. Roman was conflicted—could he really reach Luc? None of their recent interactions had been cause for any hope so far. But they had had very few actual conversations over the decades, and Roman certainly hadn’t accomplished anything by running away, other than increasing Luc’s ire.

But there was something else on Roman’s mind, and it couldn’t wait any longer. He cleared his throat, eyes on Danny. “Did you mean it? An eternity with me?”

Soren made an impatient sound and stood up from the table. “I’m leaving if we’re getting into lovey-dovey talk. We can reconvene this doomed think tank tomorrow.”

Danny reached out a hand to the blond vampire, and Roman did his best not to throw a fit and demand his mate’s full attention. “Wait, please. What—what do you want with Gabe?”

Soren crossed his arms, the picture of petulance. “I don’t know.”

“Do you want to hurt him?”

Soren shook his head.

“Date him?”

Soren laughed, and Danny narrowed his eyes.

“All right then, Mr. Stubborn. Tell me this. Would you protect him if Luc came after him again?”

Soren paused long enough that Roman, in Danny’s shoes, would have throttled him. But eventually Soren nodded slowly. Danny gave a little sigh of frustration, but his expression softened toward Roman’s friend. “Can you please do me a favor and keep your distance? At least until Luc is dealt with. I don’t want my brother to be a target.”

Another nod from Soren. Roman had never seen his friend so taciturn. What the hell was going on with him?

Danny laid a hand on one of Soren’s crossed arms, squeezing gently. “Thank you.”

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