Ronan glanced at the window and his brow furrowed in confusion before smoothing as understanding dawned. “I’ll keep the workers away, so they won’t bother you,” he said.
“Thank you,” Killean replied. “And Simone—”
“I’m not leaving you,” she interrupted.
He turned to face her. “It’s safer if you go with them.”
“We already discussed this; I’m not leaving you.”
Killean contemplated forcing her to go with them, but he couldn’t make her do something he wouldn’t do himself.
“Fine,” he said before turning to Ronan who was failing at his attempt to hide a smile. Declan didn’t bother trying to hide it; he smirked. Killean contemplated choking them, but that would only make him look like more of a Savage. “I’ll also need a vehicle.”
Ronan’s smile grew at the clipped tone of his voice. “I’ll have one brought over later and the car removed.”
“Thank you,” Killean said. “And if you have blood bags to spare, I’ll take them. I think it’s best if I stop feeding on humans for a while.”
He’d never been a fan of using a bag to feed and the feel of plastic against his fangs, but avoiding the temptation of a throat, and all that delectable pain, was best until he got himself under control.Ifhe ever got himself under control.
“We have plenty to spare,” Ronan said.
Chapter Forty-One
Killean had assumedthey would move to the prison after their first day in the asylum, but when Declan and Saxon dropped off a truck with a mattress, enough blood to keep them supplied for a month, and clothes later that first day, he and Simone never discussed leaving and settled into a rhythm in the old asylum.
While the workers were kept away, some of their tools and building materials remained. Unsure of what to do with himself during the day, Killean started repairing the room where they initially met with the others. What supplies he didn’t have, he ordered, and someone brought them to him as most stores closed by the time the sun set enough for him to go anywhere.
Simone helped him with the remodeling, but she spent a lot of time during the day bringing the gardens outside back to life. Often, he’d watch her from the windows as she pruned the overgrown plants into submission. The ones she couldn’t save, she dug out and threw into the woods.
He and Simone spent their second day exploring the asylum, and while some rooms could be the staging for horror movies, he saw the beauty in the old place and itched to bring it back to life. As time passed, he finished remodeling the first room and two others on the first floor of the sprawling place; all they needed was a coat of paint, and the rooms would be complete.
Their days fell into the natural flow of fixing the place up, teaching Simone how to defend herself, and taking breaks to make love. As she predicted, she was a fast learner, and her determination to perfect the moves he taught her never wavered. With time, she would be a lethal adversary.
At night they walked the grounds, or Simone practiced driving before they curled up together on the mattress still located in the first room.
Over the month he spent away from the battle against Savages and the threat of Joseph, Killean grew calmer with every passing day. He experienced a few more hallucinations, but feeding once or twice a day kept them at bay. It was more often than he fed before he became a killer, but he was acclimating every day. He’d grown accustomed to the bags though he far preferred Simone’s vein. He was impatient to put an end to Joseph, but he recognized this break was necessary to retain his sanity.
Dreams of blood and death haunted his nights, but when he woke to find Simone at his side, he was able to retract his fangs, and his bloodlust ebbed after a few minutes. He suspected the vivid images of tearing someone’s throat out was one more thing that kept some vampires Savage.
He told Ronan and the others about the dreams when they came to “visit” as Declan put it, but they all knew they were checking on him. He was fine with it, he understood their reasons, and even if he couldn’t hunt with them, he missed his friends, which was something he wouldn’t have believed possible before he left them.
He’d known that, as a Defender, he was part of something and they were his friends and family, but Killean didn’t think he’d formed any attachments he couldn’t handle losing. He’d been wrong.
Simone’s mother also came to visit them once a week. Awkward was a feeling he’d been completely unfamiliar with until the petite woman with graying auburn hair and piercing green eyes walked through the door.
It took her some time to warm up to him, but she’d been unfailingly polite. On her last visit, they discussed more than the weather by debating if a good pruning might save the pear tree in the garden. He figured it was progress.
He glanced over at Simone as she dipped her roller into the tray of paint before slapping it against the wall. Yellow paint speckled her nose, cheeks, and the bandana she’d tied around her hair. The baggy coveralls she wore hid most of her lush figure, but the sight of her warmed a heart he believed deadened before her.
He’d spent the years following the death of his family as nothing more than a walking zombie until she entered his life. Now, even with his constant battle against his more sinister urges, he’d never felt more alive or loved.
Setting his brush on the tray, he walked over and wrapped his arms around her waist before drawing her against his chest.
“You’re going to make a mess!” Simone laughed when he ran his finger over the roller in her hand before streaking paint down her delicate nose.
“That’s the point,” he told her as he turned her in his arms and started peeling the coveralls from her. He proceeded to use the paint to emphasize the beautiful dips and hollows of her body while she painted his.
It was almost nightfall before Simone dragged herself from Killean’s arms. When she stretched her arms over her head, the dry paint coating her skin cracked yet felt strangely pleasant. Killean propped his head on his hand as he watched her with love shining in his eyes.
