And now those dreams lay in broken pieces around her.
“You can pay me back,” he said. He would never take money from her, but he hoped to appease her unease with his words.
“You’ve been taking care of me since all this started; you shouldn’t have to.”
And she hated her continued reliance on him. She’d always been independent, and she missed her ability to take care of herself. However, she never could have seen this coming.
Lucien gripped her shoulders as he leaned back to stare down at her. “I don’thaveto do it; Iwantto do it. I’ll make sure you don’t lose your place or your things, and we will get them for you.”
She bit her lip as her gaze traveled to the curtains. “Maybe we can have them mailed somewhere. I have some friends who would pack up some of my things and send them to me. It will be difficult trying to convince them that I’m okay enough to do it, but I’m sure I can think of something.”
“No,” Lucien said. “If the Savages are watching your place, you’ll only be putting your friends at risk.”
“Then I can hire a moving company!” she cried as the idea struck her. “They can ship it out.”
“And the Savages will learn the mailing address and be waiting there for someone to pick it up.”
“I hate them,” she muttered.
“So do I, but we will get your things for you, and until then, I will pay your rent.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Okay, but once I can access my money, I’ll repay you.”
“Don’t worry about that right now. Try to relax and enjoy yourself; you’re safe here.”
“Safe,” she breathed as the truth of the word sank in.
Then she laughed as she leaned into him.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“I’m safe in a place I don’t know, where I’m stared at by a bunch of strangers, and half of those strangers are vampires. It’s a little weird, and not where I thought my life was going a week ago.”
Lucien chuckled. “I didn’t see my life going this way either a week ago, but then, I was barely coherent a week ago.”
She couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
“Although,” he continued, “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
His sweet words caused the last of her tension to fade away. He kissed the top of her head before moving lower to her temple and then her cheeks. When she lifted her mouth to his, their lips met, and everything was right in the world.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Over the next week,Callie spent her days exploring the mansion while she wandered the grounds. She watched the hunters and vampires drill together, work out, and run around the compound. They were like everything she’d seen about boot camp, and they worked from morning to night.
And Lucien worked with them. She was glad he was doing so much better, but it made for lonely days, and she was running out of things to explore.
Lucien had yet to leave the compound, but others went out nightly to hunt Savages. She had no idea when he would go back to hunting, but she assumed it would be sooner rather than later. Over the week, he’d put more weight on as he regularly fed from the blood bags stored in a room off the gym.
He was so different from the man she first met that she almost couldn’t believe it was the same vampire. He was almost back to his full strength again, and once he was, he would go out with the others to hunt again. As happy as she was to see him doing so well, she dreaded the day he returned to putting himself in such danger.
Everyone at the compound was friendly to her, but she still felt out of place. She was the only human here unless she counted the children who arrived at the compound with Sister June and Duncan, but she didn’t. The children didn’t know vampires and hunters surrounded them; Lucien had told her the vampires altered their memories regularly to keep them safe.
There was also Elyse’s father, who was still human, but his daughter was here, and he’d found a place working with the head of security, Roland. She didn’t know if she’d ever find a home here. She also didn’t know if she wanted to stay. Before the Savages disrupted her life, she had a purpose. Now, she felt utterly lost.
On the morning of the seventh day, she meandered into the garden for what felt like the hundredth time. She strolled among the rows of plants and stopped to smell some newly blooming roses before continuing toward the fountain in the center.
It was there she discovered Kadence and Simone standing with their hands over their heads and their legs braced apart as they looked toward the sky. She’d taken a couple of yoga classes, but she couldn’t remember the name of this pose.
