AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She made her way into the bedroom with an armload of clothes, which she deposited in a hamper, then she kicked the bed. I was able to watch the whole thing because the apartment was so small I was already half way to the bedroom the minute we’d all stepped through the door.
A groaning voice joined hers in the cramped bedroom, which was probably too small for the queen bed in it. “G’way.”
“Jesus.” She kicked the mattress again. “What kind of self-respecting vampire is still in bed in the middle of the night?”
“Shhh,” Sutherland replied, before pulling his blanket up over his head.
“Now way in hell am I letting that fly, bud. Get your ass up or I’m leaving you here to die and don’t think I won’t.”
He mumbled something I couldn’t quite hear, and she snorted at him, then a moment later sheets rustled and the two of them joined us in the living room.
Sutherland was handsome, looking like one of those fresh-faced young actors you might see in a drama on the CW where he was from the wrong side of the tracks but fell in love with a nice girl from the Palisades or something.
I’d watch that.
He was pale, of course, he hadn’t seen sunlight in almost thirty years, but he didn’t look sick or gaunt the way some vampires did. He looked shiny and youthful enough he had likely fed within the last twenty-four hours. I suspected Sutherland had no real problem finding people who would be willing to let him feed on them.
There’s a reason you don’t see a lot of ugly vampires out there, and it’s evolution. Pretty vampires get what they want more easily, they can feed more readily, and honestly, pretty people just catch the attention of other vampires more readily.
Vampires are kind of shallow.
That’s one of the nicer things I could say about them.
Sutherland blinked at the four of us standing in his living room—Dominick had stayed outside to keep an eye on things—and smiled softly, like this was the most normal thing in the world.
“I wasn’t expecting company. I don’t have any snacks.”
Secret gently touched his shoulder, in a gesture that could seem meaningless to the untrained eye, but very clearly indicated that under her annoyance she had quite the soft spot for him. “Sutherland, we’re not here to visit.”
“I can make tea.” He shuffled towards the kitchen before she could stop him and we could hear him rattling through the cupboards and starting a kettle. I gave her a questioning look, like should we stop him, but she just shook her head. Apparently the tea-making would go on as planned.
“You guys might want to take a seat,” she said, gesturing to the loveseat and armchair. It wasn’t a lot of room for everyone, but Wilder stayed by the door and I sat next to Desmond on the loveseat while Secret lingered near the kitchen. Lucas hesitated, then sat in the armchair.
I knew why he hadn’t wanted to sit.
Wilder was still standing.
Yet Lucas couldn’t exactly get riled up about this with both Desmond and I sitting down. I was an Alpha now, and Desmond was king. If neither of us cared about Wilder standing, Lucas really couldn’t say much.
It bothered him, though.
It was kind of nice to see that death had done little to change Lucas, who I didn’t have the fondest memories of from his time alive. He had, after all, stood my sister up on the day of their public wedding, because he considered it a mere formality after the werewolf ceremony had been completed.
The elite of Manhattan would have been scandalized, except for the fact Morgan had shown up and tried to kill us all. That part ended up being a bit more memorable at the end of the day.
I hadn’t really thought about how the papers were going to react when he made the big reveal he was alive and well, or even if he intended to go public. There were a lot of finer details to coming back from the dead and not a lot of useful literature circulating on how to deal with it all.
So You’ve Come Back from the Grave: A Beginner’s Guide.
Sutherland returned a moment later with a teapot and a few mugs, though not enough for everyone, and set it all on the table with a satisfied nod of the head. “There. It’s hot. Be careful.”
We all stared at the teapot, and he didn’t seem to care one way or the other if we filled our mugs.
“Have you seen Mercy tonight?” Secret asked, cutting right to the point.
He stared at her, his eyes unblinking as he processed her question. “No.”
“Sutherland, think hard, have you seen Mercy?”
