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Of course there was another way out, in the event of an infiltration or a fire—because safety first. All of the off-site homes associated with the Black Dagger Brotherhood were modified not only to house vampires during the day, but to make sure there were really good alarm and monitoring systems in place as well as defensive protections and B plans built into the layouts.
He looked over to the desk across the way. His computer was shut down, the monitor’s screen black, the keyboard sitting on the little platform that slid out from underneath the top. He’d chosen everything in the room, and assembly had been required. He and his father had worked together on the furniture and the setup, not only of his quarters, but his parents’. It had been the first thing they’d done together, while Sarah had been kitting out her lab at the training center.
Getting up, he went to the closet and slid back the mirrored door. Hanging from the rod, his anemic collection of sweatshirts and t-shirts was elevated in terms of formality by one button-down and one pair of slacks. With a steady hand, he made sure all the plastic hangers were equidistant from each other, then he closed things up and double-checked the rest of his stuff.
His bed was made with all the precision of a watchmaker, and he went over and straightened the pillows even though they were precisely aligned with the headboard, the two meeting in the middle, like the part for hair in a bowl cut.
He’d vacuumed earlier, right after he’d said good day to his parents, the three of them breaking off and going their separate ways.
Heading for the bureau, he opened the drawers one by one, from top to bottom. His underwear were folded, his socks color coordinated and in paired-up bundles, his shorts and bathing trunks sequestered down at the lowest level.
In the bathroom, he made sure his toothbrush was still in its holder, and the toothpaste in the little set of shelves behind the mirror. Then he closed the medicine cabinet and looked at his reflection.
Well, he looked into the reflective glass. He didn’t focus on his face.
No, it was the background that captured his attention. The desk, specifically.
He thought about the only other time he’d put furniture together. It hadn’t been with his father. Nate had been at Luchas House, setting up a bedroom for a female who had mysteriously appeared from out of nowhere… and made him feel like she was the only person in the universe.
There had been an instant connection, for him.
And Rahvyn had connected to him, too.
That one time in her bedroom, when she’d somehow seemed to step inside of him and see all his secrets for herself.
As inexplicable and incredible as that moment of communion had been, especially as she had hugged him and seemed like she didn’t want to let go, little had he known that there would be another, even more incomprehensible, event waiting for the pair of them.
In his mind, he returned to that night they’d gone out to that club. The drive-by shooting hadn’t had anything to do with them—until he’d become collateral damage in someone else’s fight. He could remember just standing there on the sidewalk as the black car screeched by and the popping sounds had echoed and he’d felt this blaze of heat go through his stomach.
He’d called Rahvyn’s name at least once. And then his knees had gone out from under him as he’d grabbed his sweatshirt where a red stain was spreading. He didn’t remember much after that, other than snippets of her scrambling over to him and holding him. His last thought had been that she was very beautiful, even in her distress, her silver hair a cloud around him as she leaned across his chest, her eyes so luminous with terror.
And then later…
He’d replayed what had happened many times, him becoming aware that he was in a foggy landscape, a door materializing before him, his hand extending out and opening that portal. There had been such a draw for him to go to the other side, a pull sure as if there were a rope around his waist.
It had been the Fade, of course. Except just as his body had started to move through—
Snap!
The sound had been like a clap of lightning and clash of cymbals at the same time—and suddenly, he was being sucked backwards, his body pulled out of the aperture, out of the foggy landscape… back to his corporeal body. As his eyes had fluttered open, his adopted mom, Sarah, had thrown herself at him, smothering him in an embrace that carried the scent of her tears, just as Murhder had reached out with tears in his eyes, too.
Nate had not immediately understood exactly how he had been saved… or what it all meant. In the aftermath, when he’d finally been able to talk to Rahvyn, he had been confused and grateful. And a little afraid of the female.
