by Ever Coming
Red Bus North, just past the Allen St. stop.
Stay on the bus until I message you again.
Will do.
Remember I will always keep you safe.
He meant every word. If only he wasn’t going up against someone who had everything to lose, because people who had nothing to lose were by far the most dangerous of them all. Three stops later and my phone buzzed, prompting me to pull the cord indicating we were about to get off. Martha had been very successfully entertaining Daisy as we rode along, pretending nothing was wrong. I only hoped that we could continue the façade because no little girl should ever feel the fear of actual danger, especially at the hand of their father.
As the bus pulled to a stop, we made our way out and were met with far more people than I anticipated.
“Finn,” I called to him as relief set in. He understood what we were up against and he was more than prepared.
“My Paige.” He enveloped me in a hug before explaining who all of the people in front of me were.
His friend and maker Jameson invited Martha and Daisy to his home and four of the men in front of us were to ensure their safety. I had a feeling they were actual men since most vampires couldn’t be out this time of day, but my gut told me they were safe, and I quickly agreed to the plan knowing that whatever reason I wasn’t with them was necessary.
“Marty.” Finn nodded his head to Martha in recognition.
“Well, Finnegan, don’t you age well.” She smiled at him, but a hurt touched her eyes. However they knew each other was far from completely happy.
“The same could be said for you, Marty.”
She blushed at his compliment before following their security detail to Jameson’s.
“Small world,” I mumbled as he grabbed my hand and led me to his car. I wasn’t being fresh or jealous, just shocked by the way life seemed to keep throwing curve balls my way.
As we entered the car the feeling enveloped me. Safe. I was safe. For how long, I hadn’t a guess, but for now we were and that would have to do.
14
“How did you know about the flowers?” As we wound through the cobblestone streets that were one of the city’s main thoroughfare, the silence became unbearable and I had to ask something. Anything to put some clarity into the situation.
“Flowers?” His hand was holding mine ever so gently, but I could feel the tension flowing from him. Whatever had him coming to get me was not what I had assumed.
“We were on the bus because someone sent flowers to my full name.” I squeezed his hand, trying to gain strength from him. I had put up a good front for Daisy, but now. Now, I wanted to cry. “They were daisies.”
“This I did not know.” His stilted voice should have upset me, but I could feel the truth of it. He was trying to maintain his composure. I knew from our dream-share the night before that he was far from forgiving when it came to Matt. Heck, a part of me wanted to allow him to hunt him down and alleviate the threat, but I knew that wasn’t the answer. People like him self destructed. They filled the news weekly. I just had to give him time to hang himself and then we would be free. It didn’t look like my plan was in the cards though, since he found me already. “I came to get you because Matt dared to show his face in town and one of Victoria’s people was able to get him in custody.”
“As in jail?”
“You could call it that.”
So not jail, something else. Something probably worse and that was fine by me. The way Matt was able to charm people, he would probably have convinced the authorities I was an unfit mother who stole his child from him and I would be the one in jail.
“If he’s in jail, why the mega security for Daisy?” Not that I was complaining, it just felt like I was missing part of the picture.
“Because he didn’t come into town alone.” We turned down another street, one I could have sworn we had already driven down. Then it hit me, we were waiting until it was late enough for the other vampires to be up. We were killing time.
My father. The reality slammed into me. He knew about Daisy too, and even that didn’t get in the way of him pushing his demented agenda and making millions off of his followers.
“Sorry, love.”
We drove around for another solid hour in complete silence before turning into a parking garage and descending two floors down. I squeezed my eyes tightly as we wound our way down. The logical part of me understood the need for the city to build down as well as up. The other side of me was freaking out at the entire concept. As we pulled into a spot, I readied myself for what was to come. Not that one could ever be ready to face both your child’s father and your rapist.
“I’m never leaving your side, and you are always safe with me.”
I let myself soak in Finn’s words as he exited the car. I was safe. I was safe. I was safe.
Yes, my Paige, you are safe.
With you, I know this to be true.
My ability to talk to him wasn’t good or easy by any means, but for that small bit it worked. I was glad for it because my mouth would’ve never uttered the words.
The door opened, and his hand reached for mine. I could do this. Matt was incarcerated and I had my vampire with me. I was safe and this would soon be over. Or so I kept reassuring myself over and over again.
Unlike Madame Victoria’s, this place felt bad. Not that I was unsafe exactly, but bad nonetheless.
We were greeted at the door by more security, these guys even bigger and scarier than the ones watching over my Daisy. They immediately moved aside as Finn reached for the door, neither of them speaking, but no words were needed. The corridor we entered looked like an old hospital wing from a horror movie. I waited to see someone, anyone, wander around, but we were alone. Three turns later we came to a set of double doors with an old fashioned knocker. Leave it to the vampires to get old school about something as simple as a doorbell.
Finn reached up and gave it three brief taps before pushing them open and walking us in. Unlike the hallway we had just left, this room was alive and bustling. Walls were filled with screens all containing what I guessed was security footage. Desks lined them and people tapped away at computers as if we hadn’t entered. I had a clue a place like this existed, but since vampires never hit the news in relation to crime, I knew someone was keeping them in line.
“Franklin,” Finn called, and my eyes popped in the direction he was now giving a halfhearted wave. Franklin, the vampire who tried to wipe me. The one my father hired to hide a crime not perpetrated by me but to me.
“Finn, I’m glad I could be here to help.” He extended his hand to Finn, who gave it a good shake with the wrong hand, never letting mine go. “Dear sweet child, I’m sorry things have been so rough on you. Trust me when I say I have been doing all that I could to help you behind the scenes since we first met.”
“Thank you.” It was all I could say. Part of me appreciated his words, and from what Victoria had briefly mentioned to me, they were true. What I couldn’t understand was why he had been willing to do it in the first place.
“My love would like to know why you tried to assist her father in the first place.”
Oops, I must’ve thought that out loud. Good thing because I really wanted to know and there was no chance of me being brave enough to actually speak the words.
“Shall we?” Franklin indicated door, I assumed for privacy, and gave a subtle nod of agreement. Once we were settled into the tiny office, he began to speak again.
“Vampires are not allowed to alter people’s memories by law with two exceptions. The first is by order of the government and something I have never, nor will ever be a part of.” He began to pace as he spoke, his words far too fast.
“The other, is to help in the case of PTSD or other similar situations. I have helped war vets forget the things that kept them up at night, children forget evils done to them, and victims feel less of an impact on their lives of the crimes done to them.” He stopped pacing and met my eye, I s
ucked in a breath as Finn pulled my body closer to his. “It is not an ideal way to deal with such trauma, and I am very careful about the cases I take.”
Not ideal. No, it wasn’t ideal. Not. At. All. We are who we are based on, among other things, the events that have occurred in our lives. Yet a nagging part of me said that sometime, just maybe it was for the best. Not that what happened to me fell anywhere near that category.
“When your father called to obtain my services, he sent me documentation of your therapies, the police reports, and the story of how he only wanted his little girl back and not the shell that was left behind.”
My stomach clenched and I had to focus on not throwing up. As bad as I felt that he would attempt to scrub my memory, I had always thought of it at a spontaneous solution, not the premeditated one being laid out before me. I had never been allowed to go to therapy because they were godless and would only corrupt me more. I had never been allowed to file a police report because no man would’ve done such a thing had I not been such an overt whore all but asking him to. The only truth was that I was a shell, but not as much by what Matt did as by how he was so openly allowed to do so.
I know, my Paige, I know. At any point when it becomes too much, give me the signal and I will get you out of here.
I squeezed his thigh in reassurance, unsure if he could hear my mass of confusion floating around my head.
“At the time, I believed him and didn’t check his documentation the way I now never fail to do.” Regret passed over his eyes, before he schooled himself. Was I the first person he held guilt over? I could see now why Victoria thought of him as she did. He was good people. Vamp. Whatever. “When I saw the truth, I vowed to protect you until we could get them both behind bars.”
My mind raced at how “lucky” I had been when I fled from my old life. The birth center, forgiving their fee. The documents so easily obtained. The bus detour that kept us from getting caught in a freak explosion—one Matt had expounded on as evidence of the moral decline of our country. Bastard had probably planned to use our dead bodies as props, if I had pieced things together accurately.
“He is in here.” Franklin pulled open a curtain I hadn’t noticed to reveal a pane of what I assumed was one way glass and pressed a button so we could hear what was happening through in the next room. “I will leave you now. I apologize once again, and if you are ever in need of me, I will be at your service.” He gave a subtle bow and left before I could respond.
“I take it he’s stinking old,” I teased, trying to break the tension of all I just learned.
“So very.” Finn’s arm wrapped tighter around my side as he pulled me closer. The sound of the door to the adjoining room opening and slamming shut put my attention back on the stark white room in front of me.
Matt sat at the end of a conference table looking every bit as smug as I remembered him. He was sure he was getting out of there. His hands were tapping on the table and I couldn’t see any cuffs, not that he stood a chance escaping from a room full of vampires.
“Do you think he knows this is not a human arrest?”
“No, or he would be far more scared.”
“He is a self-righteous prick, so I am not so sure on that.” Matt had walked around fooling people his entire life. He was a good boy, an intelligent man, a Godly person, heck I had even heard to him as referred to as a future president.
Just then a familiar, yet not, voice began to speak. I had assumed the slamming of the door was someone getting flustered with Matt and leaving. I was wrong. It was Jasper entering the room. His voice was cold, and if I hadn’t known him before that moment, I would’ve been trembling in my seat.
“You are being charged with attempted kidnapping and attempted murder.” The ice in his voice sent a shiver down my spine, yet seemed to have zero impact on Matt, who sat there with a smirk on his face. I knew and liked Jasper and I was terrified of his words, yet Matt was acting as if he was in control of the entire situation.
“You need to let me go, bloodsucker. You have no jurisdiction over the human world and you know it.”
Well crap on a cracker, he was right on that. Not that they couldn’t let him go by bringing him to the police station. He may not have done anything to me here, but the flower delivery attempt alone should be enough to hold him as a stalker until interstate paperwork could be done, or so I prayed.
“I am aware, need I repeat the charges?” The ice was still in his voice. Matt had gotten to him not at all.
“At no time have I ever sought to harm a vampire, and you can do nothing about me trying to harm that whore.” He leaned back in his chair, the smug look on his face deepening as he looked past Jasper and straight into the mirror. Asshole knew I was here and tried to rattle me with a term I had long term come to accept, not because I was a whore but because I knew everyone from my past believed it to be so. It no longer held the power it once did.
“I am a human, and the human courts will never find enough to convict me.”
Finn kissed the side of my head as I watched Matt, so sure he had won. Could we find enough to convict him? I wasn’t sure, but conviction didn’t matter to him. What people thought did, and we definitely had enough to ruin that. And with all eyes on the case, it would be terribly difficult for him to get to me to harm me. Keeping Daisy from him might be more of a challenge, but one I would succeed in because there was no chance in hell he was getting anywhere near her. None.
“Stupid, stupid human, have you not figured it out? That ‘whore’ as you so wretchedly put it is belongs to a vampire and is under his protection.”
I was. I guess I was, but how did that make a difference?
“Your human laws are no longer in play.” Jasper slid the paper he had been reading from across the table. “She is of our world and you will pay according to our rules.” Matt picked up the paper and after a quick glance, his face went white. “Your crimes paired with the blackness of your aura allow only one consequence—”
I slapped the button before pulling the curtain. I had seen all I needed to see. All I could stomach seeing. There was no need to watch, especially if my interpretation of the event was correct and his execution was imminent.
“I don’t want to hear any more. I hate him with all that I am, but I can’t find myself willing his death. And that was next, don’t pretend it wasn’t.” Finn stood in front of me, arms open and I sunk into them.
“I will never lie to you, my love.”
He held me as my tears flowed freely. He even gave me a handkerchief like the good old fashioned guy he was. I had no idea how long we stood there like that, me sobbing and him soothing, but as my last tear fell, I knew I was ready to face whatever came next.
As we exited the room, the entire wall in front of us showed a picture of my father … in handcuffs. The news feed scrolled below him and relief, true relief finally set in. We were safe. Daisy and I were safe.
Breaking news. Rev. Mark Johansen has been arrested on multiple counts of money laundering, embezzlement, and fraud. Bail has been set at an unprecedented twenty million dollars, and with his assets frozen during the investigation, it appears Johansen will be spending his nights in jail until his trial.
Epilogue
Ready, love?
I still can’t believe this is my life.
Knock, knock, knock.
The door flew open before I could respond and in walked Finn, my Finn. Could he possibly be even sexier than he was just the day before, let alone more than a year later? Looking him up and down, I came to the realization that yes, he absolutely could. His tux draped over him as if it were made just for this man, which there was a high likelihood it was.
“You are not to see me beforehand, silly man.” Nothing was traditional about our relationship, and Finn seemed determined to keep it that way. Good thing I loved it that way.
“Your silly man.” He hugged me from behind, his hands resting on my middle, his breath tickling my ear before he began his sensua
l descent down my neck with his kisses.
“Yes, yours.” My husky voice brought me barreling straight back to reality. We had to stop before I lost all sense and was late for our special day. I swiped his hands away, his chest vibrating with held in laughter as I did so. The man knew what he was doing to me. What he always did to me. “Hands off, mister, you’re going to wrinkle my new dress.”
“Don’t worry, my butterfly, the dress will be ripped off in only a few hours anyway. A wrinkle isn’t going to hurt it.”
He needed to stop. Now. I twirled to face him, and his smile wiped away any sense of frustration I had had given his antics.
“How can you even think that of me, the shape of a balloon?” Understatement. Of. The. Year. But I had already promised him not to refer to my very pregnant self as a cow, elephant, or a bus, so balloon it was.
“Have you not figured it out yet?” His fingers guided my chin up, encouraging me to meet his eyes. “You carrying our child is the sexiest thing you have ever done.”
True, it wasn’t his biological child because vamps can’t, you know, do that, but you would never know it from the gleam in his eye when we first saw the two pink lines, from the way he made sure to attend every last OB appointment, and the way he introduced our baby to everyone we encountered even before I was showing. Heck, he talked to our little girl more than me some days. It was so stinking adorable. He was a million times more a father than my father ever was. We may have used a fertility clinic instead of the old fashioned method, but in his eyes, she was his one bazillion percent.
“I highly doubt that.” I opened our link and flashed him pictured of some of our more adventurous naked times. “Remember the time—”
I remember every moment with you. He cut me off, and now it was my turn to chuckle. Turn around being fair game and all that.
“Now let’s go. We have a ceremony to get to.” He held out his arm and I wrapped mine through it. Today was the day we would come together as one. Officially, anyway. We already were one in all ways that counted. We had a love I could have only dreamed of one day finding and a connection that defied all expectations.
