Ice-cream did little to improve the mood, but as the dark increased outside their window, Jonathon sighed. It was well past the kids’ bedtimes, now. The bruises on Maggie’s face had disappeared entirely, though she still shook.
Getting the kids to bed took another hour. They wanted to cuddle and eventually, Jonathon put them all in his bed, with him on one side and Maggie on the other until they’d fallen asleep.
When he and Maggie were back in the kitchen, he handed her a beer. “Are you going to call the cops?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think they’d believe me. I don’t have a mark on me left. And if they did believe me, they’d believe them more. They’d say they were just trying to talk to me and I… It doesn’t matter what they’d say, does it?”
“No. Probably not.” Jonathon had to fight down that red haze again. It was the sad truth that paranormal beings were most often blamed for any attacks. Just being paranormal was often seen as enough to justify attacks where the assailants ‘felt threatened’. He took a deep breath as he got himself a beer. “Are you okay, though?”
Maggie nodded, not looking at him.
Jonathon took her hand in his and redirected her gaze gently to his. Even as he opened his mouth to ask her again, her whole face crumpled. Tears started to run down her face, and her shoulders shook. She sucked in a deep breath, sounding ragged, and tried to speak. The rage flared but faded quickly to a sense of hopelessness. Things had been getting better. She hadn’t broken down like this since the beginning.
And now it seemed all the hard work they had suffered through had all come undone.
Without thinking, he pulled her into his arms. She collapsed against him, her sobs rending through his heart as he stroked her hair trying desperately to think of anything he could do to comfort her. She buried her face into his shoulder. When she started to speak, his heart froze within him, dreading the words he’d been fearing since she turned into a vampire.
“They were my friends!”
Jonathon’s lungs unlocked and he could breathe again. She didn’t wish herself dead, he reminded himself. She was grateful to be alive. She wanted to keep fighting.
“They’re a bunch of assholes. Okay? They’re not worth a damn thing. I’m going to make sure they never bother you again. Okay?” Jonathon held her all the tighter to him. Maggie had always been so stalwart and strong. Seeing her so low like this killed him. “I know. We can take a break. I’ll pull Summer and Ned out of school for a few days and I’ll tell my professors and work that I have a family emergency. Sound good?”
Maggie had dropped out of her own college courses when she became a vampire. She was planning on going back, but she said she needed time to adjust.
She pulled away from him and rubbed her face with her sleeve. “I thought I could handle being a vampire. I really did. I thought I could handle it.”
Jonathon tensed. What did she mean?
“But I can’t. I can’t deal with this, Jonathon. I’m not accepted by the people who used to be my closest friends. I can’t even tell them to shut the fuck up because I’m afraid if I give my anger an inch, I’ll wake up in a pool of blood.” Desperation and despair tinged her voice. “I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t.”
His fires nearly went out. Fear choked him, and for a moment, he couldn’t even breathe. He knew that his fear could be seen on his face because regret crossed Maggie’s face, but before she could start to apologize for her feelings, he blurted it out.
“I heard that there might be something that can turn vampires back into humans.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. Her jaw dropped, revealing those tiny fangs in her jaw.
“I don’t know if it’s real,” Jonathon hurried to say, wincing as he realized what he had done. If it wasn’t real, what would that false hope do to the person who was most important to him? “I just heard about it. And the person I heard it from heard it from someone else.”
Maggie gripped his sleeve. “Where did you hear it?”
“Samuel,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Camille’s mate. He’s been a vampire for hundreds of years. If anybody knows about something like that, it’s him!”
Jonathon nodded, although he wasn’t certain about this turn. Samuel had only reluctantly told him the very basics of what he knew, and it wasn’t much. They had a starting place and that was it. “Even he doesn’t know if it’s real.”
“He wants to be a vampire; of course, he’d never look to see if it was real or not.” Maggie’s eyes were bright, her tears coming to a stop. There was so much determination in her gaze that Jonathon found it difficult to breathe for a minute. “I have to become human again, Jonathon. I want it more than anything. I’ll do anything I have to to stop being a vampire. So where do we start?”
Jonathon held her hand tight in his. Some time away from this place would be a good thing anyway, right? “The Smithsonian. So, I guess we’re going on a road trip, then.”
Maggie’s face burst into a smile and his heart lightened. “And we did say we were going to a science museum, right? Well, I guess we’re just going to one that’s a little further away. We’ll have to have lots of stuff to keep the kids occupied. I think six hours every day is pushing it, but we could make it there and back in a week if we do that… we’ll have to see. I’ve got my savings; we can get a hotel there. Thank you, Jonathon.”
He smiled back, his fires returning to a pleasant glow as her hand lingered on his. It was a start, after all… and Maggie was no longer crying. That was the important thing.
Chapter Two
Having a possible cure made it easier to put the events with her former friends out of her mind. Maggie wasn’t one to dwell on the past. In most cases, it was easy to simply cut out whatever bit was causing her pain. She never looked back. If she started now, she’d break down. So it was simple. She used to have friends, and now they were not her friends anymore.
And Maggie was never going to think about them again.
She found her grip on the steering wheel of Jonathon’s minivan was tightening too much and forced herself to relax. They had been driving for a few hours already and with the multitude of vehicles around them, it was starting to wear on Maggie’s nerves.
“Need me to take a turn driving?” Jonathon cocked a brow at her from the passenger seat.
“No, I’m good.”
She knew how hard it was for Jonathon to give up control like that, letting her do the driving instead of doing it himself. He’d always been weird about that. She was the better driver, according to their records and insurance but Jonathon liked being the one behind the wheel. Today, though, Maggie needed that little extra bit of control. There wasn’t much else she did have control of right now other than herself, and having some external focus helped calm her.
Part of it was the fact that she looked at the dating agency stuff she’d signed up for months ago for the first time. It was an agency for paranormal beings and at the time she had been human. Now she was going to have to change her designation… but the thing was, as she idly looked through the images as she waited for Jonathon to get out of the shower, his picture had shown up. Shirtless, with his bronze skin gleaming in the light, his tight six-pack hard and defined. A lazy smile on his face.
It had made her cheeks so red that they were still a little warm. And she’d caught herself staring until Summer asked if she could play on the phone.
Maggie breathed slowly as she remembered. She wasn’t in the space to start thinking about dating. When he’d shown up as a match, though…
“I’m hungry,” Ned called from where he sat. He threw his headphones to the floor. “I don’t wanna watch this show anymore.”
“We’ll be stopping in a little bit for lunch, bud,” Jonathon said, twisting around. “How long can you wait?”
“I can’t wait. Can I have a cookie?”
“In two minutes. Okay? When this is an eight.” He tapped the clock in the dashboard. “Then you
can have two cookies.”
Ned sighed heavily and put his headphones back on. “Okay.”
Maggie smiled briefly at Jonathon. They’d been driving pretty much all day today, but the hotel that they’d booked had a pool and a slide so they should be able to get the kids’ energy out before bedtime. It was either this or add another day onto their trip. While she wasn’t looking forward to how restless the kids would be by the time they got to their hotel, she was looking forward to tomorrow.
They’d be going to the Smithsonian then. It was a place Maggie had always wanted to visit. She loves museums and loved learning. Before she became a vampire, she had wanted to eventually get her Ph.D. in Archeology. Now, though… well, that might never happen.
If they found what they were looking for here, though… well, she had to hope that they would. She ached to be human again. To wrap herself in Jonathon’s arms and not feel that slight stiffnesses to his muscles. To smile at people and not have their gazes drop to her fangs. Not to crave chocolate and eat a whole bar before she realized that, no, it was actually blood she was craving.
And just when she had started a diet, too. Maggie loved her curvy figure, but at times it was a little too round in some areas for her. She’d just started something to help shed the excess weight when she’d been turned into a vampire. And vampires were stuck in the forms they’d been given. Unless they had surgery, which Maggie wasn’t too eager to delve into.
So, hopefully, whatever was at the Smithsonian would help her shed the vampirism. If it didn’t… well, at least it would be an educational experience for the kids.
When I’m human again, will they accept me back? Her mind turned, inexplicably, to Juliette and the others. The hate that had been on their faces…. No. They were the ones who turned against me. They were the ones who wanted to kick me out of my home, wanted to take away everything I have left. I will never forgive them for that.
Her jaw tightened as she forced them from her thoughts once more. If she allowed them back in now, she’d never get rid of them.
They’d been driving for another half hour and cookies were no longer satisfying little stomachs when the van started making weird noises. Maggie pulled into a rest area and Jonathon hopped out to take a look at the engine. Maggie was amused by that since they both knew Jonathon knew nothing about vehicles. Her amusement was cut short when Summer and Ned started to scream at each other, though.
“Alright, that’s it,” she called as she opened up the side of the van. “Everybody out. We’re going to run out this energy while Daddy calls the tow company.”
“We don’t need a tow truck,” Jonathon complained.
Maggie narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you know what’s wrong with the engine?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
She stepped a little closer, lowering her voice even as the kids leaned forward. She could almost see their little ears perked up. “Jon, I don’t want to wait for half an hour until you decide you can’t fix it and then for another hour before the tow truck gets here.”
“But we can still drive it; it was just making a noise.”
“And doesn’t sound safe.” She jerked her head toward the kids. “Do you really want to risk it?”
Jonathon frowned at her. “There is no risk, Maggie. At worse we have a screw cap loose somewhere. The engine isn’t going to blow up. We’ll feed the kids and let them run around a bit, and then we’ll go to the nearest city and take it to a garage if you’re that worried.”
Maggie sighed. He was probably right. It wasn’t like there was smoke billowing from the engine or anything like that. She might be a little more on edge and worried about the small stuff too much.
“We are going to take it to a garage,” she said because that wasn’t something she was going to budge on.
Jonathon nodded, keeping his expression serious. “Cross my heart and hope to—”
“Don’t say die.”
“Hope to fly then.”
Jonathon gave her a smile that didn’t quite cover up the worried look in his eye. Maggie nodded and turned back to the kids. Together, they made a hasty lunch and then played tag for half an hour before loading the kids back in the van. Jonathon took over driving this time, but when he turned the key… nothing happened.
A ball of dread sank into Maggie’s stomach. Crap! What’s happened now?
“Let me check,” Jonathon started as Maggie pulled her cellphone from her pocket.
At that moment, a half a dozen men on motorcycles pulled into the rest stop. All were dressed in leather, several had their bare chests exposed and most of them had at least three visible tattoos. The one at the lead blew out a stream of fire from his mouth and laughed as he climbed off his bike. Maggie lowered her phone. Dragons. Maybe one of them knew something about fixing the van.
Jonathon growled under his breath. There was a glint in his eyes that Maggie didn’t quite understand. Yes, these men looked dangerous, but they were also dragons. It was well-known among the paranormal community that when it came down to it, as the rarest of the bunch, Dragons stuck together. As a dragon himself, Jonathon would be able to ask for their help.
As the bikers stopped laughing with each other and turned to stare at the van one by one, nostrils flaring, Maggie understood.
There was also a deep-seated hatred between vampires and dragons. Vampires were one of the reasons that there were so few dragons. In the medieval era, they were instrumental in setting up the harmful lies about dragons kidnapping maidens and locking them in towers or hoarding gold or slaughtering villages.
“Oh shhhhi-oot.” She caught herself just in time as she slumped down in the seat.
The dragons muttered with each other and four of them strode toward the van. Jonathon turned the key again to no effect.
“Daddy, who are those men?” Summer asked in her innocent, high voice.
One of the men paused but the other three did not. Two of them stood just outside the door, staring at Maggie. Jonathon quickly got out of the van and circled the front.
“Our van seems to have stopped working. Something with the alternator, I think,” he called, confidently. “Think you can give us a hand?”
The one who seemed to be the leader narrowed his eyes. “So, you’re a dragon, too, then.”
Jonathon laughed and flames flickered in his teeth. “Last time I checked.”
“And you’re traveling with a vampire.”
He shifted so he stood in front of the door. Maggie’s heart beat harder, and she tried to think of what she would do if these dragons decided to attack. They wouldn’t hurt the children, surely? But she couldn’t be certain… and if they went after the children, she would have no choice but to fight to protect them. Her hands clenched, and she fought to keep herself steady.
“Maggie works for me as my nanny. I’ve known her since we were three,” Jonathon’s voice was slipping into a more hostile tone, and Maggie swallowed hard. “She was only turned last year.”
The leader grunted, staring at her with an expression she didn’t quite understand. One of the others grinned lazily at her and leaned against the side of the van. “Why doesn’t she come out so we can get to know her better?”
Maggie blinked in surprise. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. The kids were squirming in their seats, and she didn’t want to leave the van. Even if he was acting more flirty than threatening, it didn’t mean she could trust him. Glancing back, she caught Jonathon’s eye.
Please just get us out of here.
“Given the history between vampires and dragons,” Jonathon said slowly, pushing himself between the flirty dragon and the van, “you’ll understand why she might be a bit nervous. So you can all clear out.”
What was he doing? He’d been so calm before and now he was starting into that alpha-male bullshit? Maggie quickly opened the door, pushing him out of the way and hopped down. The dragons all towered above her. She’d always been short, but around these shifters, she felt ev
en shorter. She still held her chin up, though. If Jonathon was going to let the situation slip, then she was going to have to do something about it.
“The children are getting restless,” she said, keeping her voice calm despite the beating of her heart. “Our van won’t start. It was making a funny noise earlier, but Jonathon wouldn’t call a tow truck. If any of you could take a look at it, that would be great. We’re going on a trip to see the Smithsonian. Have you ever been there?”
The leader stared at her a moment before he grinned. His teeth seemed to be exceptionally sharp. “Pop the hood. Alex here will take a look.”
***
Jonathon wanted to say he’d take care of it himself, even though he had an uncomfortable feeling he might have caused the problem to begin with. With the look Maggie was giving him, though, he didn’t dare protest the other dragon popping the hood of the van and taking a look at it. He could hear the pattern of Maggie’s heart, faster than normal, and could smell the stress sweat on her, but she remained so calm that he had to be impressed. But Maggie was like that. She wasn’t the type to be prone to emotional outbursts.
Which was why the outbursts she’d had since becoming a vampire were all the scarier.
One of the dragons sidled up closer to Maggie, a gleam in his eye that Jonathon didn’t like. “A newbie bloodsucker, eh? How’d that happen?”
Maggie edged away from him, stiffening at the term ‘bloodsucker’ but not losing any of her calm demeanor. “That is none of your business.”
“Sure it is. This is dragon territory, vampire.” The dragon continued to edge in on her. Jonathon strode between them quickly, shoving the dragons back and baring his teeth.
Paranormal Friends with Benefits Page 2
