Her mind immediately went somewhere it shouldn’t.
She pried her heavy eyelids apart. Someone must have smeared Vaseline over them because everything was hazy. Well, the joke was not funny, and she’d be lodging a complaint just as soon as she could pry open her mouth.
“—telling you, I’m good,” Tucker was saying.
“Sorry, but you’ll understand if I still take precautions,” Aden replied.
Aden. Aden was here.
“Letting your girlfriend drive while you hold a knife to my throat is not a precaution. It’s a death wish. Besides, you still need me, you know. Without me, you could be pulled over.”
“And you still need me. Don’t forget.”
Silence followed, allowing her thoughts to align. Rescued. With Riley. Where was Riley? Her heart drummed in her chest, reminding her of something, but she didn’t know what. She raised shaky hands to wipe at her eyes. Though nothing coated her fingers, her line of vision cleared slightly, and she was able to look around. She was in some sort of van, sprawled across the backseat.
Okay, so a seat belt was the thing poking her in the back, not some guy’s… Well, that was a relief.
More relief: she spotted Riley propped up in the seat in front of hers. Even in sleep, he must have heard her moving around because he turned his head in her direction. His eyes were closed, his expression pinched.
Pinched was better than lifeless any day.
She reached up, her shaking getting worse by the second, and wound her fingers around his arm. He gave no reaction, but that was okay. Whatever had happened to them, they were going to survive.
A sigh escaped her, the darkness closing back in around her. This time, she was smiling as she drifted away.
MARY ANN AWOKE to a grumbling stomach.
Frowning, she blinked open her eyes, stretched the soreness from her body as best she could—which equated to not at all—and gingerly sat up. After a moment of dizziness, she was able to make out her new surroundings. The car had been replaced by a small, tidy room, and the backseat with an unfamiliar bed. Whoever had done the decorating really liked the color brown. Brown carpet, brown drapes, brown comforter.
“—have to feed,” Victoria was saying.
“You do, too.”
“Yes, well, I’m okay for now.”
“How is that possible? I haven’t seen you eat.”
“Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, right?”
“So you have? Eaten?”
Feed. Food. Eat. Mary Ann’s stomach threw another growl into the mix, and both Aden and Victoria—who sat in a brown chair across from the bed, Victoria on Aden’s lap—leveled their gazes her way. Talk about embarrassing.
Unlike the other times she and Aden first encountered each other, Mary Ann was not filled with the urge to hug him and run. She just wanted to hug him. He was one of her best friends, she loved him like a brother, but their abilities—his to draw, strengthen, and hers to repulse, weaken—made them complete opposites. They were like two magnets forcibly pressed together, wrong ends up, and they just weren’t meant to coexist. Until now.
She wondered what had changed but was too hungry to unravel the pieces.
“You’re awake,” Aden said, his relief palpable.
“Yeah.” He looked different. A lot different. Gone was his dark hair, and in its place was a short crop of blond. His face was harder, harsher, his shoulders wider. If she wasn’t mistaken, his legs were longer, too.
All that growth, in about two weeks time. Wow. But then, she probably looked different, too. She was tattooed, thinner, maybe even gaunt. “Where’s Riley?”
“Right beside you.” Victoria motioned to the other side of the bed with a tilt of her head.
Barely concealing her jolt of surprise, Mary Ann twisted on the mattress, the springs protesting. Sure enough. Riley was beside her. He was awake, propped up on pillows, and…in pain? His skin was pallid but for the dark circles under his eyes. The normally luminous glow of his green eyes had blunted.
She reached up to trace her fingertips along the edge of those circles, halfway hoping to brush them away, but he jerked his head to the side, preventing contact.
Astonishment? Yes, she experienced that. Then utter, absolute distress. He didn’t even glance in her direction, just kept staring over at Aden and Victoria. He didn’t offer an explanation, just kept his lips pressed together in a hard line.
What was wrong with him?
Had she done something, said something?
Or was he simply hurting too badly to be touched?
He was shirtless, his chest free of injuries, but his lower half was hidden under the covers. Maybe his legs were giving him fits, making the rest of him sensitive to any type of human contact. She wanted so badly to believe that was the answer, but deep down she suspected the worst.
He was done with her.
And if that was the case, well, she’d pushed for that, hadn’t she?
“I thought I heard Tucker earlier,” she croaked out, turning back to Aden and Victoria.
The vampire princess hadn’t budged from his lap. Why would she? It was probably the most comfortable seat in the room. Although…her back was straight, her posture perfect, her hands folded neatly atop her thighs. Anyone else would have thrown in the towel and sprawled. Aden had, though he was running one of his hands up and down Victoria’s spine.
They looked every inch the couple. In sync, together together. They might be having problems, as Riley had told her, but they were clearly working on them.
A pang of longing moved through her. Would she and Riley work things out? Did she want to?
No pondering necessary. Yes, she wanted to. Would she let herself be with him, though, placing him in even more danger than she already had?
Yes, she thought again. She would. After the kiss they’d shared, she would do anything to be with him. If he would have her. She’d run from him, yet he’d chased her. She’d tried to get rid of him, yet he’d stayed with her. And now…now she had no idea what was going through his guy brain.
Well, they would find a way around the draining thing. He’d always been so confident about that, and it was time she believed him.
“Mary Ann? You listening? Tucker’s gone,” Aden said.
“Oh. Where’d he go?”
“We don’t know.” Victoria pursed her lips. “Riley was about to kill him, so his disappearing act was for the best.”
“You should have let me do my job,” Riley snapped at Aden. “Majesty.”
Hearing the harsh rasp of his voice left her shivering. Or maybe shuddering. He hadn’t lost his ability to speak—he just didn’t want to speak to her. Ouch.
“Where’s the other guy?” she asked. “The one at the hospital? The one who carried me?”
Victoria’s brow furrowed, creating worry lines in her forehead. “You remember that?”
“Vaguely.”
“Did you hear—never mind. That was Nathan, Riley’s brother, but he didn’t travel with us. His presence upset Tucker.”
And they hadn’t wanted to upset Tucker? Shocker. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Her stomach released another grumble, soliciting the return of her blush.
“Hungry?” Aden asked.
“I…yes.” Wait. She hadn’t been hungry for food, real food, for several weeks. Only energy. Magic. Power. Now, she would have killed for a hamburger.
Mmm, a hamburger…
All three sets of eyes regarded her strangely.
“That’s…weird,” Victoria finally said.
Her stomach protested the description with yet another growl. “That doesn’t change the facts. I’m starved!”
“Well, then, let’s feed you.” The princess popped to her feet, her expression a little too eager. “I’ll fetch you something.”