Bring Me to Life（Time Walkers 1）(30)
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” he snapped. “Get dressed. Don’t we have an ex-boyfriend to scare the living hell out of?”
Her brow arched up in that way it did when he was being an ass, but he didn’t care. She was going to get to move on and find someone else to go into forever with. It pissed him off. He arched a brow right back at her. “Shower. I only have so much time I can devote to these things.”
*
Bryna huffed off. She still wasn’t sure how well she was processing any of this. She’d had sex with a perfect stranger, only he was her dead soul mate, and he wasn’t going to be staying, because he was dead. She got into the bathroom and stripped down to nothing, kicked his shirt into the hall, and slammed the door before she turned on the water.
Maybe there was a chance she hadn’t killed him. Okay. So there was a large probability. This was good. This was very good. Tears stung her eyes as she stepped under the spray of lukewarm water. This was very bad. If she hadn’t killed him, then she’d turned herself into a cheap piece of garbage for nothing.
She decided instead of being angry with herself, she was going to be angry with Vincent. That would fit. He should have told her before she aged ten years that it wasn’t her fault! Maybe it wasn’t his fault. There was this Felix guy he talked about that she still had no clue about. She hated being confused, and that she was going to blame on Vincent. What the hell had he been thinking? Letting them have sex like that?
Her brain was about to threaten a meltdown, so she shoved it all out of her head and decided to focus on what needed to be done.
Her talk with Shawn was important. No matter what Vincent said, she couldn’t let everyone go around thinking of him as a vampire. It was more wrong now because apparently they were the ones who’d killed him.
See? She was doing it again. Things were spinning in her head when she needed to be figuring things out. She shut off the water and squeegeed as much water off as possible and then squeezed it out of her hair. She grabbed the towel on the bar and glared at the door.
He was prowling out there. She didn’t have to see him to know what he was doing.
After wrapping the towel around herself she squared her shoulders and pulled the door open.
The man took her breath away as he paced the length of the hall. He’d abandoned the damn cloak. He had on what looked like fatigues with some kind of form-fitting shirt that just made him yummier than he’d been when they were kids.
She glared at him in reaction to her budding arousal. “You should put your cloak back on.”
He snapped around and stared at her for a full ten seconds before his head dropped back and he let out a roar of laugher. “Right, sunshine, that’s just going to make the mad need go away.”
His eyes moved over her like a hungry wolf. She pulled her towel tighter around her even as her body shivered under the heated stare. “Probably not, but at least then I don’t have to look at your gorgeous physique.” She snorted at herself for letting the comment slip out. “I need to get dressed. I have a lot to do today. I’ve got to stop at Shawn’s, and then we need to see Andy, and after that I have to—” She stopped talking and brushed past him. She was not going to tell him she spent his birthdays at his grave. “Next time have the decency not to show up on your birthday. It screws with my plans.”
*
Vincent cocked his head as he watched her walk away from him. But damn had he messed up by dying. If only he could get past the whole pissing off Felix part, he might consider going back to save his own life. It would be beneficial for Bryna, after all. He shook his head and followed her into the bedroom. His hands fisted at his side, and he forced himself to lean casually against the door as he watched her get dressed. “What plans am I ruining?”
She scrunched up the material of a tiny tee that would highlight every upper curve she had. He wasn’t about to look away while she stretched the shirt collar to pull it over her head.
Her eyes rolled. “You tell me, since you’ve already done this before.”
His brow shot up. Oh damn. Yeah, there was that whole visiting his grave thing. “I’m right here for you to say whatever you think you need to say.”
“Don’t.” She yanked her shirt down over her body and rounded on him. “You’ve been gone for ten years! How the hell am I supposed to tell you everything when you’re going to leave again?” Her face went stricken. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before she met his gaze again. “I love you. I’ll always love you. I don’t know how to do any of this without you.”
Her face crumpled, and Vincent had his arms around her a heartbeat later. He used the pad of his thumb to brush away the tear. “One thing at a time, sunshine. We’ll get you through this.”
Only, he was beginning to understand neither of them would ever be okay without the other.
* * * *
Bryna hadn’t expected to find Shawn at home. Nope, he’d be at the coffee shop where he ate breakfast and wrote his rough drafts. The sequel of that travesty of a book he already had out was due within the next year. She wasn’t sure she could do much about it, but she had to do something to let the idiot know how much he disgusted her. She drew in a deep breath and looked up at Vincent. “I think I’m just going to tell him off, and then we can go give Andy the heads-up.”
Vincent gave her that arched-brow look. His sienna eyes moved over her before he snorted. “What the hell fun is it to come back from the dead if I can’t use it to scare a little common sense into your ex-boyfriend?”
She winced and then moved toward the door. “Because there is a very real possibility if I tell him you are Vincent, he’ll have me locked up in a mental hospital.”
He sighed dramatically. “Let’s just go talk to him.”
Bryna was sure Vincent meeting Shawn was going have catastrophic consequences, but she’d started this. Hell, when Vincent had been alive he’d never been able to let something go if it upset her. She squared her shoulders as they got inside the café. “Just don’t try to hit him or anything, okay? If a demon really is after me, I kind of need you here with me.”
He winked at her. “No worries, sunshine. I exist solely to keep you safe.”
Her eyes rolled, and then she spotted Shawn in his favorite booth. A pretty brunette who kept obnoxiously giggling sat across from him.
“Him?” Vincent said over her shoulder. His tone was incredulous. “That’s the guy you thought was going to make everything all better?”
See? She knew this was going to be bad. Sure, Shawn didn’t have that dark, brooding, demon slayer thing going for him, but not many men alive could pull that off well. There was Andy, but she’d never thought of Andy in those terms. Besides, Shawn was a book geek and had the physique to match. Sandy, unkempt hair, black-rimmed glasses, a slight build, and below average height. In short, he was Vincent’s exact opposite.
She ignored the bimbo sitting across from Shawn when she got to the booth and dropped the book she’d purchased the night before on the table in front of him. “I want my money back for this garbage.”
The woman jumped. Shawn startled. He let out a decidedly feminine squeak, and then gave her his annoyed look. “I figured you’d show up sooner or later. Look, this story has nothing to do with you and your dead boyfriend.”
Bryna opened her mouth to retort, but Vincent beat her to it.
“Only, he’s standing right here,” he said in mock surprise. “And he doesn’t like being turned into an undead asshole.”
Shawn’s eyes widened as he slowly turned in the booth. He blinked and looked up, and then up again. “She said you were dead.”
“I’m standing here, aren’t I?”
Shawn scooted back on the seat and pressed his back up against the wall. “How do I know she didn’t put you up to saying this?”
*
Vincent leaned down and put his face right in Shawn’s. It wasn’t that he cared about being turned into a fictional vampire, because he didn’t. It had everything to do with how upset it made Bryna. No matter how much he was supposed to let go of his life before he’d ever be able to find a favorable judgment, he couldn’t forsake anything that would make her life easier. He let the ethereal glow of power flow through him and illuminate his eyes. “Listen, asshole, I was murdered by a vampire. I’ve been sent back to fix all the mistakes in Bryna’s life.” He paused and waited a beat for Felix to show up and strike him down for the blatant lie, but when his boss didn’t materialize, he continued. “Guess what you classify as?”
Shawn whimpered and tried to scramble back further only to end up smacking his head off the wall. He whimpered again. “Hey, man, vampires are hot in fiction. Her story sparked an idea. I wasn’t trying to do nothing wrong, honest!”
Vincent was quiet for a moment as he decided how to make this better for Bryna. The book was already published and already a bestseller. The cat couldn’t be put back into the bag. “How close to Bryna is your main character?”
Shawn winced.
Vincent nodded. “I thought so. This is what you’re going to do.” He sat down in the booth next to Shawn and gave a wide grin. “You’re going to finish your series and every bit of profit you make from each book sold will go toward the charity you’re going to create.”