“Holy fuck!” a younger version of Vincent roared from the bedroom. Bryna rushed in to see him in his standard death metal T-shirt and jeans, also without shoes. A look of horror was on his beautiful, unscarred face when he lifted his gaze to hers. “Bryna? It’s me, Wraith.”
She blinked once and then rushed to the mirror over the dresser. Holy fuck was right. There she was, her fifteen-year-old self, with a freaking ribbon in her hair. Maybe she wasn’t as ready for this as she thought. “We were supposed to be time walking, not turning into teenagers.”
He let out a breath and wrapped his arms around her. “This was going to happen, sunshine. If I don’t die, we have to become our teenaged selves, I think.”
It made sense, but she was used to running her own fucked-up life, and doing what she wanted when she wanted to do it, without having to answer to her uncle. Shit. She twisted in Vincent’s arms to look at the clock by the bed. “Uncle Ron is going to be here soon. You know what happens, next, right?”
The muscle under his eye started to tick. “The Argents and Zerek are supposed to show up, right? We just have to get through today. We can’t react the way we did the first time. I need to be with you when the vampires come.”
“Right, but Uncle Ron is going to be here in a minute. You can’t bellow at him.” She knew it was like telling the sky not to be blue, but in this time, at their ages, Vincent could be arrested.
“Damn it.” He let her go to pace the room. “I need my sword, and we need a plan. Where is my paper? I need it to contact someone who can help us.”
Bryna let him pace the room, and decided to look in the places where Vincent would have hidden that kind of thing when they were younger, or now. She was confused, but whatever. She checked the closet, under the bed, and under the mattress.
A knock came to the door before she could look anywhere else. She ran off to answer the door, and Vincent was right at her heels. She pulled open the door. Uncle Ron stood there with all the pissed-off bluster she could remember him having. “Bryna, you need to go home now.”
“No,” she snapped without thinking. “You don’t give a shit about me. You only care about what your fishing buddies think of Vincent. You know what? He has a job, and his own apartment, and he takes care of me better than you do. I am getting straight As in all of my classes. Go on, make me leave and I will file for an emancipation. Do you think Mom will continue to send you and Aunt Jeni money if I tell her you let me stay at a boy’s house who doesn’t live with his parents? Do you think you’ll be able to keep me and still get money then?” She’d replayed this moment in her head so many times. What she should have said instead of standing there dumbly looking at him when this moment first happened. She’d said it.
Uncle Ron’s face turned red. “You will not blackmail me, child.”
Vincent drew in a breath, and she knew it was coming. Vincent picked her up, and gently moved her to the side. “You know, I always wondered, what did Bryna’s father do? His work, you know, where he was killed?”
Uncle Ron paled and he shook his head. “That is none of your business.”
“You know what I think,” Vincent pulled Ron into the apartment and closed the door. “I think those special powers Bryna has, the ones that knock you on your ass when she’s afraid, were inherited from her father.”
Uncle Ron swallowed and took a step back. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“My parents died when I was fifteen. Before that, they were always out, doing some kind of work they would never tell me about. I think I inherited their gifts. The same gifts Bryna has.”
“Mark Wildrose was a freak and a monster and should have never had a child,” Ron said through clenched teeth. “If you are the same kind of freak, you should not be near my niece.”
Vincent leaned against the wall, right next to the door, looking as if he was bored with the conversation. “Go on, take her, but it won’t be my fault when vampires show up at your house tonight.”
Ron gave a placating smile. “You know what, I’ll have to talk to Jeni about it, but Bryna is right. She’s doing well here with you. Perhaps letting her get an emancipation is the best option for her.” He stared at the door like it was an oasis in a desert.
“How do I know you aren’t going to call the cops on me the second you walk out that door?” Vincent countered.
Ron swallowed hard. “I don’t want any problems. My family has done nothing to be plagued with vampires. I’m more than happy to hand Bryna off to you if it keeps my wife and children safe.”
Bryna believed him. He was a jerk, but he did love his family, in his own, weird Uncle Ron way. “Vincent.”
Vincent shoved his hands into his pockets and a grin turned the corner of his mouth when he pulled out a nicely folded sheet of paper. He opened it up and wrote on it with his finger. “Have a seat,” he told Ron. “My lawyer will be here soon to get the paper work started.” He winked at Bryna. “Sunshine, why don’t you get dinner started. I don’t think you ate nearly enough today at school.”
Bryna blinked at him. Wow. He was awesome. She glanced at Uncle Ron sitting on the secondhand grey couch, and then she went off to the kitchen. Vincent right behind her. She let out a breath and peeked out at her uncle before looking up at Vincent. “See, it works so much better when you don’t bellow at him.”
“Two hundred years of maturity will do that.”
“How did you know to ask Uncle Ron about my father?”
He let out a slow breath. “It only made sense. I mean, it would have to be a hereditary thing, right? You had to get the ability to pulse from somewhere, and I was allowed to go back and look into my parents, so I know I got it from my mom.”
“I’m sorry we can’t go back and save them, too.” She closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain of her own father’s death. The wound was ten years old to her, but still so fresh to this body.
Vincent put his hand on her shoulder. “I know. It will get better.”
She opened her eyes and gave a wobbly smile. Was he always going to be taking care of her? “I know. This is all so strange. Now I have to figure out how to be a kid again.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Bryna, babe, what do you think about being a teenage bride?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Your mother, if she knew she was married to a time walker, she might consent to us getting married, and then you don’t have to worry about your uncle ever again.” He looked as if he’d just swallowed a bug.
Of course she’d marry him. After everything she’d been through and what she was willing to do just to be with him, she’d be a fool not to say yes, but he didn’t have to look so upset about it. “Only if you want to do it.”
His face brightened. “Really?”
“Yes. You big idiot. I’d die to be with you; of course I’ll marry you.” And then reality came crashing in. “Vince.” She hadn’t used that nickname for him in forever. “I’m not the same Bryna you fell in love with.”
He hooked his arm around her, and pulled her in close. “I’m not the same Vincent you fell in love with. I need you with me forever, Bryna, don’t let past”—his face screwed up for a second, and then he chuckled—“or is that future shit, get in the way. You asked me if we were meant to be together.” He captured her lips with his in a searing kiss, and didn’t pull back until they were both panting. “Babe, without you, I don’t give a shit about saving the world.”
She rested her forehead on his chest. “Jeez, Vince, we’re so sappy.”
He used a finger to tilt her head up. “Being alive will do that to a man.” He touched his forehead to hers. “We still have a Draven problem to handle.”
“And demons,” she whispered, but it was going to be okay. This man she loved was the Wraith of vampire legends. One step at a time. One battle at a time. Wasn’t it already going better? She pulled back and offered him a smile. “You asked me to cook, so, I should go try to do that while you entertain my uncle until your lawyer shows up.”
He snorted. “I only said that to get us into a different room. It will be one of the guys showing up with some kind of binding, all-powerful contract. Once your uncle signs it, you’re my dependent until we’re both adults.” His eye twitched, and he rubbed a wide-palmed hand over his chest. “This is fucking weird.”
She laughed. “It is, but I’m really twenty-five, and you’re two hundred and eighteen. We’re just in the bodies of teenagers.”
“I’m noticing,” he said and adjusted his pants at the crotch. “You always had me hard before, but damn.” His face softened, and he ran a finger down her braid. Then tugged at the ribbon. “I’d forgotten just how enchanting you were back in today.”
She wondered how long they would be speaking in puns, and referring to today as the past, but it didn’t matter. He was alive. She was going to keep him this way. Which reminded her. “I have one more place to look.” She left him standing in the kitchen, ignored her uncle on the couch, and got down on the floor to look under it. Jackpot! She pulled Wraith’s sword in the scabbard out and grinned when her uncle blanched. She carried the sword into the kitchen and offered it to Vincent hilt first. “There are only so many places you could hide things in this place that would fit a sword.”