Just as I started reveling in the miraculous man’s mouth, he pulled back and gave me a sheepish look. “Don’t take this the wrong way…” I frowned as his sheepish look increased. “They gave me a lead that I think may have something to do with a nest talked about in the journals. I think they may be connected to a group of mixed that the man already…” He sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I really want to go check it out…”
I sighed, realizing that he was asking to leave. “Oh…can’t it wait?” I squeezed his body tighter to me. “At least until morning?”
He sighed and leaned down to kiss me. “It is morning, Emma.”
I peeked at the clock over his shoulder. It was morning in only the vaguest sense of the term; even the sun was probably begrudging the hour. “Barely,” I muttered sullenly.
“I need to get on top of this, Em. If they have anything to do with mixed…? If they may know about us…? I thought I could get it researched enough this afternoon, that Ben, Great-Gran and I could find them tonight.” I could hear the turmoil in his voice. He wanted to stay, he wanted to go. I decided to make it easy on him, since he was doing all this for me anyway, me and the kids.
I pushed away from him, cuddling up into my sheets instead. “Fine. I’m still tired anyway, I guess I’ll go back to sleep.”
He pulled the blankets around me, tucking me in. With a sexy smile, he leaned in to kiss me. “I’ll miss you. I love you.”
I bit my lip to not tell him that he didn’t have to miss me, that his entire body could be wrapped around me as we speak. I didn’t place that guilt trip on him though. This was just something he needed to do. “I love you too.”
We both heard Ben sigh irritably again, complaining that he’d rather by snuggling up with Tracey than a throw pillow, and we both laughed. Teren sighed and ran a hand down my hair. “I probably should run Ben home.”
I bit my lip and nodded, hating that he was leaving the house again. The reverse of the pull, while not as drastic as the reuniting, wasn’t pleasant. It was a tearing feeling, like a part of you was being stretched away. Never detached though, just stretched. I think it made the reunion part that much sweeter. I yawned as he watched me. “I’ll probably be asleep when you get back,” I sighed remorsefully, knowing that there was no way I’d be able to stay awake this early after a night of restless sleeping.
He bit his lip and nodded. “I’ll leave you alone.” I knew how difficult that would be for him and a part of me wanted to use that to my advantage, wanted to tell him that he should at least say hello, knowing that I could twist that kinetic energy between us into a break-the-bed love fest, but another part of me didn’t want to abuse our connection like that. I didn’t want to use sex as a weapon to keep him near me. Not when what he was doing was so vastly important.
I put my hand on my stomach and nodded, reminding myself what really mattered. “Okay.”
As Hot Ben started muttering that Teren should learn to handle his hard-ons the way every other guy did, I started laughing. “Does he remember that we can all hear him?” I chuckled.
Teren frowned at the floor and then looked back at me. “No, I think that’s slipped his mind.” He sighed. “I should get him home.”
He pulled away from me and I sighed, watching his lean body stand, highlighted by our glowing eyes. “I still can’t believe he willingly goes with you.”
Teren smiled as he looked down on me. “He’s actually pretty helpful.” He shook his head, delight clear in his face that he had been able to keep that friendship tight. “He surprises me constantly.” He gave me a wry grin. “You’d be very proud of him. Tracey too…if the whole thing wouldn’t have her screaming in terror.” He shrugged his shoulders and laughed at that, then leaned down to kiss me a final time.
Once back downstairs, I heard him surprise Hot Ben in the living room. “I’m done. I’ll take you home now.”
I heard Ben sigh gratefully. “Oh, thank god, you’re fast in the bedroom too.” I heard what sounded like Teren smacking him in arm. “Ow! What? Just saying…” Teren sighed and they both started heading for the door, Ben muttering, “Sorry, no offense or anything. I’m just tired. I want to go home…and be super speedy with my girl too.”
Both of the guys laughed at that and I blinked, surprised. I hadn’t realised in all the chaos, that Ben and Tracey had moved in together. I sighed that I was missing out on so much, being quarantined here, and smiled that Tracey and Hot Ben were moving in the right direction. Teren was right, Ben was turning out to be very surprising.
And that began the pattern of Teren getting farther and farther away from me. He’d search out every lead a vamp gave him, but he never found anything more than more names, more nests, more leads. No pure blood vampire seemed to know anything about mixed. Most of them were startled that such a thing was even possible. The one group he’d found that he’d thought was somehow connected to mixed, turned out to be a dead-end. Teren had thought they were connected because of a vague reference in the book that sounded like one of the vampire’s last name, but it turned out to just be a coincidence. The pure bloods had nothing to do with the long-dead mixed vampires in the journals.
So far, no vampire he met knew anything about his kind. But every vamp gave him the name of another vamp, usually to get his annoying ass off their property. But Teren didn’t care how he got a name, just so long as he got one. As he was gone more and more, taking some of his family with him if the trip was close enough, I started hearing more and more about fights and scuffles.
As the weeks went by, and my lifespan dwindled, I started hearing about genuine knockouts, and started seeing the result of fighting in Teren’s clothes, if not his fast healing body. And of course, he couldn’t hide Hot Ben’s wounds. When I saw Ben with a black eye one night, I nearly went ballistic. They both assured me that it was nothing, merely a misunderstanding, but it riled me right up, and I practically demanded that Teren stopped this craziness. Obviously, the vampire community knew nothing, and obviously his continual prodding of their nests, was starting to piss them off. He was stirring the beehives, so to speak, and as a general rule of thumb, it was a good idea to leave something as dangerous as hornets, alone.