KANE's POV
It feels like there's a burning inside my body that's growing as time goes by. The separation from Juliet is too much, and I ache to be close to her again. The smell of roses lingers all around me and it's driving me to the edge of insanity.
"What's wrong with him?" Ravana asks.
"I don't know, I've never seen anyone act like this before," Erik answers.
"We should take him to the tunnels. Just in case we need to keep him underground," Ezra says, and I try to jerk free of his hold. "Jesus, Kane, calm down. We're not here to hurt you."
"Then let me go," I say through gritted teeth. "This is all a mistake. I need to get to her."
"Do you hear yourself right now? You sound crazy. You're going nuts over a human!" Ravana spits the last part as the twins pull me down the stone stairs that lead to the tunnels. "You can't be trusted right now. You need to calm down and we need to figure out what's going on. Did she slip you some kind of drug?"
We reach the bottom of the stairs and I let all my anger and strength surge forward and break free of their hold. "Fucking hell, would you guys just look at my dick already? She's my mate!"
The twins both stop and look down in shock to the front of my suit. Ravana is behind me so she can't see, but the look on the twins' faces must be enough. I hear her gasp and step back.
"Holy shit," the twins say in unison.
"But this can't be right. Our kind doesn't mate with humans. When we're changed, we can only be with another vampire forever. That's how we stay alive."
"Don't you think I know how this works?" I shout as I straighten my suit jacket and button it closed to hide the bulge in my pants. "I've been told the same stories as you, little sister, remember?"
"I think we should talk to Bishop," Erik says, stepping forward when I go to argue with him. "I'm not saying she doesn't belong to you, because clearly the magic is working." He holds up his hand for a high five, and I roll my eyes. "That's cool, leave me hanging."
"What he's trying to say is that we should just talk to our leader before we let you run around in the streets like a crazy vamp chasing down the smell of her pussy." Ezra leans in close to whisper, but we're all freaking vampires, so it's not like the others don't hear. "How does it feel getting a chub? It's been so long I can't even remember."
"That's enough," Ravana says. "Let's take the tunnel to Bishop and figure this out. I don't want to risk going above ground right now."
"I'll drive," Erik calls, and I decide to just give in and go along with them.
I get into the back seat of the Mercedes SUV, and Ezra slides in beside me. Ravana gets up front with Erik, and then he's taking off into the dark. Our eyes are made for night, so there's no need to put on headlights. And it's not like we need them. These tunnels have been here for hundreds of years. They were made long before any of us came along for this very reason. A lot of times when a vampire is coming to the end of his life, he will leave all his belongings to another vampire in his coven. The tunnels connect all of our houses and are here for when we need to travel during the day. It's not my favorite form of traveling, so I only use it when I have to.
The twins are the youngest in our coven at just twenty years old. Bishop turned me and then Ravana years later. But the twins were an unexpected surprise. Covens can be larger than the one we have, and then there are rogue vampires that live alone. We talked about expanding our family, but the closer Bishop gets to the end of his two hundred years, the less he brings it up. I can imagine it makes him sad to think of creating someone new in our family only to leave them behind.
The drive doesn't take long, but my skin feels too tight and the burning in my stomach is irritating me. Somehow it comes and goes. One moment it brings me to my knees and the next it's only a dull throb. I can't understand why it won't stop.
When Erik stops the car we all get out. There are stone steps identical to mine nearby, and the four of us take them up to Bishop's house. When we reach the hallway at the top, we walk directly to his study. He's always here this time of night either writing or recording our history. He said he didn't want to die without us knowing all that he'd been taught. I've told him before that I think he never found his mate because he doesn't leave his house, but he seems to think that being our vampire historian is better for all of us.
"Come on in," Bishop says without looking up from his desk.
We all file in and stand there, waiting on him to stop what he's doing and look up. It only takes a second before he's putting down his pen and sitting back in his chair. Bishop might be the oldest vampire in the room, but he doesn't look like it.
"So, it's Friday night and everyone wanted to come see me at once? Family dinners are on Tuesdays, guys. You know the schedule."
"Check out Kane's dick!" Erik says excitedly.
I roll my eyes, and Ravana groans and drops her face in her hands as Ezra and Erik high five.
For a second Bishop looks like he might laugh, but then as his eyes lower they widen in shock. He stands up and glances over to Ravana then back to me. "Did you and—"
"No," she and I say at the same time.
"Who is she then? Why isn't she with you? Don't you know separation in the first few months can be painful?" he says as he comes around the desk.
"She's human," Ravana says, and room goes silent. Bishop's eyebrows pull together as he looks to her and then to me.
"Is that true?"
I nod. "She broke into my house tonight. She cut her arm on the gate sneaking in. I was only going to clean the wound and then tell her to leave, but the scent of her…" My mouth beings to water as I remember the smell of the roses. How sweet and innocent she would taste. My eyes feel heavy and my body throbs with the need to have her. To take her, if I must.
"Kane," Bishop commands, and I snap out of my fog. "Sit down. We should talk about this."
Bishop turns around and walks over to a stack of books on a table in the back. He starts going through them, flipping pages one after the other.
"Bishop, are you saying this has happened before? There's a possibility that this is real?" Ezra asks as I take a seat in front of the desk and Ravana begins to pace.
"There are cases of it happening before, but it was a long time ago. There's only one or two documented that I can remember." He pauses for a second before grabbing a small book and bringing it over. "Here it is."
Everyone gathers close as he reads the passage in the book. It's from his creator, who is talking about it happening before his time. He says that it happened in an ancient bloodline and that the power we have can be connected to a human. The human we choose as our mate will become immortal just as we become immortal when we find them. We can drink their blood and it will sustain us until the end of time after our first bite and the venom enters their body.
Bishop sits back in his chair and I can see his mind is spinning. Ravana is silent as she looks at me, waiting for me to say something. The twins are whispering to one another and I tune them out because I knew the moment I smelled her blood that she belonged to me.
"This has a lot of complications," Bishops says as he steeples his fingers in front of his face. "She won't know anything about our world. Taking her as a mate is not a choice, but you have to be careful. If she finds out what we are and rejects you, this could kill you."
As if the room wasn't already silent, no one dares breathe a word at this news. I remember him telling me a long time ago that sometimes when a mate was killed the other would die soon after. I don't know if there's a history of a vampire being rejected, but I'm willing to take that risk. I would do anything to have my Juliet.
"I don't like this," Ravana says, and I turn to look at her. "I don't like revealing our secrets to a human who might decide they don't want this life."
"Did any of us choose this life?" I counter and stand up. I can feel my anger rising again and I know it's because I'm separated from the woman I want.
"No, but we didn't have a choice. She does." Ravana gets closer to me, and I can see her own anger bubbling up. "She could ruin everything we've built. All of this could come crashing down because you're following your dick."
She turns away from me and walks to the window. The sun isn't far from rising now. I can feel it inside me.
"Either you all need to stay here, or you need to make your way home. This conversation is done for tonight. Kane." Bishop and I lock eyes. "You are to stay put until we get this figured out."
I nod and then turn on my heels to head for the tunnels. I don't hear anyone following me, so they must be staying. We all have rooms at Bishop's house for nights like this. But I've always been the loner of the group. Mostly it has to do with the scars on my face, but I like the quiet, and the twins are always making noise.
When I get to the SUV I drive through the tunnels back to my place and climb the stairs. I have my orders from Bishop and I'm supposed to follow them. But the scent of roses hits me when I walk through the door and suddenly all bets are off.