Breaking Fate

Chapter 9

The Embrace

Just as I was about to gather the woman to help her to my car so that I could take her home, her head shot up, and she regarded me with red, bloodshot eyes.

"I have to pee." Her arm gestured wildly in the direction of the nearby bathrooms, and I shrugged, half worried she would be able to make it without assistance.

"By all means..."

The woman nodded seriously before standing from the booth and taking a few seconds to get her bearings then stumbling in the direction of the toilets. I kept my eyes on her as she moved, making sure nothing unsavory happened. When my phone vibrated with another message from Timothy, I looked down and nearly rolled my eyes when I found the man lecturing me about insisting on taking the woman home.

Meriwa needed me, not my people.

Sighing, I looked up to watch the woman passing the bar, now nearly to the restrooms, when my phone vibrated again, distracting me once more. It wasn't long before sounds of drunken commotion had my heart in my chest, and I turned to the bar to hear Meriwa's outraged yelling at the young man from earlier in the night. The boy was now so plastered that he could barely stand, and his drunken stumbling told me he must have bumped into the hunter. Tirade complete, Meriwa huffed and turned to continue on her journey toward the bathroom, though when the man reached out and grabbed her ass as she passed him, fury clouded my vision.

The hunter was reacting before I had a chance, deftly slamming the man's head into the bar with enough force to leave a mark but not cause irreparable damage otherwise. The man's equally drunk friends responded by throwing an object at the hunter. She expertly dodged the item, which then hit the backward behind the bar, shattering the glass and drawing the intention of all the patrons. Concerned that an all out bar brawl was about to erupt, I rushed to the woman's side, wrapping her in my arms to prevent her from responding with the deadly skill that I knew she possessed.

I used my powers of persuasion to calm not only the drunken men who had started the conflict but also the bartender and other employees who looked about ready to call law enforcement. In my arms Meriwa had finally stopped struggling, relaxing into me and allowing me to support her as I diffused the situation.

She was so relaxed, in fact, that she was now nearly asleep with her head against my chest, the scent of her shampoo mingling with her natural aroma that was sweet yet heady and earthy. Her nearness felt right, though I exhaled in frustration when one of Timothy's teams was suddenly by my side, no doubt having observed the entire debacle.

"Mr. Chisenhall instructed us to clean up this mess and get the human home." The speaker Bryn, a vampire woman who I knew but not very well, then gestured to one of the others to take Meriwa from my arms.

As I replied, I shook my head. "Tell Timothy that I am taking the hunter home. Thank you for taking care of this situation for me, Bryn."

"But, sir—"

The woman intended to protest more, but before she could, I was already out the door. The hunter wasn't so far gone that she couldn't walk without support. She was just in a sort of stupor that had me worried about how much she had drunk. I was not opposed to a wild night of drinking every now and then, but alcohol didn't affect my body the same way that it affected human bodies.

And the hunter felt frail as I opened the passenger side of my car and helped her in before buckling her into the seat. In her half-asleep state, her face scrunched up in annoyance as she shoved at my hands then immediately laid her head back and fell into a deep sleep.

Her place wasn't far from the bar, which wasn't especially surprising considering that at the beginning of the night the security teams had let me know she'd walked there. The atmosphere in my car was comfortably silent, and the human didn't make so much of a peep the entire brief drive. I told myself not to stare at her as I parked and exited my side before walking over and opening the passenger door. When my hand touched her shoulder, she stirred enough to wine mutter a lamentation about how fucking uncomfortable her shoes were.

When she fell back asleep, I snorted in amusement, sweeping her into my arms and carrying her up the stairs to her place. She felt light in my grasp, leaning against me with her eyes closed. Again, I warned myself not to stare. I wasn't a creep.

Once we reached her apartment door, I placed her on her feet so that I could fish her keys out of her pocket and unlock the entry. It wasn't a bad building by any means, though the first thing I noticed about her small yet functional apartment with exposed brick was a lot of pink: her pink couch, pink pillows, pink decorations, and although I had nothing against the color, it surprised me that a woman like Meriwa could be so obsessed with the color that was now associated with femininity. Though to be fair, for most of human existence, pink was not associated with something feminine. I then noticed the scent of the warm sweet vaguely orange blossom aroma unique to the human was infused into the place.

And then I shook off the sudden sentiment that I felt home.

The human made a soft noise of annoyance as I carried her to her bedroom where I deposited her on her messy bed that had not been made. She groaned and slung her arm over her face, and I bit back a smirk as I struggled to take off her heels, fighting her kicking feet as I worked. Once her shoes were off, I tossed them to the corner, and that's when I finally allowed myself to look at her. My heart skipped at the sight of this woman who was deep in sleep in a rumpled bed with moonlight highlighting her features. I wanted to crawl into that bed with her where it was warm and safe and cozy, yet I knew that I shouldn't.

And that I couldn't.

Instead, I worked my way to her kitchen where I found a water bottle that I then left within easy reach on the nightstand beside her bed. In the bathroom, I located a bottle of aspirin, which I then put beside the water. She would undoubtedly be hungover in the morning. Hopefully, she knew enough to drink water when she woke up. Then I grabbed her phone from her pocket and plugged it in so that the device would be charged. With everything in place, I slipped a business card from my wallet, intending to leave just that for her until I noticed the ridiculously adorable Hello Kitty stationery sitting on a desk in the corner.

Again, I smirked to myself wondering why the only paper I could find was pink with Hello Kitty on it. I silently strode over to the desk and grabbed a baby blue gel pen that I then used to scribble out a note:

Meriwa,

Perhaps you should consider a less potent drink of choice. The gentleman didn't press charges, but I'm afraid I had to cover the cost of the damage to the bar. Now the score of who saved who stands at two to one in favor of me. Please call me at your earliest convenience.

Warmest Regards,

Carby Alesky

P.S. If those high heels are "so fucking uncomfortable," then I suggest you avoid wearing them in future rather than incessantly lamenting your discomfort all evening.

She hadn't incessantly lamented her discomfort, of course, but I imagined her thinking she had would simply add to her embarrassment. The grin didn't leave my face as I was wrapping up the business card in the note I had written and placing it under the water bottle. As I gave her one last look of longing before turning towards the door, my phone vibrated, and I unlocked it to reveal a message from Timothy that contained a link to a video file. When I pressed the link, I saw security camera footage of what had just occurred in the bar, of the hunter and the men getting into it after that human jerk had grabbed her ass. I was angry, yes, but I also couldn't stop myself from chuckling as I shut the door securely behind me, making sure it locked.

What a strange fact that, in this one night, I had already had more fun than I'd in the last 200 years. Hopefully, the human wasn't so embarrassed that she would just skip town because I was very excited to show her my offer... and other things that belonged to me.