I waited for Becks to fall asleep in my arms before even daring to move. She was draped across my chest, her head resting on my collar bone. She breathed slowly and her heart was beat calmly, telling me that she was likely dreaming. Carefully, I picked her head up and rolled her over onto her back. Her arm fell over her other side and her head twisted the same way. She was almost in a starfish position. The only thing I could focus on was that she was perfectly showing her neck to me behind a mass of curls.
My gut clenched. Moving in a blur, I grabbed my backpack and ran out of the apartment through the balcony. I couldn't bring myself to look back as I darted through LA towards the house — the house that she was going to be at with me today, revealing us to the clan. I wasn't impressed by it, but I knew that if I wanted her, there would be certain requirements. This was one of them.
Nobody in the house saw me as I ran straight up to my room. This time, I put more than just one change of clothes inside my backpack and I threw the blood bags in the trash. My eyes scanned over my closet, considering taking a third change when I heard footsteps running up the stairs; Sam's steps. I had never changed so quickly, hiding my sweatpants and t-shirt in my backpack, which I threw unceremoniously into my closet. My body moved to my couch, my phone in hand, right as the door opened. I went onto the first thing that showed up on my phone: articles about local disappearances.
"Colby," Sam said, standing in my doorway.
I hardly glanced at him.
"Have you forgotten about the job today?"
Now I looked at him.
"With Davison?"
I glanced at the date and realised we had one of our important jobs tonight with a dangerous drug dealer — not that he could hurt us. Without looking at Sam, I recalled all the details of the job and who I would need, then I ran passed him to the red room. He followed quickly behind. The red room was filled with all of the clan, hanging out like we did every night — before I started disappearing, that is. Corey was the first one to realise that I'd actually come into the room and he straightened, getting Jake's attention.
I remembered what Becks said about the people who worked with her being terrified of her and found myself hoping it worked the same here.
Sam took a seat, and I finally got everyone's attention — even Tara's, who was determined not to even look in my direction. I saw her look me over to decide if I'd recently fed or not. She looked a little scared when she realised that I had.
"Sam, Corey, and Kevin are coming up front with me," I ordered. "Griffin and Xepher, you're going to hang back, and the rest of you hide in the shadows." I noticed Katrina was missing just as Sam started to talk.
"We're leaving the house unguarded."
"No different to usual," I snapped.
Sam's jaw set, and I could have sworn he was about to say something to me when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I ignored it for now, nodding towards the door.
"Move it or we're gonna be late — and you'll all pay for it if we are."
Blurs followed me out of the room, zipping through LA. It didn't take long for Sam to be running by my side, and Corey and Kevin to be at our flanks; they were the strongest muscle.
I glanced back at Mike and muttered under my breath, "Mike and Elton, stick close with Griffin and Xepher." I started to run faster, suddenly feeling the need to get this over with quicker knowing that Rebecca was waiting in bed for me. I found myself going a little faster. Sam rushed to catch up with me but Corey and Kevin fell a little behind.
"Colby, slow down. What's the fucking rush?" Mike growled. I was half tempted to stop and throw him into a wall, but I didn't, slowing by barely a quarter of a second.
We came to a stop in the middle of nowhere, in front of a group of drug dealers standing around with big guns and briefcases. They barely looked at us knowing that we were dangerous and not to be messed with. Only Davison, the guy who'd hired us, dared to walk all the way over to me.
"They're ten minutes out," he said.
I nodded and jerked my head towards Elton. He and Mike flew to the back of the concrete clearing with Griffin and Xepher at their flanks; the others disappeared into the dark around us. Sam stood by me, and Corey and Kevin took their places flanking both of us. Kevin reached forward to pat Sam on the shoulder, but he didn't even attempt to pat me. We waited, motionless, guarding Davison and his men. It felt like longer than ten minutes as flashes of Rebecca lying in bed flickered through my thoughts. They wouldn't go away, and I was starting to get frustrated. I wanted to go back to her. Even if she drove me nuts, I needed to be around her.
Eventually, the other group arrived. They exchanged the usual drug dealer-consumer chat whilst avoiding even looking at us, aware that we weren't quite human and a huge threat.
There were rumours of us everywhere in all of America — maybe even further — let alone LA.
They passed over the briefcases to one another and started to retreat. I was glaring at the back of the other group's head as they took their time leaving, cautiously backing from us. Forever passed, and Davison turned to us. He reached into one of the cars, pulling out a different briefcase. Sam stepped forward to take it and opened it, but didn't look. He held it to the side for Kevin, who counted speedily with his eyes and nodded. Sam closed the briefcase, passing it to me. I just held it to the side.
Without another word, we disappeared from the concrete clearing, flying through LA back to the house. We almost passed Rebecca's apartment at some point, and it took everything in me not to turn and run for it. We got home a minute later. I double checked the briefcase, despising it and myself. The money was right.
"Elton," I said without looking at him, "deal with this." I ran upstairs, finding my backpack in the closet and flying back out of the house. I heard Elton grumbling something for a brief half-second, but I was already gone before I could process it. I felt desperate to get to Rebecca, like I needed her and couldn't handle staying away from her. Maybe that was true, as scary as the thought was. Everything in me longed to be with her.
As soon as I arrived at her apartment, I changed and crawled into bed. She was lying on her side facing away from the rest of the bed now, still lost in her dream world. I hadn't been gone long, but it felt like it'd been forever. I let her scent surround me, enfold me as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged close to her back.
This was exactly what I needed.
How had I lived before her?