Over the next week, Callie spent her days exploring the mansion while she wandered the grounds. She watched the hunters and vampires drill together, work out, and run around the compound. They were like everything she’d seen about boot camp, and they worked from morning to night.
And Lucien worked with them. She was glad he was doing so much better, but it made for lonely days, and she was running out of things to explore.
Lucien had yet to leave the compound, but others went out nightly to hunt Savages. She had no idea when he would go back to hunting, but she assumed it would be sooner rather than later. Over the week, he’d put more weight on as he regularly fed from the blood bags stored in a room off the gym.
He was so different from the man she first met that she almost couldn’t believe it was the same vampire. He was almost back to his full strength again, and once he was, he would go out with the others to hunt again. As happy as she was to see him doing so well, she dreaded the day he returned to putting himself in such danger.
Everyone at the compound was friendly to her, but she still felt out of place. She was the only human here unless she counted the children who arrived at the compound with Sister June and Duncan, but she didn’t. The children didn’t know vampires and hunters surrounded them; Lucien had told her the vampires altered their memories regularly to keep them safe.
There was also Elyse’s father, who was still human, but his daughter was here, and he’d found a place working with the head of security, Roland. She didn’t know if she’d ever find a home here. She also didn’t know if she wanted to stay. Before the Savages disrupted her life, she had a purpose. Now, she felt utterly lost.
On the morning of the seventh day, she meandered into the garden for what felt like the hundredth time. She strolled among the rows of plants and stopped to smell some newly blooming roses before continuing toward the fountain in the center.
It was there she discovered Kadence and Simone standing with their hands over their heads and their legs braced apart as they looked toward the sky. She’d taken a couple of yoga classes, but she couldn’t remember the name of this pose.
She started to retreat, but before she could, Kadence opened her eyes and spotted her. “Hi,” she greeted.
Callie smiled as Simone lowered her hands.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Callie apologized.
“You’re not interrupting,” Kadence said. “Would you like to join us?”
Callie hesitated and almost retreated, but she missed the company of others. Lucien spent most of his days training. He returned to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with her, and they spent their nights entwined in each other’s arms, but it wasn’t the same.
“I’m not very good at it,” she said.
“That doesn’t matter,” Simone said. “It’s a big stress relief.”
“I could use that,” Callie said, and they chuckled.
They’d been friendly since she arrived, and considering she had no idea how long she was going to be here, she decided to make the best of it. She stepped off the end of the path and strolled over to join them.
“I don’t have a mat,” she said.
“You won’t need one today,” Kadence said. “I’ll bring an extra one tomorrow that you can have.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I take them from the gym.”
“Do you do this every day?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a great way to start the day,” Simone said.
Callie had enjoyed the classes she took, but she never had the time to commit to it. Now, she had all the time in the world.
She stopped a few feet away from them, and they returned to the position she initially found them. Lifting her hands over her, she followed their movements. She was nowhere near as graceful as they were, and she almost fell over a couple of times, but by the end of the session, her body was a lot looser.
“You did great,” Kadence said as she rolled up her mat.
“Thanks,” Callie said. “I feel a lot better.”
“We do training exercises with the hunter women in the afternoon too, if you want to join us,” Simone offered. “Willow usually leads that group.”
“I’d like that a lot.” She didn’t know how long she would be here, but she might as well make friends and learn how to defend herself while here. “Those Savages….”
Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of the right word to describe them.
“Are horrible,” Kadence said.
“Yes, and must be stopped. I don’t know what I can do as a human, but I refuse to be as defenseless against them as I was last time.”
“We can help you with that,” Simone said she tucked her mat under her arm.
Callie fell into step beside Simone and Kadence as they returned to the mansion and descended into the gym. She’d been in the gym once before when Lucien gave her a tour of the place. It was empty then, but now it was full of vampires and hunters battering punching bags, sparring with weapons, jumping rope, or running on treadmills.
Her gaze roamed those gathered within as she searched for Lucien. When she spotted him, a smile tugged at her lips, as he and Declan circled each other on a mat.
Standing outside the mat, Killean had his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall and watched them with a critical eye. Willow stood next to him. Her head tilted to the side as she focused on Declan.
Callie’s breath caught when Lucien went in low to take Declan down, but Declan deflected the movement. Lucien was far stronger than when they first met, but he wasn’t completely healed. He’d gained weight, but his clothes were still a little loose on him.
“Lucien’s looking a lot better,” Simone said as if she could read Callie’s thoughts.
“Yes, he is,” she murmured.
Still, she didn’t think he was ready for this. However, she was probably overprotective. He’d come to mean so much to her over the past couple of weeks that it made her heart ache to see Declan deflect him again.
“They’re all stubborn,” Kadence said, “and infuriating; we worry about them all the time, especially when they go out to hunt.”
Callie tore her attention away from Lucien long enough to meet Kadence’s sky blue eyes. “You go out there to hunt with them sometimes.” It wasn’t a question; she’d seen Kadence leave the compound with some of the others.
Kadence laughed. “Far more often than Ronan would like me to, but he has no choice. I’ve trained hard to become an asset instead of a hindrance out there.” She waved her hand at Simone. “We both have.”
Callie wondered what that must be like. There was no way they would let her go out there as a human, and she didn’t blame them. If she didn’t get herself killed by doing that, she’d most likely get one of them killed.
She and Lucien had never discussed her ever being anything other than human as they continued to reside in their small bubble, but that bubble would soon pop. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life aimlessly rambling the grounds as she hid here. There was something infinitely sad about the idea of doing so.
Lucien made a move toward Declan again, and when he went to deflect it, Lucien darted to the right and enclosed his arms around one of Declan’s thighs. Declan grabbed Lucien’s arms, and the two of them went to the mat.
Callie gave a small fist pump and then blushed when she realized Simone and Kadence had seen her. She had no idea if it was acceptable to cheer for one over the other.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be,” Kadence replied. “We understand.”
Callie smiled at her and then followed as Kadence continued through the gym to the back wall. A stand full of mats lined the wall, and they slid theirs into two open spaces.
• • •
Callie spent the next few days meeting Kadence and Simone in the morning for yoga before having lunch with Lucien. Afterward, she attended the hunter training. She felt more comfortable with the hunter women; they weren’t entirely human, but they weren’t as fluid or graceful as the vampires.
Kadence had explained to her that at one time, hunter women weren’t allowed to do anything like this. Some still refused to participate in the training, but many had taken an interest in learning at least basic self-defense.
Most of them would never go beyond the compound walls, but now it was their choice to remain here. Despite it being their choice, Callie found it a little sad they were content never to see the outside world.
However, she supposed there was something peaceful about always being securely hidden from the chaos outside their gates.
She’d only been working with them for a few days, but she was already getting stronger. She was better at yoga, and she’d discovered she had a talent for punching things.
She was becoming friendly with the women, and there were a couple she really liked. Vicky never failed to make her laugh, and she had a lot in common with Elyse, who was the only other one to have led a human life before coming here.
However, she missed her animals and her friends. She missed her job and having a purpose other than exercise every morning. She missed music and concerts and parties. Her feelings for Lucien grew stronger every day, but she still had no idea where any of this was going between them, or if it was going anywhere.
And though she was dying to learn the answer, she hadn’t mentioned it to him. She yearned for and dreaded the answer in equal measure.
She was acutely aware of the bite marks on the necks of her friends, but Lucien hadn’t tried to drink her blood again. Other than informing her about the existence of mates, he’d never said anything else about it.
She didn’t know what that meant for them. Why would he keep her here if he didn’t want something more from her? Did he feel sorry for her because she’d lost everything?
She really hoped that wasn’t the reason she was here, but then, she also didn’t want him to bite her again. Or at least, that’s what she told herself.
With the number of marks on the others, she couldn’t deny they had to find some pleasure in it. And she recalled the moan the motel clerk released when Lucien bit her. However, she also clearly recalled the pain of his bite.
She inwardly shuddered at the memory, but she couldn’t deny a growing part of her craved having it happen again. She was falling in love with him and ready to share more.
No, if she were honest with herself, she’d admit she’d already fallen for him. Which only made the fact she had no idea what he wanted from her worse.
Was she a convenience for him? When he was back to his full strength and could leave the compound again, would he toss her aside for someone new? And then what would happen to her? Would she live here, wandering around, doing yoga, training, and watching him come and go with other women until he found his mate?
She’d rather face a pit full of Savages again. At least then, she would know what was to become of her. She would prefer to take her chances on the outside than live such a mundane, lonely life.
Callie entered the mansion with Kadence, Elyse, and Simone after their most recent training session. They said their goodbyes and went their different ways.
She opened the door to the room she shared with Lucien and discovered him lying on the bed, recently showered, and wearing sweatpants and a shirt. His back was against the headboard as he held a book on his lap.
When she shut the door, he lowered the book and smiled at her. “How was your day?” he asked.
“It was… a day.”
Lucien sensed the unhappiness in her tone as she leaned against the door. “Did something happen?”
“No.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Callie didn’t know how to explain, and she was afraid of popping the bubble encasing them. However, she couldn’t keep going through this limbo her life had become. She’d lost control of her life, but she would take that control back.
“This isn’t my life. I like it here, I’m making friends, and I’m safe, but before the Savages took me, I had dreams, goals, and a career. I know I can never get that back, and it’s all gone, but I want something more than this.”
Lucien’s mouth went dry as panic seeped through him. He’d been trying to give her space and time to acclimate to her life here, and he’d believed everything was going well as she’d fallen into a routine and was making friends.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to deny his growing compulsion to turn her into a vampire, but he was waiting to broach the mate topic with her. She’d had so much thrown at her that he didn’t want to upset her by adding more.
As long as she was safe, here, and with him, he could keep his compulsion to change her under control, especially if he fed regularly, which meant he was drinking five bags a day. Even with the Savages having starved him for so long, it was still an excessive amount of blood.
But now, her words caused the demon within him to stir, and like a dragon roused from a deep slumber, it sought to destroy.