Broken Dreams (27 page)

“Jesus, Sophie,” Henry murmured.

“He jammed the Sig up against my head and dragged me to the café. I couldn’t let him give me a true death and then go after you two. He would have taken you by surprise, and things would have been way worse than they actually were.”

“Right.”

“I knew you would be heading to the café soon so I decided to stay in check. And that’s when you walked in. It happened so fast.” They both laid there, staring at one another.

“I assume you were able to get a decent fix, hence all the blood on your face earlier? You were so angry beforehand about Nate not complying, I figured you were past ready.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I think I’ll always have issues staying in check when I’m hanging by a thread.”

“As always.” Henry rolled on his back and was rubbing his face with his hands, trying to figure out how to get Elaina back. Then Sophie asked, “Do you think this has spread down the coast?”

“By now, I think it’s more than a safe assumption to say that it has spread across the country. Obviously, we don’t have the ability to contact Gunther or anyone else. I wonder how he is faring, the asshole. I hope we can find him.” There was some disdain in his voice.

“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here. We have only secured a few spots around us. Roger will be pissed.” She realized what she had said the moment she said it.

“Fuck him!” Henry snapped. “I don’t give two bloody fucks what he thinks.”

“I didn’t mean that.” Sophie recoiled. “I’m still in program mode, I guess.”

“We’re doing what we can with what we have. I should have never rescued Nate and Nick, but I felt horrible for Elaina and Claire. It tore me apart, seeing the pain they were in. I wish I could have just come back, grabbed my supplies, and then took off with them.”

“I understand. This is why we cannot get invested in people. They will be with us one minute, and the next, they will be trying to put a bullet in our heads. It will compromise us. We cannot afford to be taken by surprise by a group of undeads.” Sophie stood up and headed for the door. She looked back at him.

His sorrow-filled face made her heart ache. She wanted to get him back and make him feel loved again, but she knew he would refuse her advances. She still held onto some hope that he would run back to her at some point.

“Are you heading out now?” His voice cracked.

“Yeah, I have to. We can’t trust the blood bank now, can we?”

“No. Definitely not. I wasn’t there for the week prior to my wed...” He stopped himself. “Besides, the power has been out for an extended period of time. Any blood would have gone bad.”

“I was hoping to get there and check it out. There must be backup generators.”

“There are, but it’s simply not a good idea. We don’t know if they’re working, or if they held up the coolers. I had electrical issues. I was prepping for a major overhaul to the circuitry on the back end for all the coolers. And besides, we don’t know what’s lurking behind the doors.” He knew there was no stopping her once she made up her mind, much like himself.

“Tell me how to get there and give me a quick layout. I want to check it out anyway.” Henry let out a heavy sigh. Then he reluctantly gave her directions, and how to navigate through the blood bank.

“Please take Nick and Nate with you. I don’t want you going on your own.” Sophie acknowledged his request and walked out, leaving him to deal with his sorrow on his own.

Chapter 11

ophie went out to the living room, where Nick and Nate sat quietly staring at each other. Nick’s jaw was clenched, and he cracked his knuckles as he stood up, anger written all over his body. He was ready to beat Henry down if need be. “What the hell is going on?!” he barked at her.

Sophie sighed. “Oh, you know, dealing with love in this crazy, mixed up world.” Nick narrowed his eyes at her. That stung, considering he lost the love of his life.

“Seriously. What the fuck is going on? That’s my baby sister. And if he did anything…”

“Ugh, not you, too. Elaina is just having a hard time dealing with everything.”

“Right.” He was skeptical. He was worried when he heard her yelling, but he figured it was some sort of quarrel between her and Henry. Unless he knew Elaina was in harm’s way, he wasn’t going to interfere, but hearing her so upset made him irate.

“You are much like your sister, aren’t you?”

“You should have known their mother. Mega-controlling bitch,” Nate said with annoyance.

Nick snapped his head around and his lip curled up in a snarl. “Fuck you!” Nick jumped toward Nate and grabbed him, picking him up by the throat. “You little pissant!”

“Ladies, ladies, ladies…” Sophie stood right where she was with her hands on her hips, watching Nick choking the little bastard. “Let’s calm down a bit, shall we?” Nick glowered at her and let go of him. Nate fell to the floor, coughing and rubbing his throat. “I need both of you to come with me.”

“Where?” Nick and Nate said in unison.

“Where do you think?”

“Now is not the time for your psychotic games!” Nick yelled.

“Oh my, did I hurt your feelings some?” No response. “Good. Get a couple of packs. We’re going out.” Nate didn’t argue. He got up, still coughing from Nick’s hands being wrapped around his neck. They both grabbed the packs off the table, and checked them and the weapons in silence. Sophie put her pack on.

“Okay, boys, off we go.” She headed toward the door and stopped. She started rubbing her temples.

“Are you alright?” Nick seemed genuinely concerned. She irritated him to no end because of her run-ins with Elaina, but she had come through when they had needed her, too.

She shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little headache.”

“Well, let me say goodbye to Elaina…just in case.” Nick headed down the hall. Nate headed to the door behind Sophie.

“That might not be a good idea. You know she will argue and come up with something like
it’s too late
, or
you need rest
, or whatever other shit flies out of her mouth.” Sophie needed to get the hell out of there, and she knew if Nick found out about Elaina’s and Henry’s argument, there would be no hope of leaving anytime during the next century.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Nick’s shoulders sagged as he walked back toward the door. Once again, he felt like Elaina didn’t need him anymore.

“We’re taking the truck. It’ll be better at night. Plus, we can take out some undeads with it.” Sophie chuckled like it was going to be a good time. Nick and Nate just looked at each other.

“You are one fucked up person,” Nick muttered.

“Why, thank you for acknowledging my rather fantastic personality.” She curtsied, flashed that big, toothy grin, and they headed out. If she wasn’t a woman, Nick would have punched her.

***

“What are we going to do, Claire?” I was still burying my face into Henry’s pillow. I was inhaling his scent like an obsessed teen. He smelled so good. Just one more thing that I would miss out of the thousands of things that I loved about him. “I’m so confused. I can’t handle any more of this.”

“I know. I’d love to help, but nothing I say will make you feel better.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know. There’s something going on besides the obvious, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Right.” I sulked. “I miss my old Henry,” I whispered to myself.

“Oh, hon. I understand.”

I let out a soft laugh, then found the energy to roll over to face her. “Listen to me! I’m so self-absorbed.
I
should be consoling
you
! You lost Marc.” Claire sucked in a sharp breath when I said his name.

“We need to be strong for one another.” I could see the pain in her eyes.

For some reason, I felt like our situation was my fault. If I had never gotten fired from yet another job, I would have never met Henry that night. Quite possibly, none of this would have happened. At least none of what involves Henry and me would have happened. My stomach knotted up. Then my thoughts went to our very first real date.

-October 2012-

I found my phone at the bookshop, my former place of work. My former hag of a boss told me some smoking hot guy dropped it off, and said he found it on the sidewalk right outside the door. I thought it was weird that I wouldn’t notice it dropping right there, but whatever. I was just thrilled that I could give this Henry Daniels a call.

I ran back out to my car and dug through my bag to find Henry’s number. When I finally found it, I stared at it for a minute, breathing rapidly, trying to decide if I should call him or wait a few days to make him sweat it out.

I’m not the most patient person on the planet so I pulled up my phone app and carefully dialed the near illegible number that was written in chicken scratch on an old receipt. That would be my writing. I’m sure his would be perfect, like he seemed to be.

It rang about five times before Henry breathlessly answered. “Daniels,” he barked. I was taken aback and didn’t say anything. “Hello?”

“Uh, sorry.” I cleared my throat, trying to relieve the nerves. “Is this Henry?” Oh, god. I sounded like such a loser with my croaky, nerve-wracked voice. He was going to think that I was a complete fucking loser, and I would never get a date with a man like him. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to call?

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Elaina Cooper.” I couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize my voice. Maybe it was because it sounded like a frog was living in my throat. I was sweating so I turned on the air in my car before I passed out. I thought I remembered to put deodorant on, but suffering Christ, my pits were dripping. I’m sure I looked like a paranoid pothead, looking all around, tapping my fingers.

“Hey, Elaina!” He sounded excited to hear from me. My heart flip-flopped. “Sorry it took me so long to answer. I’m at the gym. I was hoping that you would find your phone and would call me.” My mind drifted to thoughts of him shirtless, his gym shorts hung low on his hips, sweat pouring off of him. I almost dropped my phone and went into a full throttle orgasm.

“Well, I did find my phone so I thought I would give you a call and ask you if you had plans.” Did I just say that? I was either a brave, brave girl or a very stupid, stupid girl. My palms were sweating.

“Yeah? I’m so glad that you called.” I could hear the smile in his voice. He sounded ridiculously sexy. “So where would you want to go? Anywhere is fine with me…you choose. Oh, and don’t worry about cost. It’s my treat.”

“Are you thinking casual, or fancy, or… I don’t know.” I crossed my fingers that he would say casual. I so did not have proper manners for some place that involved fancy napkins and waiters who wore suits.

“Tell you what. How about I pick you up? And be sure you have on a nice dress. I’ll surprise you.”

“I think I could handle that.” Oh, god. What? I slapped myself on the forehead. No! I can’t handle that! Fuck me, what have I gotten myself into? “But maybe a skirt? I’m not a dress kind of girl.”

“Really? Hmm… I bet you would look amazing in a dress,” he said in a rather interesting tone. I blushed. I was losing it.

“Thanks,” I shyly said.

“How about I pick you up around five-thirty, and we can stop somewhere and have a quick drink first?”

“Sounds good. I live down at Westerfields in three-ten.”

“Alright. I know where that is. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay. ‘Bye.”

“‘Bye.”

He hung up the phone. I just about died. I could not believe that a man of his caliber would even look at me. If he could have seen me in that moment, all sweaty and gross, he would have passed on me for sure.

I called my best friend, Claire. I had to see if she had a dress that I could borrow because the only dress I had was from my senior prom. I was pretty sure that wasn’t what Henry was looking for when he said a “nice dress”.

As soon as I made it home, I jumped right into the shower. I washed and shaved
everything
twice. I wanted to make sure I felt worthy to be around him because I had no idea why he would want to take me out. I wasn’t some ‘blonde Barbie, tight dress wearing, give you a blow job on the first date’ kind of girl. Claire had already let herself in while I was in the shower, and laid out an abundance of dresses on my bed. She matched up my shoes to them.

After an hour of trying on outfits and chewing my thumbnail while staring in the mirror, I ended up going with a basic black dress she picked up at Neiman Marcus a few weeks prior. It was cap sleeved, belted, and had pockets. I put on my strappy, black wedge-heeled shoes which, ironically, were purchased the same day that Claire bought the dress.

After I dressed, Claire flat ironed my hair, and twisted it up into a clip. She put a little make-up on me. I was so nervous my teeth were chattering. “Geez, Elaina. I don’t think I have ever seen you this nervous over a guy. Ever.”

We walked out to my slightly unorganized living room. “For real. Stay here and meet him. Trust me when I say that he is knee-buckling gorgeous. I still can’t believe that he wants to take me to dinner.”

“Oh, stop, you nut! You are gorgeous.” I rolled my eyes.

I looked at my watch to check the time, and it was five-thirty on the button. I heard a light knock on my door. I looked at Claire and mouthed, Oh, my fucking god.

“Go calm yourself in your room. I will answer the door.” I bolted to my room just before Claire made it to the door. I listened intently while I adjusted everything that had already been adjusted ten times over, reapplied lip gloss that didn’t need it, and prayed that I wouldn’t fuck up somehow.

***

After the gym, Henry spent the rest of the day nerve-wracked, flitting around work like an absent-minded fool. He made sure to suck down a couple fresh vials so he would be a little jacked-up for his date. Once he was able to skate out of there, he hit every single red light there could have possibly been. He kept checking his Omega, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, pushing his hands through his messed up hair, all while trying to keep his cool. He didn’t want to be late, for fear that she would think he was standing her up.

Henry pulled up to the side of his building and parked his truck. He made a mad dash for the front door, waved at the doorman, and pushed the up button on the elevator about ten times before the door opened.

The elevator ride took an eternity. When the door finally slid open, he ran to his apartment door. His hands shook as he was trying to unlock it. He ran to his fridge, opened it to check for the injection, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was in the usual resting place. He slammed it shut, opened the cabinet, and grabbed a bottle of Walkers. Bottle in hand, he walked through his bedroom to his bathroom so he could hit the shower. He stripped and, while he waited for it to warm up, he reacquainted himself with Mr. Walker.

Henry set the bottle down on the sink and jumped into the steamy heat. He washed from head to toe, then toweled himself dry. He stood in front of the mirror, looking at his slightly bruised face. He hated the way he looked.

He hated his eyes. He hated his face. He hated the scarring. He hated his tainted mind. About the only thing he felt that he had going for him was his wild hair and his body. He pulled back his hair and checked his stitches. They still looked good. He grabbed his hair wax and fixed it so the stitches were invisible.

He found himself standing naked in front of his closet with the bottle in his hand. He took another pull and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. After pawing through all of his suits, he settled on his custom tailored navy blue two-piece and, of course, a white button-down shirt. He pulled out his unpolished black monk strap shoes from the back of his closet.

Still naked with bottle in hand, he pulled open his dresser drawer. He looked at all of his boxers, then decided to take a gamble. He closed his eyes and reached in. When he opened his eyes, he had a pair of low cut, microfiber, black D&G’s in his hand. He smirked, hoping that she would want to see them. He finally let go of the bottle, setting it on his dresser.

Henry dressed, ensuring that his outfit was perfect. He stepped in front of the mirror, still not liking what he saw from the neck up.

“Don’t fuck this up, Daniels,” he said as he stared into the mirror. He took a deep breath and ran out the door.

As soon as he opened his door, his next door neighbor walked out of her apartment. She smirked at him while she looked him up and down, doing the old package check. He rolled his eyes. “Well, look at you,” she purred. “Looking good. Hot date tonight?”

“Uh…yeah, actually.” He closed his door and locked it.

“Lucky woman.”

“Lucky me.” He directed his thumb at his chest. He turned on his heels and stormed off toward the elevator. He hadn’t realized she was right on his tail.

“I have to admit. I’m jealous.” Henry jumped when her warm breath ran down his neck. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That woman hit on him more times than he wanted to think about.

She wasn’t horrible to look at. She was maybe early forties, dark hair, a nice figure, and obviously had some money, but she was far too nosey, and just rubbed him the wrong way. He rubbed his eyes for a second, and turned around. “Look, trust me when I say this... I’m not what you want.”