Reborn Yesterday (Phenomenal Fate 1)

Feeling herself flush, she quickly stuffed them in her bag. “I’ll just get my toothbrush—”

A rumble of air blew hair across her face and then Jonas was standing in front of her with the toothbrush in his hand. “I’d really like to get you somewhere safe,” he said, dropping the item into her bag. “Quickly.”

“How do you know that’s mine and not Larissa’s?”

“The other one was electric. You’d never use one of those.”

“Wouldn’t I?”

“The girl who loves old movies, talks to corpses and doesn’t want me to see her underwear? No, I don’t think so.”

“Does that mean you think I’m boring?”

His lips twisted. “It means I think you’re an original. And that you probably like to daydream while you’re brushing your teeth and the buzzing sound would deter you.”

Pleasure speared her. “You’ve given this some thought.”

“Yes.” He gave her his princely profile while zipping her suitcase and picking it up by the handle. “More than I should have.”

Ginny followed him to the door of her bedroom and out into the hallway. “Where do you live?”

He sighed. “I can’t tell you that, Ginny.”

They stopped side by side on the staircase landing. “How are you going to bring me there without telling me…” She trailed off when he took something out of his pocket. “Is that a blindfold? You can’t be serious.”

“It’s for your own safety. The world I live in is a volatile place. You knowing where three vampires live makes you vulnerable.”

“You’re planning on erasing that information from my head, remember?”

“Remember? I think about it constantly,” he enunciated, stepping closer. “Like I said, the longer I allow you to keep your memories, the harder it’ll be to erase them accurately. I don’t want to take chances.”

Ginny threw back her shoulders and sailed down the stairs, leaving Jonas to follow behind her with the suitcase. For one fantastical moment, she pretended to be Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. A rich debutante with a handsome manservant, preparing to depart for Paris. She wished desperately for a pair of white, silk gloves so she could whip them out and don them while looking annoyed. “Now then,” she murmured when Jonas stopped beside her at the bottom of the staircase. “Have the driver bring my car around.”

“What was that?” Jonas asked, his tone verging on amusement.

“N-nothing.”

He tucked his tongue into his cheek and herded her down the hallway, toward the back door. “As luck would have it, we do have a driver.”

“Who is it?”

Jonas hesitated with a hand on the doorknob. “One of my roommates, Tucker. Prepare yourself.”

“For what?”

He opened his mouth to answer, closed it and pushed open the door instead. She heard the low pump of bass before the black Impala slid into view at the curb, idling for a moment, before the passenger side window rolled down—and smoke billowed out into the night air. It cleared to reveal a Cheshire smile with a cigar clamped somewhere in its midst. The smile belonged to a man who was more like a mountain, a gold chain draped around his thick neck.

Brightly colored tattoos were the only thing covering him, as he was decidedly shirtless, his coloring reminding Ginny of a slightly sunburned Irishman she’d once worked on in the morgue who’d died while on vacation.

“Jonas,” called Tucker, taking the cigar out of his mouth slowly. “That’s a human girl.”

“I’m well aware of what she is. Put out the cigar.”

Tucker didn’t look happy about stubbing out the stogie in his ashtray. “Are we having her for dinner?” he drawled. “Or having her for dinner?”

Jonas left her wobbling in the wake of his swift departure. One second he was standing beside her, the next he was speaking to Tucker in a low, unintelligible tone through the driver’s side window.

After a moment of listening, Tucker threw back his head and laughed. “The prince himself is breaking the rules. Holy shit, man, this is going to be interesting.”

Ginny was in the backseat of the car before she could catch her breath, Jonas pressed in beside her. “What did you say to him?”

“Only that he’d be having stake for dinner if he comes within five feet of you.”

“Steak? I thought you don’t eat food.”

“S-t-a-k-e.”

“Oh.” Once she’d absorbed that violent implication, she leaned forward. “It’s lovely to meet you, Tucker. You’re the prankster, are you?”

“At your service.”

“I’m sorry Jonas has already threatened your life on my behalf, but you have to admit it’s well deserved after leaving him to be embalmed.”

Humor-filled eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. “Threats to my life are all in a day’s work.”

“The day’s work of a vampire?”

“Nope.” He pointed to the circular sticker in his front window. “An Uber driver.”

Ginny chuckled. “I see.”

“Don’t judge me too harshly for the prank, sweetheart,” Tucker continued. “Playing the occasional trick keeps us human. As much as that’s possible, anyway. Think of it as me doing him a favor.”