Reborn Yesterday (Phenomenal Fate 1)

“I’ll never understand how you get Elias to agree to these pranks,” Jonas muttered. “It’s not exactly his style.”

“I caught him with a picture of Roksana. I promised not to tell anyone if he’d help me execute the prank.” He gave an exaggerated wince. “Whoops.”

“Drive the car,” Jonas said mildly. “And don’t call Ginny ‘sweetheart.’”

Jonas was reaching up with the thin, black swath of material, preparing to tie it around Ginny’s eyes, when a thought occurred. “Jonas, how do I know you’re not the one dropping me into oceans and highways?”

His hands dropped like stones to the seat. Several seconds ticked by. “How can you ask me that?”

She waited.

“I’ve explained to you, it would take someone older and more powerful to transport you like that.”

“How do I know that’s true?” Without breaking the intensity of their stare, she reached down and fingered the material of the blindfold. “You’re asking for my absolute trust and giving me none in return, Dreamboat.”

“She called him Dreamboat!” More raucous laughter from Tucker. “Yes, indeed. This is going to be goddamn interesting.”

Jonas’s tortured expression was the last thing she saw before the blindfold turned her world black.

Ginny mentally counted the third right they’d taken since leaving P. Lynn Funeral Home, though she couldn’t be sure they hadn’t doubled back or taken a meandering route to throw her off. Every time they hit a straightaway, she counted the seconds until the next turn and committed the directions to memory, just in case she ever needed them. As a lifelong Coney Island resident, Ginny knew at least four ways to reach the boardwalk. If she wasn’t mistaken, they weren’t too far from the world-famous planks when Tucker pulled the parking brake.

“I’ll park and meet you inside,” Jonas’s roommate called. “Don’t say or do anything worth gossiping about until I get back.”

Jonas hummed distractedly. “She’ll need food and water. Can you pick up some groceries? Eggs, bread, milk…”

Tucker made a sound. “Gross.”

“Get a blanket for her, too.”

“Yes, almighty prince.”

The back door on Jonas’s side opened and then he was lacing their fingers together, sending stardust blustering up her arm. He helped her step out of the car, though Ginny sensed his hesitation before he put an arm around the small of her back, urging her forward. A door opened and cool air crept out, wrapping around Ginny until she was fully ensconced inside of it. That same door closed behind her, dropping them into a total lack of sound. The sounds of traffic, seagulls and car radios cut off abruptly and all she could hear were her and Jonas’s footsteps.

“We’re going into an elevator now,” he murmured near her ear, steering her to the left. “I’ll have the blindfold off soon.”

She folded her arms across her chest, feeling the metal box lurch downward, followed by the familiar mechanical whine of a moving elevator.

“Are you giving me the silent treatment?”

Ginny kept her lips pressed into a straight line, because yes, she was rather irritated and if she started talking, all manner of smart comments would probably tumble out of her mouth. Just this evening, she’d almost been run over by a semi truck. Now she was being shuffled around by a highhanded vampire who still had plans to apply white out to her memory bank and didn’t want Ginny knowing where he lived. He was hedging his bets about her when she didn’t have the option to do the same.

“I’m sorry you don’t agree with my methods, Ginny,” he said in a low voice. “I only want to keep you safe.”

Okay. She definitely wasn’t cut out to administer the silent treatment. Words were leapfrogging over one another to exit her throat. “Why do you care what happens to me?”

The vein in his temple ticked. “There’s a complicated answer to that question.”

She took off the blindfold, ignoring his censorious look. “Try.”

Jonas stared straight ahead into the metal doors of the elevator. When Ginny followed his gaze, the only face staring back in the reflective surface was her own. A tingle crawled up her spine. She glanced back to find Jonas studying her reaction closely. “If someone put a single scratch on your skin, I would go utterly mad, Ginny, and yet I burn to sink my teeth into your neck every second of the day. I don’t know how to uncomplicate that for you.” The elevator doors rolled open. “Welcome home.”

Her exhale emerged as shaky as her legs. “What would happen if you did?” she managed. “Drink my blood, that is.”

Green cinders whipped up in his eyes, his hand curling around the elevator’s handrail. “I may have trouble stopping.”

“You think you’ll kill me, don’t you? Break one rule, break them all.” She stepped forward. “But I know you wouldn’t.”

“You’re so sure, are you?” His attention strayed to her neck. “We’re finished speaking of this,” he bit off, reaching down and taking Ginny by the wrist, leading her out of the elevator, into a cement corridor with a single light bulb buzzing in front of yet another door. “I will keep you safe from me and whoever is trying to hurt you. That’s a promise.”