Blood Ties

20. Possess

They stood in front of the registrar at UCLA. The line to speak with the man whose last name was Cummings had been short, but he had a stern look on his face, though his voice was as meek as a librarian’s. His bald pate didn’t help matters as it shone brightly from the recessed lights in the ceiling.

“The good news is that all your credits are being transferred for next semester, Ms. Swain. The bad news is that since we have no way of knowing what musicals or plays you have performed, so unless you can get a video copy of them, you’ll have to start from scratch here. That means one performance for fall semester and one for spring, plus you’ll probably have to sign up for one of our summer programs. It’s kind of like summer stock, though it has both a children’s program for the kids in summer camps and one for the adults. You can pick and choose, though its more difficult to get an adult show part. You may want to start with the kid’s programming. Just a thought.”

He looked up at them both, gaze lingering between Quinn and Adam. He studied them as if he was trying to figure out their relationship, but as far as Quinn was concerned, it was none of the man’s business, though there were other younger folk in the room that were staring at them as well.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Adam blurted out, loud enough to cause a hush to fall inside the office. He looked behind him, and immediately four or five young men who had been staring turned away from his calculating glower. After a moment, he turned back to Cummings, who blinked once before his eyes dropped to the piece of paper he was holding in his hands. They shook, but Adam didn’t think that it was from nerves. He thought the man had a drinking problem. An employee from his office had acted the same, always trembling and sometimes sweating like the man was until he’d gone to rehab about five years prior.

Everyone was silent but for Mr. Cummings, who gave them both a tight smile and spoke. “You’re a lucky young man, Mr. Payne. A lucky man indeed, and with a very talented partner. NYU has a stellar reputation in the dramatic arts, right up there with Julliard and The Curtis Institute.” He turned to look at Quinn, who was wide-eyed and silent. “There are orientations mid-August for the Fall session, and they do dance, singing, and oration auditions the week after that. Most newcomers are made to live in the dorms, but since you’re a transfer, you don’t have to, though there’s plenty of room if you wish to.”

“She lives with me.” Adam’s voice was tight. “If she doesn’t need to be housed in the dorms, then she won’t be, right love?”

Quinn’s taut face softened, and a quick smile even out into slight dimples. “I’m new to the area, Mr. Cummings. I think I’d get slightly more acclimated to living on the West Coast if I stayed where I was at the moment. I do plan on taking some maps of the campus home with me and studying them when I get my schedule. NYU owns so many buildings in the city these days that it was like a maze those first few weeks.”

She seemed to relax while speaking, and it was partially due to Adam’s hand as he softly brushed it up and down her back in a soothing pattern. Something felt right in the way he touched her, like that first warm step into a hot tub, sinking in toes-first until your whole body was inundated in heat, making you feel warm and gooey.

“Oh, I could imagine, Quinn. I went there a few times and ended up going across the Tappan Zee bridge by accident and getting caught in traffic around the beginning of some new play that was being put on all in the same day. Premier night too. It was a nightmare. How you got around in that town is beyond me.”

Quinn grinned, her lips twitching. “If you think that’s bad, never go to Washington D.C. It’s a complete clusterfu—I mean, a complete nightmare.” Her cheeks flushed, and Cumming’s usually stern demeanor melted a little.

“Well, we look forward to having you next semester. With any luck, you’ll be able to graduate a half a year ahead of everyone else. Not to worry, though. You’ll still make commencement if you wish to.”

He stood tall and shook both Quinn’s and Adam’s hands, wincing at the strength in the young man’s grip.

***

Quinn followed Adam out to the car, which was parked in the visitor parking lot outside the administration building since school was still in session. She was glad she’d gotten that nightmare out of the way, but she had no clue as to why he’d been acting like a petulant child since leaving the building. It was like he was completely ignoring her and stalking his way toward the car like the two of them had had some sort of disagreement. They hadn’t, so Quinn was all sorts of weirded out by his attitude.

When they finally got to the car, he opened the passenger door for her, though she refused to get in before popping her hip out and crossing her arms. She stared at him with a frown etched on her lips.

“What?” he asked, his hands lifting in a helpless gesture as she refused to budge and get her pert little ass into the vehicle.

“Why?”

He blinked at her one-word question like she’d spoken Gaelic and raked a hand through his hair. “I give up. Why what, exactly?”

“Why are you stomping around like a bear with a sore paw? We’ve literally only gone to the registrar and back to the car, but you’re acting like we’re having some sort of big scene where we break up in a public place very loudly and violently. I feel like I don’t even know what happened back there. One moment we were fine, the next moment you’re fleeing out of the office like we were going to light the building on fire. Can you explain to me what just happened?”

He growled, low, with his eyes jutting to the right as he watched a few guys walk past them about fifty feet away.

“They were staring at you,” he muttered.

She moved forward, unsure if she heard him correctly. “What?”

He looked at her and leaned in like he was eliciting a top government secret or planning a coup de grace. “They were staring at you. The guys in the office all wanted you.”

She blinked back at him. “So? They can want all they f*****g want. Guys do that. They look, but they can’t touch.”

“I don’t like it.” Again, he sounded like a needy kid, wanting his desert before having dinner.

“And I do?” Her voice started get high and increase in volume. “How do think any girl with brains in her head likes having her t**s talked to.” She looked down. She was not very gifted in the chest department and boasted a modest C cup. “Not that that’s a problem for me, but you know what I mean.”

He stepped closer, reaching out to brush a lock of hair away so he could see all of her neck, the neck he so wanted to have his claiming mark embedded on. He studied the spot before catching her eyes, his own softening in return.

“It’s not just your breasts and body that I fear they’ll covet. It’s everything about you. Your mind, body, and soul. You’re mine, or at least will be someday if things go to plan, and until we are bonded, I’m going to act like a pompous, overprotective, possessive ass, most likely. You think you can deal with that for a little while longer, love?”

She reached out, grabbing onto the bottom of his t-shirt to tug at and moving closer when even that wasn’t enough.

“I have no need nor do I want to look elsewhere right now. With you, I feel safe for the first time in a long time. New York is a huge city, and one that’s daunting to someone like me who grew up on a farm in rural Virginia. If NYU had been placed in the middle of a pasture, I’d miss it, but I don’t. You and your family have made me feel welcome here, and I do have feelings for you I can’t explain away. Maybe it has to do with the bond, maybe it’s growing stronger—I don’t know. What I want is to be close to you. Even if they’d told me I had to live in the dorms, I would have felt the need to fight it. I relaxed a lot after he said it wasn’t necessary as a transfer student. It made me happy. I didn’t want to live in dorms again. It’s tiring enough to get used to a new school and going about making new friends. I feel like I’m on the cusp of saying yes—yes to everything you want, but I can’t yet. Something is missing. Maybe that thing is time or one day waking up just knowing what I want, but I can’t say right now. It’s still unclear to me.”

He pulled her closer, laying a kiss on the crown of her head and rocking her from side to side gently. “I want that, Quinn—with all my heart. I want your yes, but only when you’re sure you’ve made up your mind. I can’t stress enough how important it is for the bond we make that you are certain this is the life you choose. My impatience is a curse to me, and I loathe myself every time I think of kidnapping you from your apartment and bringing you to my cabin. I must have scared the s**t out of you, and I’m sorry. But this isn’t some fantasy book or movie where we can use some sort of technology to go back and change the mistakes we made. We only can grow from them, and hope we don’t repeat them.” He kissed her on the top of her head once more, patting her on the back lovingly. “We should get you home. It’s almost lunch time, and I think I need something to drink as well.”

She nodded up at him and stepped into the car before putting on her seatbelt. Closing the door behind her, he sauntered around to the other side of the vehicle, his feet dragging. He really wanted to get away from the university. Everything in him told him it was bad news, but it had the best dramatic arts courses in Southern California, and his mate deserved the best. And they seemed to be impressed with her at the registrar. Not many could say they’d exceled at NYU, but UCLA had a stellar reputation as well, and there really was no need to transfer the scholarships she’d gotten from the old school to the new. Adam could easily afford her tuition.

On the way back to the house, they stopped at Jamba Juice where Adam turned to her after parking between the Wing Stop and the Xfinity store. “You had Jamba Juice before?”

She shook her head. “Nope. They had juice bars in New York, but I don’t think they had one called Jamba. I know there was one not too far from my apartment. I never went, though. It was pretty expensive just for juice.” She scoffed.

Adam worked hard to suppress his grin. “This isn’t quite the same as that. These are more frozen smoothies. Very popular in California and a few other states. I’m surprised it hasn’t gone the way of Starbucks and Peet’s and become as common as air across the U.S., though caffeine has been proven to be an addictive substance.”

“True,” she agreed. “No one gets withdrawal headaches from not having their juice smoothie.”

After requesting a raspberry smoothie with a catchy name, they went outside and sat on the patio for a few minutes. Adam seemed to be thinking, and he’s gotten a small orange drink that he was mulling over and poking his straw into. Quinn pointed to it.

“Does that do anything for you? I mean, I know you don’t need to eat or drink like regular folk, but does it at least taste good?”

He considered the question. “It tastes fine, but because of what I am, I can taste the impurities in foods as well if I pay close enough attention. It’s not so much with juice like this because much of it is made with fresh ingredients, but if I was to say have turkey on Thanksgiving, I’d be able to pinpoint the exact flavor of the extra steroids they give their foul. Take tryptophan, for instance. It is said to be added to turkeys for the holidays. That’s a myth and I cannot taste it. Chickens and turkeys make it naturally, but humans need it and cannot produce it naturally, so it comes from their diet. Dairy and meats, mainly. Still, I can taste the extra ingredients in the bird because they add it in and is considered extraneous.”

“Does it make the food taste bad to you?”

“No, not really, but it does taste slightly unnatural. It’s why when I do buy groceries for when I have human company or guests, I go with free range and organic. If I have to sit through a meal I don’t need to actually eat to entertain someone, you know damn well I’m going to be doing it without having to deal with the extra ‘spices’ f*****g up my taste buds.”

She nodded to him and bit the inside of her lips. For a vampire, he sounded a lot like some of the hippie dippy types in New York that would only eat organic. It was an odd conversation to have with a vampire, but one that gripped her and pulled her in, back to the reality of everyday life and not one where mates and mating bonds were prevalent.

At least not all that prevalent.

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