Brogan changed clothes in the car as Aiden sped down the highway. She had no idea where they could go or hide; if someone was already on their trail, then it couldn’t take long for them to be found. Once she was dressed and seated next to him in the passenger seat, Aiden reached around behind the passenger seat and picked up a black drawstring bag. He left one hand on the wheel and loosened the drawstring with the other.

“Take this,” he instructed her, placing a black handgun in her lap. Brogan looked at it like he had placed a deadly snake on her leg. “It’s okay, Brogan. I just … it’s got silver bullets in it. The minions that Conleth is sending are getting stronger, and we have to have some aid to fight them. I want you to keep this on you at all times as well.” Brogan took the silver dagger from her hand and laughed nervously.

“I suppose I shouldn’t have left my crucifix at home,” she half-joked. Aiden didn’t seem to find it so funny. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a cabin not too far from here. We’ll stay there as long as we can.”

“How long will that be?”

Aiden sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. Could be minutes, hours, days.”

She nodded and took his tone as her cue to shut her mouth. It wasn’t long until they pulled into the gravel driveway of a cozy cabin, set several hundred feet off the road. Brogan wanted to ask him how he had access to it, but didn’t want to make him angry. She simply shouldered her back pack and followed him in to the wooden structure. He pushed the door open and let her go first; he must not have been worried about anyone else being in the cabin.

Brogan stepped in and looked around at her new environment. There were pretty blue curtains gracing all of the windows. The furniture in the small living room was quite modern, as was the table and chairs set up in the space next to the kitchen, which looked just big enough to house the refrigerator, stove, sink and dishwasher set up there. She trekked further back into the house and found a bathroom and two bedrooms, fully decorated and more modern than she would have expected as well. Aiden finally caught up to her as she was inspecting the tub.

“When you and Rachel moved here, you were still pretty young, so I didn’t need to watch over you constantly. I bought this cabin to have somewhere to put myself while you were in school or anything like that. Plus, you know, it’s kind of homey.” Aiden neglected to tell her that since her birthday last year, he’d had the occasional thought of the two of them making it a home. It was a silly thought, of course; her heart continually quickened with his sudden presence or touch, but he knew it was a relationship that could never happen. “Feel free to take whichever room you want.”

“This one is fine,” she told him, choosing the darker room at the back of the house. She set her bag down, and then sat, feeling awkward. Aiden dimmed the lighting, but his eyes still seemed to glow in the undertone. Brogan’s breath caught in her throat, and she thought again of his bare chest hugging her close the night before while she slept. Another pang of familiarity rose in her abdomen, and she tilted her head to the side, trying to place her finger on where she’d seen him before. Her brain refused to make the connection, but she couldn’t let it go. “Aiden?”

“Yeah,” he answered, laying back on the bed on top of the blankets, and flipping on the television.

“Are you sure I’ve never seen you before? I mean, not even when I was little, maybe?”

Aiden shook his head. “I kept well hidden from you.”

“It’s just that this familiarity thing keeps coming back to me.” A flash of icy blue in her mind, lit on fire. “I made eye contact with you once before. You must’ve been upset because that fire in your eyes was there.”

“On your birthday,” Aiden explained, “I caught your eyes before you passed out.”

“No,” Brogan argued, turning on the bed to face him and sitting Indian style. “No it was something different. I can almost see it in my mind, but I can’t … I don’t know how to say it. I can’t make my mouth say it.”

“Maybe some things are better left unknown,” Aiden mumbled. He had tried to hold the memory out of her mind for over a year now, but his feelings for her seemed to be breaking down the barricade. He knew she would never stop asking him if he didn’t talk to her about what had happened and what he knew, but he also knew that if she had knowledge of the event, it would bother her more than a little.

“See, you do know something! Aiden, tell me.” Brogan stood up off the bed and went to sit next to him. She locked her eyes with his, and he was unable to look away.

He sighed deeply. “I don’t know if you want to know this.”

“I do,” Brogan whined. “I really do. It’s driving me absolutely insane not being able to figure this out.”

Aiden turned of the television, then sat next to her. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But you have to promise me not to run away, and you have to let me help you through it, all right?”

Brogan nodded. “I promise.”

“Something happened on your birthday last year. I was here, actually, but I felt that danger creep up on you. I thought it was one of Conleth’s men, so I brought myself to where you were. You were so upset by the whole thing, I set up a kind of wall in your mind so you wouldn’t remember it. You woke up in your own bed the next morning, a little hungover, but not so much worse for the wear.”

“You made me forget … woke up in my own bed … what?” Brogan was genuinely puzzled, and also a little scared at what she was about to find out. Aiden slowly let the blockade come down from around the memory, and Brogan’s mind played the whole thing as he started the story.

“I was here. I felt the danger come up on you, and I thought it was one of Conleth’s men coming to kill you, so I brought myself to where you were. It was an apartment I didn’t recognize, so I know you must not have either …”

Brogan couldn’t ever remember being this drunk. It was her twenty-first birthday though, so she had intended on drinking as much as she could take without killing herself; judging by how the room was spinning at that point, she had neared that boundary if not met it. The handsome boy who helped her to the couch smiled down at her, and something didn’t feel right.

“Where’s Kerry and Ethan?” she asked.

“They’re back at the bar. C’mere,” he beckoned. Brogan didn’t know him, was sure she hadn’t met him before that night. Suddenly though, his lips were against hers, bruising them with the force he put behind the kiss. She placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away.

“What the hell are you doing? I don’t even know you!” She stood up, to get away from him, but he backed her against the wall. He placed a hand on the wall on either side of her and looked down at her with that menacing smile again.

“You are so hot. That Irish accent is amazing. Come on now; everyone deserves a little birthday sex.” With that he pressed his lips to hers again, and hugged her tightly against him so she wouldn’t escape a second time. Brogan wriggled and squirmed as much as possible, but didn’t have much fight in her with all the alcohol. The handsome boy pushed her back to a bedroom, onto the bed, and then laid on top of her, still trying to kick and scream. One of his hands moved under her shirt and caressed her stomach before moving up to cup her breast. She was crying by now, and nothing she seemed to do or say would make him stop.

Before he could remove her shirt though, a force pulled him off of her and threw him against the wall. Brogan straightened out her clothes and pulled her knees up to her chest, watching the dark-haired man berate the handsome boy.

“If you ever put your hands on her again, I swear I will kill you.” He slammed the handsome boy against the wall again, then pulled Brogan up into his arms. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew she could trust him. She allowed herself to be cradled against his broad chest, clinging to him, and sobbed. She didn’t remember moving at all, but when she opened her eyes, they were in her bedroom. She swallowed hard.

“Thank you for saving me,” she told him.

“It’s what I do,” he replied with a half-smile. She found his accent to be comforting; it was the sound of home. He waited while she changed into a tank top and sweatpants, then tucked her securely under the covers. As he walked out of the door, she called to him.

“I don’t want to be alone. Not after what that guy did.” Brogan’s shudder was visible, even from the doorway. “I don’t know you, but I know I’m safe with you. Please stay.”

The dark-haired man hesitated, but then gave her a slight nod. He pulled his shirt over his head and settled in with her, pulling her against his bare chest. Before she drifted off, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Ní bhíonn tú i d'aonar choíche.”

Brogan looked up at Aiden’s eyes as he finished the story and her memory stopped playing. “‘You’re never alone.’ I woke up the next morning and thought I had dreamt of a man telling me that.”

“That was the part I wanted you to hold on to,” Aiden explained. “That you’re never alone because I’m always here. You were so upset that night though, and I didn’t want you to be scarred from it. So I just made it so you wouldn’t remember, and could keep being happy. I’m too fond of your smile to see it fade away.”

A bright blush appeared under the tears that graced Brogan’s face. “For all the times you’ve rescued me, I’ll never be able to repay you.”

“You don’t have to,” he assured her, bringing her into his arms in hopes that she would stop shaking if he did so. “This is my job, protecting you. I job I am quite honored to do, I might add.”

She sat up and found his face incredibly close to hers. She wanted very badly to touch his lips with her own, but knew that was a rejection she wouldn’t be able to handle, especially just then. Instead, she ventured to a different approach. “I need to sleep on this. If I take a nap, will you hold me again?”

How could he deny her? “Of course, I will.”

xxx

“Brogan, wake up,” Aiden prodded, shaking her a little. She moaned and curled up even tighter, so he tried again. He was successful this time, and she shot straight up.

“Are they here?” she asked, securing her hair back with the ponytail holder that had been on her wrist. He pulled it back out of her hair.

“No, relax,” he smiled, setting the holder on the nightstand. “I made you some dinner though. Come eat.”

“Did I sleep all day?”

“Pretty much,” Aiden answered. He pulled the door almost closed behind him, giving her enough privacy to do what she needed before coming out to the table. Half a dish of haggerty sat on each plate, and Aiden had even lit a stumped candle and placed it in the middle of the table, a wildflower laying on its side at the base of candleholder. Brogan knew he was trying to make her feel better about what had happened on her twenty-first birthday, and she had to admit, her heart did feel eased. She sat down and waited for him to sit next to her; when he did, he placed a cold glass bottle in front of her.

“What is life without a cold beer next to your plate?” he joked. Brogan laughed along with him and thanked him for cooking for her. “Not a problem. It’s been a while since I had a taste of Ireland myself.”

They ate mostly in silence, enjoying the potato and onion flavors mixing together with the layers of cheese. Brogan only ate half of what she had, but stored it away for later. She watched Aiden clean his plate and finish off his beer, and couldn’t help but ask, “Aiden, how do you sustain yourself?”

Aiden looked from her to his empty plate and back, then shrugged. “I can still taste food and beer and, well, everything. It just gets absorbed into energy before it gets to my stomach; being changed is a real metabolism booster. Becoming a vampire is a fountain of youth most don’t want to tap into,” Aiden teased. “Besides the teeth, the only difference between you and me, really, is that I’ve got to have a frosted mug of blood everyday. I rest instead of sleep because when I sleep, it’s for years at a time.”

Brogan nodded. “Where do you get the blood from?”

“I figured that would come up sooner or later.” Aiden leaned back on the counter and crossed his arms in front of him. “Are you sure you want me to tell you?”

Brogan thought of the knowledge she’d gained by answering yes to that question earlier, but still nodded. “Yes, I want you to tell me.”

“Before drugs, it was crooks and thieves. The people that no one truly missed, sad as that is. After drugs, that became harder because most crooks and thieves were doped up, and that affects us quite awfully. I steal into the back room of a blood bank mostly now, when I need to get a fix.”

“How often is that?”

“Full of questions again, mo bheagaidín,” Aiden chuckled. “Every few days. You don’t need to worry though, Brogan. I’d never hurt you like that.”

“I know,” she shrugged. “I just wanted to know.”

Aiden nodded. “You’re still a little freaked out from earlier, aren’t you?”

“Still trying to decide how that possibility didn’t cross my mind, that it was something like that,” she confessed. Aiden nodded, but she wasn’t done confessing. “I’m glad you were there to rescue me.”

“I am, too,” Aiden told her, his voice husky. She stepped forward to embrace him, and he held onto her in an effort of comfort.

“I feel safe with you around. Kerry was right; I do breathe easier with you being with me all the time. It’s more than the fact that you’re my guardian. I don’t know if it’s because you’ve been around me for so long, or what, but --”

Aiden put his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “Brogan. You and I come from two different worlds. Those worlds are crossing paths right now because of Thomas Sullivan, and I couldn’t have found someone easier to be a guardian for, truly. Whatever you’re feeling right now, give yourself time to think about. My life is not what you think it is.”

Brogan’s eyes brimmed with tears at the rejecting tone his speech portrayed. She had been so sure the feeling was mutual, and maybe it still was, but he wasn’t as accepting of their circumstances as she was. She merely nodded to him, and then went about washing their supper dishes. By the time she was done, she was ready to sleep again. Aiden laid in bed next to her, too afraid of someone distracting him from her like the night her aunt was attacked and she had to fight off one on her own. He waited and waited for her to ask him to hold her again, but after awhile all he could hear was the sounds of the television and her deep, even breathing.

A/N: I feel like this story isn’t going as fast as I planned on it going, but I appreciate those who are still reading and keeping up with me. I’m getting into this story more, and the writing should be less stiff as I get more involved. I may go back and change a couple things in the first few chapters when that happens, but if I do, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Thanks for reading!