Taming A Predator

Chapter 2

Doe's POV:

It got more and more crowded the further down into the castle we got, causing our conversation to die down.

It only took a few minutes before I discovered that Xander was way more serious about this than I had initially given him credit for.

You couldn't tell just by looking at him, but I could see the shifting of his eyes through the crowd, steering clear of both human and vampire that wore the attire showing they worked for the castle.

He was surprisingly good at this, effortlessly weaving us through all of it, and quickly switching directions when needed without making any of it too obvious.

It must just slip my mind occasionally that he does in fact have the ability to accomplish things in a timely and well-detailed manner.

The way he held himself during instances like this as well.

Confident posture and each movement altered with that vampiric grace.

The calm concentrated expression he held when he frequently looked back at Marcus and me to make sure that he wasn't moving too fast.

Wow...

It only took us about six minutes before we made it to the extensive parking garage and over to the ones specifically designed for long-distance travel.

Then two minutes more for Xander and Marcus to solidify specifically which one we wanted to take, and he wanted to drive.

They made their decision and Marcus grabbed the key from where it was hidden behind the back-left tire, leaving us to load up our stuff while he got things started on his end.

Xander settled our instruments in the trunk, situating them in a way that would leave them with minimal space to move around during the drive.

"You wanna keep that with you?" He asked, pointing to the tote bag.

"Yeah, I will," I replied, "It's got that book in it to keep me busy during the drive."

A yawn crept over me, and I leaned sideways into him through the weariness I haven't been able to kick yet.

"That is if I don't sleep through the whole thing," I added quieter, closing my eyes for a brief moment at the feeling of being against him.

I felt his chuckle through his body, his arm snaking around my back to hold my waist.

"You and me both," He admitted, using his free hand to shut the trunk, "Need me to carry you in?"

I knew the question was a joke, but I still briefly considered it.

Getting out of this city was the first thing on my mind, and the second was crawling back into bed beside him.

No...

I may be tired but I still had my pride... in a social setting such as this.

Even though there was practically no one near this section of the parking garage at this hour...

I don't know... I was mostly fine with those kinds of things behind closed doors, but out in the open like this with people we know about to show up just felt different.

"Nah. Not yet anyway." I played along.

We didn't part from each other while we took the five steps to the door, the engine sputtering on as we did.

"It kinda sucks that we didn't grab something to eat first," I brought up at the sudden feeling in my stomach.

Xander tore away just enough to open the door for me, "Yeah I know. I underestimated how long we'd have between Nico calling me and when we had to leave. We can probably stop somewhere real quick on the way, we just need to get out of this territory first and foremost."