Page 26 of Vampire's Hearth

Concern replaced the aggravation as her voice drew closer to the phone. “She finally called? Is she okay? What’s going on?”

Jade giggled. “Rory’s falling in love with a vampire.”

“What?” Shock flooded Evangeline’s voice.

I drew in a sharp breath. “Jade! You didn’t have to put it that way.” I tried my best to control the damage caused by Jade’s comment.

“Put that thing on a video call,” her mother demanded.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and accepted the change in call type. My image shrank into the lower right-hand corner. I smiled meekly, afraid of saying the wrong thing. Evangeline narrowed her eyes. “Who is this vampire, and where did you meet him? How did this happen?”

I was about to answer when Jade turned to her mother. “She went to the caves like she was supposed to, then fell, but the ring protected her—except her ankle. The vampire came to save her, took her back to camp where she had a sex dream about him, and now she’s at his house. You’re all caught up.” Jade’s angelicsmile coming through the video nearly made me laugh. She was not helping my case.

Evangeline rolled her eyes at the irreverence in Jade’s dissertation before looking at me through the phone. “Rory, is all of this true?”

Her concern strained my heart. “I think Jade pretty much summed it up. Except for the falling in love part. I’m not falling in love.”

Evangeline took a deep breath. “What do you think the dream was about? There is powerful magic in sex.”

I bit my cheek as I thought through the dream, the feeling of Mac’s fingers inside me. “I don’t know. It didn’t make sense because it seemed to be the past. Aren’t prophetic dreams always the future?”

Evangeline shook her head, running her hand over her face. “Not always. Where did the dream happen?”

“It looked like we were in Ireland, but given how I was dressed, it was hundreds of years ago. But in the dream, we were a couple.”

“You mean he hadn’t forced you or seduced you? The intercourse was willing?”

I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. Evangeline was my second closest thing to a mom, but the conversation was still weird. I nodded, struggling to find the words. “Dream-me didn’t even flinch—like it was completely normal.”

Evangeline nodded and pursed her lips. Her eyes darted around briefly as if she half expected to see something—or someone—lurking behind me. I shrank back into the chaise, unsure if I should be prepared for a scolding or motherly advice.

The seconds passing felt like hours before she finally sighed. “Rory, how do you know this isn’t the vampire we’re looking for?” Her voice was laced with concern.

I glanced at the table as the memories of Mac’s soft and tender hands, assisting me after my fall, washed over me. How could someone who cared so deeply be purely evil? I may not have fallen for him, but he had helped me. “We don’t. But if he is as awful as you’re implying, why didn’t he leave me in the cave? He could have just taken the lineage and left. But he didn’t. He wants to work with me.” My voice wavered, uncertainty creeping in despite my words of defense.

“Wait, he could take what?” Her eyebrows rose as a smile overtook the concern in Evangeline’s eyes. Her question was quick with excitement, and the realization that we had found something lightened the mood.

I nodded and sat up a little straighter. “A portfolio stolen from the coven around one hundred and fifty years ago.”

“You never told me exactly what it was.” Jade’s voice broke in after she had sat silently beside her mother.

The corners of my mouth turned upward. “A family line, which showed the seventh son of the seventh son starting from an Irish chieftain in the 1100s through the 1850s.” I could almost see the names scrawled across the faded parchment in my mind, the lines tracing back through centuries. “Mac said the person is known as the Cure and will know something about how to cure an ailment. He thinks a descendant from the last person listed still lives today. But you’ll never guess who the chieftain was.”

“Who?” Jade asked with a wide smile.

“Rauri O’Cillian. The Clan O’Cillian is real. All those stories—”

Jade’s eyes grew wide as Evangeline’s narrowed. “Where is this lineage now?” asked Evangeline, her voice quivering slightly.

My gaze dropped to my ankle, and I bit my lip as I tried to justify his actions, even to myself. “Mac took it once we got back to his house. He didn’t trust me with it. He wants to work together to find the descendants of the last man listed.”

Evangeline tilted her head, her voice stern. “Rory, no. There is a vampire out there whose power has grown beyond what the hunters can contain. How do you know this Mac doesn’t want to find the Cure simply to kill him? We don’t work with vampires. They are monsters bent on destroying us.” The authority in her voice made me cringe because it sounded like something my aunt would say.

I forced my voice to stay steady. “Evangeline, nothing that Mac has done lines up with what you are saying. I know this sounds weird, but… I trust him.” I tried to reflect my authority as the High Priestess Heir in my voice, but even I almost didn’t hear it.

Evangeline’s jaw tightened, the muscle twitching as she fought to hold back whatever harsh words hovered on the tip of her tongue. “The answer is no.”

Shit, she had pulled out the mom voice, regardless of how old I was. A flash of frustration surged through me, but I bit back a retort, knowing it would only make things worse. “What do you want me to do?”

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