Page 33 of Fighting for Her Heart
“Of course.” She laughs. “I cast this spell so that we could be more comfortable while we talked.”
My teeth come out to worry my bottom lip for a moment. Is she making me comfortable to trick me somehow? But my unexpected unease quickly lessens. She’s just being thoughtful—thinking of me, just like she’s done my entire life.
“Shall we sit?” She gestures toward the bed.
The fabric feels so real, the textures of the embroidered stars, even the smell of the quilt seems real. The scents of lavender and patchouli that she always added to the laundry waft up as I stroke the fabric, and it fills my heart with nostalgic warmth.
“Why didn’t you look for me?” I ask softly.
“I did.” Sitting, she takes my hand. “When I escaped, I came straight here. You were already gone, but I never stopped looking for you. Not ever.”
“You didn’t have any magic that could have found me?”
She shakes her head. “That’s not how magic works.”
“So, the vampire who trapped us in that dungeon, or the witches she’s working with, they can’t use magic to find us here?”
Nora shakes her head.
“Are you sure?”
“Ember.” Mom takes my face in her hands. “You’re safe here. You’ve always been and willalwaysbe safe with me.”
Love for my mother floods through me, and I pull her into an embrace. Her arms around me, so familiar, make me want to curl against her and fall asleep. But I remember my objectives. I don’t know how long the guys will give us alone.
I want to learn about magic, but I want to learn about me too. My real family. “How old was I when you…rescued me?”
“Not yet three,” she says, stroking my back.
“And my birth mom and sisters…” My voice breaks. “Is it possible they survived when they were taken? Escaped, like you did?”
“No baby.” She pulls me closer. “Your birth mother and sisters were killed in the fire set by the ones seeking you.”
“Are you sure?” Pulling back, I look into her eyes. “Until a few days ago, I thoughtyouwere dead.”
“I’m sorry baby.” She hugs me again. “They’re gone.”
My chest squeezes, my heart is missing people I don’t even remember. “What about my father? Who was he?”
Nora leans back and shrugs. “Male lineage is unimportant in our culture. Very few keepers of magic take mates. Men are only necessary for their seed. That’s another reason I wanted to speak to you alone. These men you’re with, it’s not natural.”
I shift back from her. “Not natural?”
She cups my face. “Honey, they’re using you.”
“Using me?”
She nods. “For sexual gratification. And of course because of what your blood can do for them. Have you really considered how quickly their attachments to you grew?”
My teeth scrape the inside of my lip and my stomach twists.
“You’re wrong.” I shake my head, but my words can’t cover the anxiety inside me. I can’t deny that I’m valuable to vampires. And given what she’s pointed out, and my lack of experience before meeting these three, can I trust their feelings, or my own?
I pick at the stitches on the quilt; it feels so real.
“But their using you is no matter,” Nora says with a knowing smile. “Because you can usethemtoo.”
“What?” I back away from her. “How? What do you mean?” Does she mean for sex? Because I already use them for that.
