Page 98 of House of Crimson Kisses
She’s also the one who killed her, or at least she tried to. Drained her and left her for dead.
Unfortunately for her, the witch-dhampir survived and became the last of the original three. Which begs the question, if she knew I’d survived and Cordelia had taken me, why did she never come for me?
And where the hell is she now? Cordelia says she vanished, lost to history. What if she wasn’t? What if the woman who birthed me is still alive?
“Octavia?” Xavier says.
“Huh? What?” I say, springing back to attention. But I notice Red in the middle of the dance floor shaking her ass enough another woman has taken notice.
“Sorry, favourite. Another time. There’s a woman about to lose her hand,” I say and speed off to the middle of the dance floor right as the woman slides her hand close to Red’s arse.
“Touch her and lose your hand.”
“I… I… I’m sorry I didn’t realise she was spoken for,” she says, her hand freezing a millimetre from Red’s body.
“Well, now you do.” My eyes flick down to her hand, which is yet to move away from what is mine.
She yanks it back and scuttles off to another corner of the room.
“Was that really necessary?” Lincoln says. “We were having a much-needed giggle.”
He places his hands out and then folds them over his body, touching one hip then the other, and then does the same movement only on his temples. Then jumps around and does the same sequences of movements.
“What are you… Do you know what? I really don’t care. I came to ask for a dance.” Red hesitates, but I hold out my hand. She huffs and then reluctantly slides hers into mine.
I sling it over my shoulder and put my hands around her waist. I glance up at the DJ, and the music shifts to a slower beat.
She rests her head on my chest. “I am still annoyed with you.”
“I know,” I say. “But I wanted to talk about the trial. In there… I’m not sure how to explain it, but I think you saved me.”
“Weird,” she says, lifting off my chest and frowning at me as we take mini steps side to side in a circle.
“I think the piece of you bonded to me is what pulled me out of there. It’s like you were in my head right as I was ready to give up.”
“This is too weird,” she says.
“Explain.”
“I was in the Hunter Academy, and everyone was calling me a traitor. I hated myself, I couldn’t save the people I love, and then everyone left turned against me. All because I wasn’t strong enough, because I rejected the chance to take power. But right as I was ready to quit, there you were. Whispering everything I needed to hear. Telling me I’d saved you.”
She shakes her head like it’s a lie.
“But, Verity… You have saved me.”
She glances at the floor. “There was something else, too.” A furrow forms between her brows. “But I can’t quite remember it now. It was something off, something I wanted to ask you. But it’s slipped my mind now.”
The music shifts to an even slower beat that thumps around the club. A few more dancers join us, swaying and grinding against each other.
“Because you still harbour fury at me for keeping your memories, you might not believe this, but time and time again, you save me. You have saved me. My heart will always be yours.”
“What did you learn?” she asks, pushing my hair behind my ear.
“I’ll tell you, but not here in the open. It would compromise too much.”
She nods, her eyes darting this way and that. “I need to tell you, too. It changes things. Actually, it changes everything. I think I’ve made a mistake.”
“Do you want to leave now?” I ask.
