Page 64 of The Midnight Order
Corvin
“So,tell us about her bloodwork. We all know there’s something magnetic about it already. Well, Lowell still hasn’t tested her yet, but I’m sure he’d agree.” Jasper looks at Lowell, who sits back in his chair. He crosses his arms and nods.
I sigh, opening my file folder. Perusing it, I try to figure out where to start.
“Well, she’s most definitely the key for me, based on the markers in her blood. I’ve yet to taste her blood for my sanity, and from how I’ve seen you two react, I’ll steer clear.”
Lowell wipes a grin from his face as I eye him for snickering. “Sorry.”
I heard about what happened between Lowell and Jasper when Lowell walked in on Jasper, who was taking far too much from Silver’s vein.
“What about her heritage?” Jasper asks, diverting attention from his mishap.
I know he’s reeling, and likely he’ll wallow over it for months to come. He’s going to be insufferable.
Even if she’s his key, he still feels horrible for pushing her too far, too soon.
“That’s where it gets tricky,” I answer, turning the page on my file.
“How so?” Asher sits forward, his brows furrowing.
I try to keep Jasper’s words about separating my love for Asher from the attachment I need to form to Silver in my mind as I flick my eyes toward him.
“I don’t know that she was any relation to Soliel. Well, scratch that, I know she wasn’t.”
This has silenced the room.
Jasper moves to the edge of his seat, steepling his hands. “Their DNA doesn’t match?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“What the hell?!” Asher sits back, scrubbing his tattooed hands down his face.
“The only thing I can figure is someone’s made her think she’s Soliel’s family, or she’s lying to us.”
“We’d have sensed it,” Jasper says offhandedly.
Lowell clears his throat, and the room collectively holds its breath for whatever unhinged input he has.
While he’s not the darkest of us, he’s the most traumatized by his past. Sometimes, I wonder if he lives in the now or is still floating in the ether of his reveries—one foot in this world and one in the other.
“She has nightmares she doesn’t remember,” he says.
“How would you know that?” Asher asks, realizing his folly and then laughing. “Never mind.”
“When I watch her at night, she cries and scratches herself. I’ve tried singing to calm her, which she didn’t like.”
Jasper smirks, fighting a laugh.
I bite the inside of my cheek.
Lowell’s innocence is sometimes hard to understand. But once you get to know him, it makes sense.
“I mentioned hypnosis,” he adds.
“And?” I ask.
“She didn’t seem opposed to it. I can try to push a bit more.” There’s excitement that feels dangerous in his eyes as he forms a plan.
