Page 77 of Love Bites
"Not directly, just..." I trailed off, not sure how to go on. Saying he was there for clean-up just sounded too ridiculous for my ears. "He was supposed to make sure no one knew it was the work of vampires."
My sister slung an arm around my shoulders and hugged me close, which surprised me because she wasn't usually a very touchy-feely person. And then she went and ruined the moment. "I'm sorry, Collie."
I groaned. "Don't call me that." That was even worse thanSparkles.I swallowed as the memory of Talon calling me that made me miss him again.
"I didn't know that happened to your parents," Elena said.
"Neither did I..." Until very recently. Slowly, I peeled myself out of my sister's embrace. "Sorry," I said. "I gotta be alone for a bit."
I wasn'tactuallyalone when I returned to the guest room. Luke was there, on one side of the large bed we'd been sharing, but he was scrolling through pictures on his phone and didn't look up when I came in. These days, being with Luke often wasn't much different from being alone.
Sitting on the other side of the bed, I mimicked my brother. I didn't have too many pictures on my phone. Some snapshots I'd taken for Instagram, some older pictures I'd taken while still living at home. There was one of Dad, sitting at the dinner table with his beard stained red from tomato sauce. I'd told him jokingly that he looked like a vampire. He hadn't thought it was funny. I'd taken this picture to show him, and then I'd forgotten all about that moment.
What would Dad think if he could see me now?
Sorry,I apologized inside of my head, wishing I could apologize for real. Not for the fight we'd had—he'd been totally out of line—but for the way we'd left things. I wished I could go back in time and tell him that I loved him, even if I'd never apologize for being gay.
But loving a vampire, though? Was that something I needed to apologize for? Looking at my dad's picture and thinking of my dead parents, I felt like it was. I felt like everything I'd done since meeting Talon that first night had been one giant mistake.
I locked the phone's screen and put it aside, wondering if things would have been different if I'd known about the night my parents died all along. Would I not have fallen for a vampire then? It was impossible to say now because I simply couldn't imagine not being in love with Talon. Because I did love him.
I just didn't know if that was enough to look past everything else.
There was only one way to find out, though.
* * *
Three times I tried to call Talon and three times he didn't pick up the damn phone. He was either not checking it or sleeping or... I wasn't sure what. The sun was starting to go down, though, so I would try again in a few minutes. There were so many things that we needed to talk about.
Before I could, though, the doorbell rang, and half a minute later, Elena poked her head into the guest room where I was sitting cross-legged on the bed, staring at my phone, one hand in Luke's hair who was dozing by my side.
"There's someone at the door for you."
"Huh?" I said intelligently.
"Some odd name, red hair, wants to see you?"
Curious, I got up and followed my sister to the door. Talon's partner stood just in front of the gate to the street. The wards set up around the house probably prevented him from stepping any closer. How had he even managed to ring the bell?
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I wanted to talk to you." He nodded at the street. "Shall we take a walk?"
I glanced down at my belly. "I'm not really supposed to parade this around."
"Easy," he said. "Glamour charms are my specialty."
"Glamour charms?" What was he talking about?
"Just come here. I'll show you."
I exchanged a look with my sister, but she only shrugged, so I stepped up to Aldrich. Sure, he was a vampire, but he was Talon's partner and Talon trusted him, so I could too. Once I stood next to the red-haired vampire, he snapped his fingers at me. At first I had no idea what that was supposed to do, because I didn't feel any different, but then I looked down on myself and the baby belly was gone.
And all of my clothes were pink.
"What the fuck did you do?" My hand flew to my belly, where I could stillfeelthe bulge even though I seemed to be touching nothing.
"Don't worry," Aldrich said with a hint of amusement. "It's all just cosmetics."
