Page 83 of Love Bites
"Something has to be done about those vampires," I insisted. "How many more of us will have to die? I think Dad wanted to stop it. I want to do my part too."
"I think you've already done plenty."
"It doesn't feel like that. I can still feel this strange power run through me," I said, because it was the truth. It felt a little bit as if my blood had been infused with sparkling wine, only that it wasn't wine but magic. I couldn't quite make sense of it, not yet, but I knew that something had changed inside of me, maybe for good, like a dam that had been broken and could not be rebuilt. "I want to use this power for good, if I can, just to spite all the vampires that wanted us dead."
Talon looked at me for a long time. "Promise me that you won't go seeking danger to accomplish that," he said then.
"I won't. But if an opportunity presents itself, I'm not going to deny my help to someone who needs it."
"All I want is for you to be safe."
"I know." I kissed him again, in part to reassure him, in part because I could never get enough of kissing him. When we parted, I smiled at Talon. "You have a little bit of an aura tonight."
"I do?"
"Yeah. It's blue." A really pretty shade of blue too. It had something calming to it. "Maybe it's because you got your memories back or something."
"Maybe in part," Talon agreed. "But my memories aren't the thing that make me feel most human. Or most alive." He gazed at me.
"They're not?"
"No." He cupped my chin, and I was pretty sure that I would have gotten another kiss—if we hadn't been interrupted.
Out of nowhere, three people appeared in Talon's living room as if they'd formed from thin air. Two men and a woman. The men's auras were swirling purple, but the woman's was a deep shade of red. While I was still taking this in, Talon jumped to his feet, standing in front of me. "Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment?" he demanded.
"Talon, please, don't be rude and act like you don't know me." One of the men in the small group spoke up. His hair was a sparkling blue that somehow almost managed to look natural. If I hadn't been preoccupied with other things—like figuring out who the hell these people were—I might have been jealous of so much fabulousness.
"Oh, I remember you, but I don't remember giving you permission to barge into my apartment."
"Please excuse us," the woman said. A tall lady with blond hair and a kind voice. "We didn't mean to interrupt anything."
"We wanted to get to the source of the magic pulsating through town earlier," the other man, an average looking guy with brown hair, agreed. "I'm Caspar, this is Morgan." He gestured at the woman. "And I guess you already know Puck."
"How did you know we were here?" Talon asked, eyes steely.
Caspar turned to him. "We've had our eyes on you for a while."
"You tripped an alarm when you stepped into Michael Bray's office," Morgan supplied.
Michael Bray… that was Dad's name! "What do you want?" I asked. "How do you know my dad?"
Morgan started approaching me, but Talon held a hand out to stop her. "Not one step closer," he said firmly. "Not as long as we don't know why you're here."
Puck laughed. "I see you're still super protective, but there's no need for you to worry. We're not looking to harm your lover."
"That's what you say," Talon countered. "I don't trust you."
"You don't have to trustme," Puck said. "I'm not the one in charge here. I've only recently allied myself with these two and their organization." He nodded at Caspar and Morgan.
"What organization?" I asked.
Morgan rolled her sleeve up. "I wanted to show you this up close, but well." She stretched her arm out to me, and there, just above the inside of her wrist was a birthmark that looked eerily similar to mine. I'd seen that same shape before, on Remy.
"You're... like me?" I asked, struggling to find a better way to phrase that question and coming up short.
"Yes, I'm like you." The woman gave me a smile. "Well, not quite like you, because I can't command the same magic you do, but other than that..." She trailed off, looking again as if she wanted to take a step closer to me, but my vampire was still standing in her way.
"Is this how you knew my dad?" I asked, my eyes on her wrist.
