Page 32 of When Bones Whisper
“Yet I found remnants of a spell.”
“You sure know a lot about my craft for a vampire.”
“I grew up with witches.”
Her brows rose. Men couldn’t be witches. It was passed through the female bloodline, but that didn’t mean he didn’t come from a family of them.
“My mother,” he said when she was stunned into silence. “She was a witch, as were her sisters.”
“What happened to them?”
He arched a brow. “It’s been hundreds of years. They’re all dead.”
She shook her head, whistling out a breath. Of course they were. “Right.”
“I discovered your uncle and cousin mysteriously died,” he added.
There was barely a few inches between them now, his smile widening, sending shudders down her spine.
“Yes, they did,” she whispered, but her voice was lost under his presence. His muscles tensed under his saturated shirt, the smell of rain, musk, and sandalwood lingering around them. She held his intrusive stare, deepening hers into the depths of his gray irises and dilating pupils. A shockwave traveled from her head to her feet and she looked away first.
“Hmm.” He stepped back, looking pretty pleased with himself, which only made her hate him more. “Perhaps you are not as innocent as you pretend to be. What did you do to them?”
She held her breath, frozen in place. Goosebumps spread over her arms and neck, but she didn’t answer.
He leaned down, his lips a whisper from hers. Her lips tingled from his hot breath. “Allow me to rephrase. What did they do to force someone like you into murdering them?”
She swallowed hard, but it did little to remove the lump in her throat. He knew. Somehow, he knew what she did and by theglimmer in his eyes and stretching of his lips, he was enjoying every second.
Two sinners trapped together. It was almost poetic.
“You don’t need to tell me,” he said with a sigh when she stayed quiet, and lifted his finger under her chin, gliding it all the way to the part of her throat where he’d bitten her. “Perhaps now you can come down off your high horse and not judge me for my actions.”
That was enough. She stepped out of his shadow, which only made him chuckle darkly.
“What I did was out of necessity. William and Theodore were monsters. I did the world a favor.”
“Yourself too. It seems you benefited most from their absence. Your staff were surprised to know you are alive. They assumed whoever killed your cousin, came back for his fiancée.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief. Her staff were okay. She was too until she spotted Nathaniel’s building smirk.
The words rattled in her chest. “We were not betrothed by my desire.”
“I do not judge you, little lamb.” He stepped closer again, backing her into the wall. “In fact, you just became far more interesting.”
She slid out from between him and the wall, hating how her body responded to his closeness.
“We should not keep your guest waiting,” she stated.
He tilted his head, his usual stoicism returning to his sharp features. “She is our guest, Miss Lovett. This is your home now too.”
Sallow Manor would never be her home, but she’d argued enough with the vampire for one night and was too tired to think of a witty comment.
She followed him down the staircase, her knees popping as they descended. Even the smallest muscles in her ankles were tight. All she could think about was how she longed for a hot bath later to relieve at least some of the aches. The pressure was building in her bones, but she didn’t dare tell Nathaniel. He would just use her pain against her, and she refused to show him any more weakness that he might take advantage of.
The woman standing in the foyer was beautiful. A dark blue ribbon hung from the back of the witch’s golden-blonde hair, which was tied up into an elaborate updo, with coils poking out from under her navy hat. Silk covered the wide curving brim, and the headpiece was finished with a bow and three feathers at the front.
She was well-bred. No one but those she knew in high society wore such elaborate silk gowns or headwear.
