Page 21 of Secret of the Vampire
But then I would be the one lying. I’d felt the connection between us.
This…man…male…thing…he was related to me by blood. Of that, I had no doubt. Looking at him now, I could see a bit of my deceased mother in him.
“When did she die?” he asked. “Your mother?”
None of your fucking businesswas the first thing that came to my mind as an answer to that question. But seeing the expression on his face, I relented. “Last year,” I told him. “It happened in her sleep. They think it was an aneurysm.” I snapped my mouth shut. What the fuck was I doing?
His eyes fell to the cracked pavement between us and I felt a swell of sorrow hit me like a blast of hot air. Quickly, I raised my shields, cutting his emotions off from me. I was still grieving her. I couldn’t handle his emotions, too.
When he raised his head again, there were tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I knew her before all of this.” He looked at the houses surrounding us. “I wish I could’ve seen her before…” His words faded away.
“If you’ve known where we are all this time, why didn’t you ever come see us?”
“I didn’t know. Not until just recently.” He breathed in a long-suffering sigh. “Also, your mother and I had a difference of opinion. Before she had you and your sister,” he explained. The smile was back. “She thought humans without powers were our friends. I disagreed.”
“What do you think they are?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, his forehead wrinkled up in thought. “Well, if they have certain skills, they can be useful.”
“And if they don’t?”
He shrugged. “Then they just tend to get in the way.”
Uncle or not, I wanted nothing to do with this. With him. I no longer wanted to know about the darkness inside of me. I just wanted it to go away. If would make me like him, I wanted nothing to do with it.
The magic inside of me stirred, reaching for the djinn and denying what I’d just told myself. It took everything I had to pull it back before I gave in.
His head cocked to the side and he studied me. “I’d really like to get to know you and your sister. And I’d love it if you would come stay with me up north.”
Somehow, I had the feeling his request wasn’t so much a request, but an order. “Why?”
That seemed to catch him off guard. “Why?” he repeated.
“Yeah. Why? Why now? Because I know damn well you didn’t just catch a warm, fuzzy feeling of family and suddenly decide to come looking for us. If you really wanted to find us, I think someone such as yourself would’ve found a way.” Something occurred to me, something that might even make all of this make sense. “Unless, youdidn’tknow about us. About me and Alice.”
His eyes flashed up to mine. It was only for a second. But that second was all I needed to see the truth of it.
“You had no idea about me or my sister until you got here and found us.” Or, found me. And I’d played right into his hands by being the one to cure Kenya. By protecting her afterward.
And now I’d given him a much more interesting goal.
Goddammit.
Chapter 8
Kenya
It was the closing time, and I was just finishing up wiping down the bar at The Purple Fang when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Glancing around, I saw no sign of Jamal. I assumed he went into the back for something, and took a relieved breath.
My phone buzzed again and I pulled it out of the back pocket of my slacks. As I wasn’t one of the dancers here, I tried to dress for the part of a bartender at an upscale club. Our place wasn’t all that fancy, but it wasn’t a dive, either. So, Law of Attraction and all that.
Looking down at the unknown number on the screen, I knew right away who was calling. I silenced the call and put my phone back in my pocket. I couldn’t talk to Alex right now. Not while Jamal was here. Even though he was in the back of the club, he would hear everything. Then he would have questions, and I didn’t have any answers.
My phone went off again. This time after I silenced the call, I sent him a quick text.
Can’t talk right now.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to Alex since the night he’d escorted me home and put a ward around the house. Was he still watching out for me? Was it back? There was no other reason he should be taking the risk of calling me. However, I didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.
