Page 63 of Secret of the Vampire
Alex’s fingers tightened around mine and I smiled at the look on his face.
“I didn’t need to do anything but give you my blood to turn you,” Killian continued. “If there’s voodoo in you, Kenya, I wouldn’t know it. And I don’t know that I would be able to tell anyway. I taste nothing in Lizzy’s blood that tells me she’s a witch. I only know that she appeases my thirst better than any others.”
I caught the High Priestess’s grimace from the corner of my eye. When she caught me looking at her though, she smiled, and her smile was kind. Then she shrugged. “I can’t help it,” she said. “Just the thought…”
She made another face and I smiled as Lizzy scolded her.
“Aunt Jude!”
“It’s an acquired taste,” I told her. “Even I had to get used to it at first.”
“I would imagine.”
“So, what’s next?” Alex asked, directing his question at Jesse.
“That remains to be seen,” he told him. “If it’s all right with you,”—he looked pointedly at Killian and Judy—“I’d like us to remain here a few more days and see what I can find out.”
Killian nodded as Judy said, “Of course.”
I looked between the two males. It was obvious they were related, from their dark hair, strong jawlines, and golden eyes, to the dark feel of their magic. The warlock and his mate had arrived just in time to save Alex and I, bringing the other vampires and witches from Seattle with them, and for that I would always be grateful. Killian, Lizzy, and Judy had arrived later, after it was all over.
However, I didn’t know that I’d ever be comfortable around him. And from the way everyone else except his mate gave him the side-eye, I wasn’t alone in that.
“How about we get you home?” Killian told me. “Yeah?”
“I’ll go back with Alex,” I told him. “Can you leave us a car?”
Killian narrowed his eyes at me, but then Lizzy touched his arm. “You can have ours. We’ll ride back with Aunt Jude.”
“Kenya will be coming back with us,” Killian said, his tone not allowing for any arguments.
But Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Killian. He saved her life. Again. I don’t think there’s any danger in letting him give her a ride home.”
He looked like he was about to say more, but then he made the mistake of catching his mate’s eyes with his. After a moment, he sighed and slid his keys and his cell phone across the table. “Call Lizzy’s phone if you need anything. You know the code.”
“Yes,” I told him. “Thank you.”
He got up from the table, ran his eyes over Alex and the way he was still holding my hand, and then he nodded.
A few minutes later, they were all on their way back to the city and we were alone at the table.
“I’m so sorry,” Alex told me. His voice broke and he looked down at our hands for a moment, then back at me.
In his eyes, I saw nothing but anguish.
“Sorry? Alex, you saved us.”
He made a disgusted noise. “I didn’t. I was weak. And I almost killed us both.”
“No. You were not.”
But he wasn’t listening to me. “If I’d just waited a little bit longer, Jesse and Shea would have gotten here, and I could’ve helped him take out Marcus. But no. I had to be the fucking hero.”
I would never understand the male mind. “We didn’t know they were coming. I didn’t even know they were here until they showed themselves. Jesse must’ve cloaked himself and Shea somehow. Alex—” I waited until he was looking at me. “You didn’t know. And what if they hadn’t been here?” I asked him. “You. Saved. Us.”
All I got was a grunt of acknowledgment that perhaps I was right. It would have to be good enough. “I really thought you were on his side,” I told him softly.
That got his attention. “I know. I’m so sorry.” He released my hand just long enough to pull his chair closer to me. Turning me toward him, he pushed my glasses up on the bridge of my nose. “And I should be furious with you for coming back instead of running like I’d told you to.”
