Page 32 of Secret of the Vampire
“The first thing you need to do is stay away from the vampires, Alex.”
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“You must. If Killian catches you sniffing around Kenya—”
“I’m not ‘sniffing around’ her,” I argued. “I’m trying to save her life.”
“You already did that.”
“And yet, he came back.”
She sat back, studying me. However, I could tell she wasn’t seeing me at all. “I don’t think he’s after her at all,” she finally said. “And we don’t know that it was him who tried to kill her in the first place.”
“It was him,” I told her.
“You can’t know that.”
I shook my head. She was wrong. I did know that. “Who the hell else would it have been? Unless there are djinn just running amok in this world and nobody bothered to tell any of us?”
I waited for her to say that was exactly what was happening, but she didn’t. “No,” she said.
“I felt him, Aunt Jude. When I was inside of Kenya, I felt the magic…the, the…thepower.And I felt that same power when he confronted me. The exact same thing. It was him. I’m absolutely positive about that.”
She stared down at the table, her forehead wrinkled in thought. “I just don’t get it, though. Why would he go after someone like Kenya?”
“I don’t know. But I won’t let him get to her again.” I paused, waiting for her to look at me. “Ican’t,” I emphasized. “Do you understand?”
My aunt’s blue eyes were sharp, her expression anguished. “Oh, Alex.”
Chapter 12
Kenya
Iwas standing behind the bar, my eyes on Brogan, who was down to almost nothing but his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and tiny G-string.
He really had a thing for those shirts. And as far as I knew, he’d never been to Hawaii.
We had a full house tonight, and he was showing them one hell of a good time, which meant no one was asking for drinks. Instead, they were all surrounding the stage, pushing each other out of the way to stick their hard-earned dollars down their bras for him to fetch with his teeth. Just one of the many things Brogan was known for.
But my mind was far away from The Purple Fang and my good-looking friend stripping on stage. Entirely too far. Wandering away to things it really shouldn’t be thinking about at all.
Actually, just one “thing” in particular.
I couldn’t sort out how I felt about Alex. I was having a hard time reconciling the fact that the same man who was so caring and protective, the man who could kiss me senseless and make my blood burn in my veins, was from the same breed as the thing that had tried to kill me. Fear and desire warred within me, unable to come to any kind of balance, and it was making me itch.
Though we were all familiar with each other, the vampires and the witches, something had happened that night he’d saved me from the curse. Something I couldn’t explain. I felt linked to him now somehow. I missed him when he wasn’t around—the sound of his voice, the quirk of his lips, the smell of his blood. And the more time that passed, the more I watched the door, hoping he would walk in, even though I knew it was ridiculous to expect him to just come waltzing into the club, like he wasn’t a warlock and I, a vampire.
But in that same vein, I also knew I couldn’t trust him.
As though he somehow knew I was thinking about him, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I pulled it out and saw that I had a text from a number with no name. A number I was coming to recognize. My heart sped up as I swiped open my screen.
Hey.
I glanced up at Brogan, who was flashing his “fake” fangs and humping a lucky guest who’d paid to get into the “Bite Me” chair on stage (another $20 and she’d get a private bite in the back room), then toward the back office where Killian was talking to Dae-Jung. The office door was closed. I hadn’t told him yet that we knew who it was who had cursed me. I planned to do it tonight after closing time.
When I looked down, there was another text.
I lied to you. I’m not sorry at all.
