Page 48 of Secret of the Vampire
Chapter 18
Jesse
Seattle, WA
Ilooked around the living room of Luukas’s apartment. The vampires were all there: Luukas, Nikulas, Aiden, Christian, Dante—nervously standing closest to the door—and of course, my Shea.
The witches were there, standing or seated near their vampire mates: Keira, Emma, Grace, Ryan, Laney…
And myself.
“The floor is yours, warlock,” Luukas announced, then pulled Keira from his favorite chair and settled her on his lap.
I nodded my thanks. Ten sets of eyes settled on me, some nervous, others openly hostile. Shea squeezed my hand, then took a seat on the arm of the couch near where I stood.
“Before we go on to anything else, there’s something you all need to know. And especially you, Ryan.” I turned to my sister. She sat before the fireplace in the furthest corner of the room, Christian beside her. But with her bright hair reflecting the multitude of colors of the rising sun, porcelain skin, and sapphire blue eyes, it would be impossible for her to go unnoticed, even if she wore boring clothes. However, her preference seemed to be skirts or pants that matched her bright colored tops.
I blamed this horrendous sense of style on the fact that Christian had found her in Tijuana, stripping to support her drug habit. The habit she’d acquired to try to silence the voices in her head, the same voices that whispered to me. But she wasn’t crazy as she once thought, she just had a natural connection to the world of spirits the others would never be able to achieve. It was our djinn blood that opened us to other world and dimensions.
I also knew that now, instead of using drugs, she was using Christian’s blood as a way to silence the voices. They weren’t silenced, however, only controlled. The vampire blood strengthened her own powers without any effort on her part.
Something we would have to remedy.
Her bright eyes were wide as she stared up at me, as she didn’t like being the center of attention. At least not here, where she felt the other witches didn’t like her. But it wasn’t that they didn’t approve of her, they just knew she was different, like myself, and that made them nervous.
Just wait until they saw how powerful she would become.
I walked over and sat down on my heels before her. Not too close. I didn’t want to rile up her mate, fun as that would be. But we didn’t have time for it right now. “There’s something you need to know,” I told her. “Something that’s going to be hard for you to hear, and you probably won’t believe me, but everything I’m about to tell you is absolutely true.”
“And what is it you need to tell me?” she asked, surprising me. Though I probably shouldn’t have been. My sister was stronger than a lot of people gave her credit for. The fact that she wasn’t nervous around me like the others were was proof of that.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Christian lean toward her. Offering her his support? His protection? Probably both. I allowed him this much, wishing I could touch her, take her hand, but knowing he would never allow it. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come right out with it.”
Her blue eyes travelled over my face. “Okay.”
“Ryan…you’re my sister. My twin, as I just told Luukas earlier.”
Her eyes flew to the master vampire seated behind me. I assume he confirmed my words somehow, for her attention then came back to me. “How is that possible?”
“We were separated shortly after birth. You were taken away from me and adopted by a family who believed they couldn’t have children. Although, I think they did manage to have a child somewhere down the line.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I studied her face, looking for a sign. “I wish there was more time to discuss this, but for right now, I just need to know: do you believe me?” I asked her.
After a long pause, she said, “I do.”
Good. This was good. “You get your hair from our mother, by the way. Same as your eyes. She was beautiful, much like you. And she was a very strong witch. Until our father killed her.” I paused, overcome with emotion I only now allowed myself to feel. “There’s so much I want to share with you. So much I want to teach you—”
“I don’t think there’s anything she needs to learn from you,” Christian growled.
Ryan laid her hand on his leg, and he reluctantly sheathed his fangs.
Though I spoke to him, my eyes never left my sister. “I can show her how to control the voices. How to work with them. How to bring out her true magic, her power—”
He interrupted me again. “So you can teach her to be like you? Absolutely fucking not.”
I finally deigned to look at him. “I believe that should be up to Ryan, don’t you? She is a fully grown witch, after all.”
