Page 51 of Secret of the Vampire
“Looks like we’re going to New Orleans.” Nikulas grinned at Aiden and held up his hand for a high five.
I watched Luukas closely, gauging his reaction. I didn’t know that he was ready for another battle just yet. “Perhaps you should stay here,” I told him. “Although I would need Keira to come with me to talk to the High Priestess.”
His arms tightened protectively around his witch. “Keira does not go anywhere I don’t go.”
“Guess it’s settled then,” Shea said from beside me.
Yes. Yes, it was.
Finally, after all these years, I was about to see my father again.
Chapter 19
Alex
As I stood there in the kitchen of the house where Kenya had nearly lost her life just a few weeks before, I couldn’t help but have a certain sense ofdéjà vu. I’d saved her life here then, and come hell or high water, I would save her again.
How the djinn knew about this place, I didn’t know. But I was going to find out. It was way too much of a coincidence that he just happened to “find” it. No. Someone here was helping him. I was sure of it.
It didn’t escape me that I was taking a great risk with my own life while trying to help Kenya. Although just from what I’d learned about the djinn in this short amount of time, I seriously doubted it would come to that. The djinn was desperate to have someone on his side, to have some semblance of a family that consisted of others like him. And if what he’d told me was true, I was all he had. The odds were pretty low he’d come all this way and had done everything he had to convince me to give him a chance, only to take me out in a fit of temper.
But still…I probably shouldn’t fuck this up.
I schooled my thoughts before he decided to take a peek into my head, emptying my brain of everything except what he was telling Kenya. Getting a grip on my emotional reaction to what I was witnessing, however, wasn’t so easily done.
Kenya was terrified, and that pissed me right the fuck off. I could see it in the tense way she held her body. In the way her eyes darted around the room. And even how she forgot to behave as though she were human. Her movements were too quick when she made them. And when she didn’t, she sat completely still, like a statue, for long periods of time. Her fangs were extended, bared to our view by her lifted upper lip, and every once in a while, a low growl would sound deep in her throat. Like a cornered animal.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. And it took everything I had in me to stand there so casually and not grab her and run. But I didn’t, because I knew damn well we wouldn’t even make it out of the house.
No. I needed to bide my time and wait for the right opportunity. Until then, I would be here to make sure nothing happened to her.
Forcing myself to pay attention, I tried to grasp what the djinn was going on about. The story he was weaving was hard to believe. She’d never shown any signs of having any type of magic in her blood—whether it be voodoo or anything else. At least, not that I’d ever seen or felt.
But according to my…uncle—gods, I could barely say the word, even to myself—Kenya was a descendent of the great Marie Laveau herself. “How the hell would you know this?” I asked him.
He gave me a look, letting me know he wasn’t happy with the interruption. “This isn’t my first run-in with voodoo,” he said. “I can taste it in her blood.”
Kenya eyes widened behind the lenses of her glasses. “When did you take my blood?”
Marcus heaved a great sigh, like our questions were stretching the limits of his patience. “I didn’t take your blood. You left it for me. On the handle of the door to your club.”
At first, she looked confused, but then her expression cleared. “My finger. I cut it on the metal plate of the lock that night.”
“Yes. That.” He looked back and forth between the two of us. “May I continue?” Without waiting for us to answer, he went on. “As I was saying, you have voodoo in your blood, vampire. Not a lot, but enough to give me what I want. I have the bones. I have the spell. You just need to learn how to do it.” He looked over at me. “And this is where you come in, Alex.”
Well, I wasn’t expectingthat. “Me? I don’t know anything about voodoo.” The magic that I had in me, dark or not, was an entirely different thing than voodoo.
“No, but you know about magic. You know about spells. How to feel it and how to make it do what you want it to. And you’ll only become more and more powerful once I start working with you. And,” he continued, “you’ve lived with voodoo your entire life. You’re probably more familiar with it than I am.” Leaning back in his chair, he crossed his legs at the knee and laced his fingers on his lap. “So that is how it will work. Once we get back to my mountain, I will teach you to harness the djinn magic in you, while you, Alex, will teach the vampire her voodoo.”
“Why me and not you?” I snapped my mouth shut as soon as the words were out of my mouth, wishing I could take them back. Fuck me and my big fucking mouth. Iwascurious why he would give us so much time together, and it wasn’t like I wasn’t grateful for it, but I also didn’t want to give him any reason to spend any more time around her than he already was.
“I will work with her when she is ready.Ifshe is ready. Until then, it would only be a waste of my time and energy to try to get something out of her she may not be capable of giving. My own magic is quite different from yours. Also, I have no idea if her vampirism enhanced her abilities or burned them out. But she is all I have, so let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
I didn’t miss the implied threat there.
“Plus,” he smiled, “it will remind you what you are fighting for and give you the chance to become closer to her.”
“I really wish you both would stop talking about me like I wasn’t sitting right here,” Kenya said.
