Page 39 of Forsworn By The Vampire
She took a step back, but to her credit, she didn't completely freak out and even managed to keep her voice level when she demanded, "Tell me exactly what you're talking about, Angel."
So, I did. I told her everything. How I'd met him in a bar one night long before she moved here when I was feeling really down and frustrated. How I knew right away what he was, or at least I knew what he wasn't...and that was a normal human. Or even a witch. No, he was more. Much more. But instead of making my excuses and getting the hell out of there to warn the coven he was here in our city, I ordered another drink.
I listened while he gave me his sob story, telling me about his brother's betrayal and death, and how he was looking for what little family he had left. The offspring of his brother and the woman they both loved. What he didn't bother to tell me was how many generations had passed since that had happened, or why he wanted to find them.
And me, in my inebriated state, had opened my mouth and told him everything. About me. The coven. And the vampires we shared the city with. I didn't notice how his interest perked up when I mentioned Alice and Alex. Didn't think it strange when he ran into me on the street the next day.
Full of righteous anger on how I perceived the way the coven and mostly my aunt, the high priestess, had been treating me, I'd allowed him to sweet-talk me. I fell completely for his charm, and I agreed to help him. He wasn't asking much, not really. Just some more information on his niece and nephew and maybe some updates here and there so that perhaps, someday, they could reconnect.
It was a relatively harmless way to stick it to my coven without actually doing a lot of damage. Or so I'd thought.
And then he started asking more and more of me. And when I refused the first time, Kenya got sick. I'd just about talked myself into telling Aunt Judy I knew who had done it. Telling her everything. "But then we saved her. Well, Alex did. And then she and Alex were taken and...well...you know the rest."
Lizzy stared at me for a long time. "What are you not telling me?"
I took a deep breath. I'd gone this far, might as well keep on going. "The reason Mike has been so MIA isn't because he's sick, or flakey, or just a bad employee. He's at my place."
"But you told us you haven't seen him..."
"I lied. He's been staying at my place because Marcus is using him to keep me in line. He has some kind of magical fist around Mike's heart, and he threatens to make it burst in his chest if I don't do what he asks." I pressed my hands to either side of my face and started to pace. "I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do..."
"Okay, okay. Calm down," she told me. "Let's just think about this."
"It's too late, Lizzy."
She threw her hands out in front of her, palms out. "No. No. We can fix this." One hand on her hip, the other pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "We have to tell Aunt Judy. We have to tell the coven."
My stomach fell. I knew it was the right move, but it was too late. I could feel it in my bones. There was no running to the high priestess and explaining everything to her and begging her forgiveness. Things had gone too far. I'd let them get too far. And besides...
"She already knows," I told her. "They already know."
Lizzy's brown eyes met mine, full of fear for me, as my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. My eyes never leaving hers, I pulled it out and answered it.
"Hello, Aunt Judy."
Chapter 22
Jamal
Aflash of red caught my eye and I stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, my head whipping around. But it was nothing, just a ribbon fluttering through the air that someone had dropped from a balcony.
It was only a few days before Christmas, and I decided to go walk around a bit instead of hanging around the house. As he did every year, Killian had opened the house for tourists so they could come in and gawk at the historical architecture and numerous decorated trees throughout. Normally, it was kind of amusing, and I would hang out to watch the show. But tonight, I just couldn't get into the spirit.
It wasn't because I was hungry, although strangely enough, I was. Which was odd. I'd been a vampire long enough that I really didn't need to feed that often anymore. But I'd felt on edge all week, ever since the night after I kicked Angel out of my place. I just...I fucking craved her. Her blood. Her body. Hell, even just the sound of her voice and the smell of her red hair. So, when I thought I saw that hair just now every single fucking cell in my body had jumped to attention, and then came crashing right back down again when I figured out it wasn't her.
So, yeah. I just wasn't in the fucking mood.
The humans were giving me strange looks as I stood there, the crowds parting around me like water around a rock. I cursed softly and continued on my way home. The showings should be done by now, and I really had nowhere else to go.
As I walked, the voices of the carolers in Jackson Square rose over the chatter of the tourists. I heard Christmas bells somewhere, and the snort of a horse. The air was thick with the smell of bodies and alcohol and sewage, although not as bad as it was in the summer months. And all of that was doused in a good dose of Cajun cooking.
All these little things I never took the time to notice anymore followed me as I made my way back to the house. Not for the first time, I wished The Fang was open tonight. I could've really used the escape I got on that stage. Not for the attention, but just to forget...
I was half a block away from the house when I heard voices gathered in the courtyard. Hurrying now, I opened the gate and let myself in, curious to see what was happening. All eyes turned to me when I walked into the light from the gas lanterns. "What's going on?" I asked them. They were all there: Killian, Lizzy, Kenya, Alex, Elias, Dae-Jung, and Brogan.
It was Alex, Kenya's mate, who came forward. "My coven is meeting tonight out in the swamps."
Okay. Not sure why that was a big deal. The witch coven did weird shit like that sometimes. "And you wanted to use our house, or...?"
