Page 25 of A Vampire Bewitched
Too ashamed to raise her head, Emma felt a gaping cavern open up in her chest. It wasn’therhe was so crazy about; it was just his vampire impulse to prey on the weak. God, she was so naive.
Tears filled her eyes as she let the rejection soak in. It was probably better this way. Because, really, why would someone like Nik want a girl like her? She was damaged, inside and out, and no one could fix her. And she’d just met him a few hours ago!
And, lest she forget, he was avampire!
She swiped at her eyes. Steeling her spine, she lifted her chin and with a quick, “Don’t worry about it,” then she walked over to the table to grab her now cold tea and put her cup in the sink. “So, you got what you came for,”in more ways than one, “what now?”
A heavy silence descended upon the room at her words. It lasted so long, she began to wonder if he’d left when she heard him say, “Now, I need you to pack a bag and come with me.”
“Come with you where, exactly?” Turning around, she mimicked his unhurried pose, and wondered how she would ever get through spending any amount of time in close proximity with this male.
Nik narrowed his eyes at her, white teeth chewing his bottom lip.
She silently pleaded with him to just let it go. She was embarrassed enough. They didn’t need to hash out what had just happened. It would be better to just forget about it.
Apparently, he agreed. “I need you to come with me to Washington. We recently found out Leeha is back in the area, and we believe she still has my brother. And your sister.”
“Well, if you know where he is, then what do you need me for?” she asked.Like anything could keep me away.
“I need you there to talk some sense into your sister, just in case—” He held up his hand to silence her protest, “just in case sheisthere of her own violation.”
There was no question in Emma’s mind she was going to go with him. Their personal issues needed to be set aside. Getting her sister back was all that mattered to her. “What do I need to pack?”
Nik was already walking toward the stairs. “I’ll help you.”
Rolling her eyes, Emma followed him.
Chapter 14
Shea locked the door behind Dante. It was ridiculous, she knew. Locking doors. She was an immortal, after all. Very few things could fatally harm her.
And a flimsy lock wouldn’t keep out the things that could.
She leaned back and looked around her tidy apartment without really seeing it. Well, that meeting had been a complete waste of time. Why did she even bother going through the hassle of trying to get them in the same room?
It was just that they were all so distant with each other now. They used to hang out together, feed together, fight together, like any other dysfunctional family. What the hell had happened?
Shea sighed. Why did she even care? Maybe she was just tired. Weird, a vampire feeling tired. But she was. She probably just needed to feed, as Dante suggested. She’d hit the streets as soon as she checked and loaded their weapons and gassed up the Hummer.
She thought back to Dante’s little speech. It had really thrown her for a loop. It was unlike him to be so revealing. Actually, she couldn’t remember a time where she’d ever heard him say anything on a personal level about any of them. Much as she appreciated the gesture, it made her nervous. Why had he decided to go and get all mushy now? Did he know something he wasn’t telling them?
The little hairs on the back of her neck tingled as a feeling of foreboding suddenly overcame her.
Dismissing it as nothing more than her overactive imagination, she shook off the feeling, and walked back to her room to start preparing for the mission.
“So,who is Leeha? And what does she have against…what’s your brother’s name again?”
Packed and ready to go, Emma took a last look around. She had left a message for her boss explaining she’d had a family emergency come up and wasn’t sure how long she’d be gone. Hopefully she’d still have a job when she got back.
If not, well, she was used to that, wasn’t she?
Other than locking up the house, there wasn’t anything else she needed to do before leaving. She had no family or friends to call, no close neighbors. She didn’t even have a fish.
“His name is Luukas. He’s the Master Vampire over our colony. Leeha is a vampire who, with a few others, broke off from us to form their own Council. The problem being, she’s completely fucked up in the head. She set her sights on Luuk to be her ‘king’ and rule next to her, even though vampires don’t usually take other vampires as their companion. When he wouldn’t give in to her, she got pissed, and didn’t take the rejection well.”
Setting her suitcase and backpack by the door, Nik told her, “Lock the door behind me. I’ll go get Aiden and we’ll come back and pick you up. It shouldn’t be any more than a few minutes, so if you think of anything you’ve forgotten, don’t waste any time getting it. We need to be on our way.”
Standing in the kitchen doorway wondering if she should grab some food, Emma asked distractedly, “Aiden?”
