Page 26 of A Vampire Bewitched
“Have I not mentioned him yet?”
Emma shook her head.
“Aiden is my best friend and partner in crime. He came along to help me out on this trip. He’s a pain in the ass Brit, but you’ll like him. The girls always do.” His mouth twisted, like he just had an unpleasant thought.
She raised an inquiring eyebrow, but he didn’t elaborate, continuing his original train of thought. “We’re camped out just a few miles from here. I’ll run there. It won’t take me long. Do not open this door to anyone but me.”
She was going to be alone with not one, but two vampires? One of which, if what Nik had told her earlier was true, didn’t drink from a bag but from a body. Emma didn’t know if going with them was the best decision she’d ever made, but what choice did she have? This was the first honest to goodness lead she’d had on her sister since her abduction, there was no way she wasn’t going to be in on it. And if her own life was on the line for doing it? She would happily take that risk.
He paused on his way out the door to tell her, “It’s okay, Em. Aiden won’t hurt you, I swear it.”
His words did nothing to reassure her, but she nodded anyway.
“I’ll be right back.” Leaving her stuff just inside the door, he took off to go get the RV.
Emma locked the door behind him, and went back to the kitchen to grab some snacks to bring with her, just in case. Grabbing a recycled bag, she threw some travel ready stuff in, trying not to dwell on what she was getting herself into. Instead, she focused on seeing Keira again after all this time.
It’d been seven long years since the two girls ran hand in hand through the long grass. That day was the first time they’d had fun since they’re parents had died in a car accident earlier that year.
She set the bag of food down by the rest of her things, then sat down in the kitchen to wait and thought about what Nik had told her. It couldn’t be true, could it? The witch thing? She wanted to disregard it, but the more she thought about it, the more sense it made.
Unlike Emma, her sister had always been involved in “extracurricular activities” growing up. She’d told Emma they were dance classes. But, how could she stand to take all of those “dance classes”, when she had all of the same social issues Emma did?
Unless, it wasn’t dance class she was going to at all. Now that she really thought about it, weren’t there usually recitals when you were in dance? Performances? They’d never gone to anything like that. And she didn’t remember any tutu’s laying around either, for that matter.
Yet, twice a week, without fail, her mom would pack up her sister and off they would go for hours at a time. Keira would come home so exhausted she’d go right to bed. Where else would she have been going if not to dance classes?
And of course, there was always the fact the two sisters just weren’t ‘normal’. Although, as they got older, it did seem Emma’s ‘incidents’ were more common than Keira’s.
Was it true then? Did she really come from a family of witches? And they’d kept it from her all this time? Why would they not tell her?
Headlights coming down her driveway interrupted her musings, for now. Getting up, she turned off all of the lights except the one over the stove and waited for Nik to come to the door.
“Just pullup here along the side of the house,” Nik told Aiden.
As soon as the vehicle stopped, he jumped out and leapt up the steps to the porch. Opening the screen door, he lifted his hand to knock, but the door swung open before he had the chance, and a backpack was shoved at him.
Scowling at Emma around the bag, he told her, “I told you not to open the door until you knew it was me.”
“I did know it was you,” she informed him. “Who else would be driving an RV down my driveway at one in the morning?” Picking up a recycled bag she’d added to her stuff and grabbing her coat from the hook by the door, she pulled the door shut behind her.
He slung the backpack over his shoulder and picked up her suitcase, then led the way to the RV. He heard her heart pounding as they walked up to the waiting vehicle. He stopped to reassure her. But she gave him a quick smile, took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders.
Okay, then.
Opening up the side door, Nik indicated for her to enter first, and then followed with her stuff. As he handed off her suitcase to Aiden, he made the introductions. “Emma, this is Aiden. Aiden…Emma.”
“Hello.” Emma smiled timidly, a blush creeping across her cheeks.
Nik looked over at his friend, trying to see him through her eyes. Just slightly shorter and smaller than Nik, he was lean and muscular in black, nylon running pants, tank top, and a grey hoodie with the hood up. Long lashed grey eyes bore into her from underneath dark brows. His nose was straight, his cheekbones high, his lips…all right for a guy, he guessed. With skin the color of a creamy latte and a slightly dimpled chin, he had the look of a desert prince, and he carried himself like one also.
Aiden looked from Emma to Nik and back to Emma again. Appraising gray eyes wandered over her small frame from her bright head to her sneakered feet and back again.
“Bloody hell.” Muttering something to himself about “women” and “death of us all”, he left them to take her suitcase to the back bedroom where she’d be sleeping.
“Um…” Emma looked at Nik, probably hoping he’d shed some light on his friend’s greeting—or lack thereof. But he just shrugged his shoulders in agreement and followed his friend.
As he walked into the back sleeping area, he grinned a little as he heard her mumble sarcastically, “Nice to meet you too.”
