Page 52 of A Vampire Bewitched
“Don’t fret Em, I’m just right here. Your heart sounds like a bloody freight train, love. Calm down. We vampires only have so much control, mind you.”
“Sorry.” She didn’t really think Aiden would actually hurt her, but took a long, calming breath just the same. There was a rustling sound, and then a flashlight beam.
“You had a flashlight this entire time?” she hissed as she held up a hand in front of her face. “Is there any particular reason you didn’t use it until now?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t need it until now.” Shining the light around, he found what he was looking for—an old fashioned torch. “Wouldn’t want to waste the batteries,” he explained.
Taking the torch down from its holder, he dipped it into some kind of noxious smelling liquid in a barrel along the wall, then took a lighter from his pocket and lit it. Placing it back in its holder, he turned off his flashlight.
“There we go!” He disappeared into the shadows, reappearing again when he lit another torch.
Emma looked around in awe as she slowly walked further inside. They had traveled down a narrow tunnel through the rock to a natural underground cavern. Smooth limestone walls, swirled with lighter and darker browns, led up to a soaring ceiling at least thirty feet above her head. Under her feet, dirt had been packed down to make an even floor. She could still hear the water dripping off to her right, but didn’t see its source.
Her gaze came back to Aiden, who was putting his flashlight away, and she glowered at him.
Nik silently entered the room just then. His gaze went back and forth between her and Aiden. He raised an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”
Rolling her eyes, Emma walked into the middle of the room where a circle of stones surrounded a fire pit. “Just Aiden…being Aiden.” She plopped down on one of the large, flat-topped rocks surrounding it for seating, threw down her backpack, and pulled out a bottled water and a protein bar.
Taking a closer look around, she saw the remnants of past visitors. “So I take it you guys have been here before?” she ventured.
Aiden puffed out his chest. “I found this place years ago. Quite the thing, isn’t it? We use it as our meet up area whenever we feel the need to come up here and check on our sweet Leeha.”
Emma was confused. “So you’ve known all along she’s in this area?”
They both nodded.
“Then why not come up here until now? If you knew all this time where your brother—and my sister—were, why were they not rescued seven years ago??”
“We did come here,” Aiden hastened to reassure her. “But the place was deserted. Not a sign of anyone to be found for years. But, we have scouts come up occasionally to keep an eye out for her, and we just recently found out she was back.” He held up his index finger. “The question is: why come back now? She has to know we’d be watching for her.” He gave Emma a wink. “Perhaps she missed me.” With a secretive smile, Aiden headed to the back of the room where some wood was already cut and stacked up against the wall.
Nik sat down on the rock next to her, and gestured to the water bottle she held stuck halfway to her mouth while she blinked, speechless, at Aiden. “Go easy on that stuff, sweetheart.” He took a peek into her bag. “Just in case.”
She turned back to Nik and lowered her arm. “How long do you expect us to be here?” She’d been under the impression it wouldn’t be more than a day or two at most.
“Not long, hopefully, but it’s always good to be prepared. I can’t have you starving to death on me.” He smirked at her, looking a bit like the carefree Nik she’d first met, but she wasn’t in the mood.
“No, we can’t have that, can we? Because if I die, so do you.”
His smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, and he glared over at his best friend, who was suddenly very busy counting the pieces of wood stacked up in the far corner of the cavern.
“What the fuck, Aiden? I told you to keep your fucking mouth shut about all that shit.”
Aiden’s face was the picture of innocence as he pushed off his hood and scratched his head. “You did? Are you quite certain? I don’t exactly recall…”
Nik shot up off of the rock he was sitting on. “You’re a son of a bitch, you know that?”
Aiden pulled his hood back up over his short, dark hair and calmly met Nik look for look. “What the bloody hell did you expect me to do, mate? Let you kill yourself over your misguided belief you can never be happy because of what you think happened with Eliana?” He suddenly appeared in front of his friend, moving too fast for Emma to track. “You’re my best friend. More importantly, I’m your Guardian. As such, I am required to do everything in my power to keep you healthy and alive. It’s bad enough I already let you get away with drinking that fucking bagged blood. I cannot—I WILL NOT—let you commit suicide because of an unfortunate accident that happened in the past.”
“It’s not your choice, Aiden.”
“Sod off, Nikulas. It IS my choice. And I choose to not stand idly by and let you do this.” Grabbing Emma by the arm, he hauled her up to stand next to him, ignoring Nik’s immediate warning growl at the sight of his hands on her. “This is a good woman right here. This is a strong woman. She would be a brilliant mate.I like her. And she cares about you, you bloody arse.”
Emma glowered at him and his manhandling, and yanked her arm from his grasp. “Look,” she told Nikulas. “If you don’t want to be with me,” Her face began to heat, but she forced the words out. “For whatever the reason. That’s okay.”
Nik dropped his head back, looking heavenward. He didn’t seem to find any help there, so he thrust both hands into his hair in exasperation. “Emma—”
“We can figure something else out, Nik.” She grabbed his hands as she looked up at him imploringly. “You don’t have to die! I can just donate into a bag or something.”
