Page 21 of A Vampire Bewitched
Emma must have heard, for her tear-filled eyes found him. She raised her hand to wipe the moisture from her eyes, and before she could clear her vision, he jumped up from the table. She couldn’t see him like this.
“Be right back.” He rushed down the hall to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. In his current state, he’d forgotten to keep his speed at a human pace. He hoped he hadn’t startled her.
Nik took several slow, deep breaths and tried to get a grip on himself. The close walls of the small half bath didn’t make it any easier to calm down. Spotting a small window over the tub, he opened it wide.
What the fuck was wrong with him? He’d finally,finally, gotten her to talk, and he had to go all Neanderthal just because he felt she’d been afraid seven years ago.
Seven. Years. Ago. When Luukas had disappeared.
He had to find out the details of her sister’s abduction, if that’s what it was. Hopefully, his littleFlashimitation hadn’t startled her too much. She was dealing with enough tonight as it was. Upsetting her more was not going to accomplish anything.
Also, why had Emma been left alive to bear witness?
When the news of Luukas’ capture had reached them, debilitating shock had rippled through the Council. There was no way anyone could overpower a Master Vampire, at least no one they’d ever known. And, unfortunately, they definitely knew Leeha. It was impossible for her to have overpowered him on her own.
Putting two and two together, Nik knew having a witch on her side was the only way Leeha could keep Luuk anywhere he didn’t want to be. A witch, if powerful enough, is the only other being who can overpower a Master Vampire. But this type of ability was rare, and the whereabouts of all of the witches they knew had been accounted for.
It was only recently that one of the Hunters heard about Keira and brought it to Nik’s attention. They hadn’t even known she existed until just recently when they saw one of the missing person alerts. The Council wasn’t certain how they’d missed knowing about a Moss witch, as they kept careful track of all the witches in their area. But their focus right now was getting Luukas back. They’d worry about the slip up later.
So, Nik and Aiden had set out to investigate. They’d discovered Keira was, indeed, a very powerful and practiced witch. And she had a sister who was looking for her, claiming she’d been abducted.
Had Keira really been taken against her will? Or had she been in on it the entire time?
Maybe they could’ve answered those questions if they could’ve found any trace of them at all. However, Leeha had pulled the greatest disappearing act she’d ever done.
Until now.
One thing was for sure; his Emma was an innocent victim in all of this.
His Emma. He really needed to stop thinking like that. She wasn’t his. And she never would be.
Turning on the faucet, he splashed some cold water on his face and checked himself out in the mirror. Back to his normal self, he was eager to return to the kitchen. Hopefully she hadn’t freaked out and withdrawn again. He didn’t know if he’d have the patience or the time to get this story back out of her of her own free will.
He wasn’t lying earlier when he said he could mess with her head, he totally could. Human minds were easily manipulated when need be. But he also wasn’t lying when he told her he’d rather not do that. He didn’t like playing with people’s heads.
If the guys ever became aware of how he felt about it, they’d hand him his balls on a platter. It was bad enough they busted him about his feeding habit.
He made his way back to the table, at a more human-like speed this time. “Sorry about that. I, uh…needed a minute.” He sat down and pushed his hair out of his face. “Please, continue. What was it you saw?”
When she just continued to stare out the window, he tried to prod her along. “Wasit a bear?”
“A bear?” she repeated. “Um, no. It wasn’t a bear. It was, um…” Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “It was…” She rubbed her temples, like her head hurt just trying to think about it. “It was…I can’t…”
Dammit, what the hell had happened to her that night? Moving very slowly, he pulled out the chair between them and slid over next to her. He figured this move would go either really good, or really bad, but he wanted to try to comfort her if she would let him.
She lowered her hands and wrapped them around her teacup. They were shaking again, so hard he was afraid the porcelain was going to bust apart on the table. He carefully covered her cold hands with his to still them.
She didn’t pull away.
“Emma, you’ve got to stop this. You’re going to rattle the skin right off your bones.”
At his gentle teasing, a brief smile curved her lips. She sniffed and looked down at his hands engulfing hers. “I’ve just blocked out these memories for so long… It’s hard to revisit them.”
He left his hands where they were and smiled encouragingly until she continued, “It wasn’t a bear. It was...they were…monsters. I don’t know how else to say it. They attacked us.”
“Monsters,” he repeated. What in the world could she be talking about? Werewolves? The bitch that had his brother was most definitely a monster, but if you didn’t know her, all you would see is a beautiful woman. Her minions were all normal looking “people”, like him. He didn’t think “monster” was a word someone would use to describe them physically.
“Can you tell me what they looked like?” He squeezed her hands, careful not to hurt her.
