Page 113 of A Bond with the Dark

“So, what brings you here, Dom?” Adaline says, her emerald eyes passing over Dom with ridged seriousness as she sits down.

The look on his face is incredulous.

Vampires know things. He should know that.

“How’d you know?” he asks with a smirk. Adaline gives him a quelling look. “I’ve been marked,” he says quickly.

All the vampires in the room stop, and the air grows thick.

“What?” Adaline says, dropping her fork.

“I went to kill a bad person the other night, and he was marked. I didn’t know. So I killed him and then his mark appeared on me. I saw the warlock's face right when it happened.”

“Where’s your mark?” Hattie asks, peering over at her brother.

Dom lifts his sleeve and shows them the crescent moon brand mark.

Adaline stands in a blur of colors and a swirl of light as she speeds over to him and grabs his arm. “Oh, Dom,” she says, her green eyes growing sad.

“What do you know about this, Mom? Is there anything I can do to get away from this?”

Her eyes spill the answer that she does not want to say. Her head shakes solemnly. “I don’t know of anyone personally that has been marked.”

“That’s not true,” Hattie puts in.

Their glances dart over to Hattie, awaiting her response.

“This has nothing to do with what happened to Amanda, does it?” Everett asks.

“Who’s Amanda?” I query as Dom rolls down his shirt sleeve to cover the mark.

“Amanda was her girlfriend who was bitten by something that wasn’t a vampire and ran off,” Adaline says quite harshly.

“Amanda,” Hattie interjects querulously, extending the syllables of her name as though she’s a bratty teenager correcting her parents, “was bitten by a grimspawn, and I told you this. Mom and Dad think she ran off with another woman, but I?—”

“Because you have a history of falling for the wrong women, and things like this always happen to you, and each time they do, you run home heartbroken and mopey,” offers Everett as he drags his hawkish gaze to Hattie, which rings eye-rolls from her.

“She was marked, too, Dom,” Hattie continues, ignoring Everett and looking at Dominic, her unmerited annoyance with her parents obvious. “I’m telling you. A warlock chose her to be a grimspawn and she was bitten one night while we were out partying. I saw the mark. She began to do things that were not like her, and a few days later, she was gone. But a trail of bodies marked her path. I’ve been researching since it happened, and I think I can break the spell.”

“Was she a vampire?” I ask, my voice shaky.

“Not yet,” Hattie says. “She wanted me to turn her. I was going to after we were married. She’s my one,” she says, and her voice is suddenly sullen. The porcelain of her cheeks looks like they’ll shatter from sadness.

“How can you break the spell?” Dom inquires, playing with the eggs on his plate with a fork.

“There’s an artifact in the museum in New York City that holds the key to breaking the spell. I need to get it.”

“And how do you get it?” Dom asks, a hint of hope in his expression.

“A powerful witch and an even more powerful spell.” She pauses and looks at her mom. I hear her voice's optimism but see Adaline's doubt. “The druids were the ones that started the grimspawn spell,” Hattie continues, “so they have the key to breaking it. The museum has a key that can be used with the moon to break the spell. We only need her blood and the warlock's blood that marked her.”

“What is the key?” Dom questions.

“It’s an old rock with some writing on it,” Hattie offers. I don’t know her well, but I get the impression that she's only giving us bits and pieces. “But I need a witch to help me get into the museum and also to get the rock to ignite.”

“I can do it,” I answer, thinking this may be my chance to get the murder-y vampire to like me.

I can’t help it. I’m a chronic people-pleaser.

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