Page 121 of A Bond with the Dark

“I saw her when I first got the mark. But nothing yet.”

“How are you gonna break the curse?” asks Allison.

“Using a lycanthrope spell breaker,” Adaline says from the stove.

“Usingherhelp?” Scarlet says derisively, nodding her head toward me.

“She’s a witch,” Hattie remarks.

“A good one, too,” Dom adds, defending me.

“What makes this normal-looking woman agoodwitch?” Jasantha asks, and my heart faints; the ineffable feeling of running traps me beneath the surface of something, and the air is thin in my lungs. I look to Dom for comfort.

What if I faint right here in front of all these vampires?

What kind of witch would that make me?

“She spelled us jewelry that lets us walk in daylight,” Adaline says genially, and I’m surprised it’s her that comes to my rescue.

Throwing the gauntlet was a good call, though. Because all eyes are on me again, but they’re curious now, searching.

“You can do that?” Scarlet asks, her cold, incredulous eyes now apprise me.

I give her the sweetest smile I can muster. “I can. I’ll make you all one if you want. I need a piece of jewelry you wear all the time. Or that you wouldn’t mind wearing all the time.”

Dom smiles at me.

The sound of the front door slamming shut causes everyone in the room to look over at who entered.

My heart takes a running leap out of my chest, and I’m pretty sure my jaw also hits the floor. For walking in that door is none other than my midnight mystery vampire.

Sebastian.

35

DESTRUCTIVELY DECADENT

SAYAH

My eyes betray me.

They have to be.

He doesn’t see me yet, or if he does, he doesn’t acknowledge me.

Handsome is too plain a word to describe this man. He’s breathtakingly gorgeous. He’s tall, and his black hair hangs slightly disheveled around his face. His prominent jawline is so sturdy, it’s as if he has been sculpted. Wearing all black—black leather jacket with the collar flicked up, black jeans, black boots—the black makes the blue of his eyes stand out even more, vivid enough to cut through the most unforgiving dark. Although the blue of them is so other-worldly, he doesn’t need the sea of black framing them to make them stand out. The edge of his aura is sharp and cool, like fire.

There’s a girl at his side, but I barely notice the woman because I’m trying to breathe, trying to figure out why this very real man is entering Dom’s parent’s house, out of my mind and into my life.

“Bash!” cries Adaline, setting her spatula down to greet him.

I’m sitting at Dom’s side at the far end of the table, next to Hattie who’s at the head. I hunch down behind Dom's shoulder and focus on breathing, trying not to bring attention to myself that I know Sebastian, who now I know is Bash.

Dom’s brother.

“What are you doing here?” Adaline asks, wrapping him up in a hug.

He still hasn’t noticed me.

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