Page 4 of Claiming the Dhampir

I glanced at Kenrid, wondering if he’d spoken to Lorna about his role in the fae’s experiments. I suspected not, but that would change today. She needed to know. Especially since Nathan intended to confront the Exiled tonight.

Lorna cleared her throat, drawing my attention back to her.

“When I realized that guy wasn’t going to let me go,” she whispered, “I embraced my persona that I’d always used for stressful situations. She was able to ignore my conscience and get stuff done.” Lorna winced before continuing. “Anyway, I jumped at the guy, and he caught me. Like I knew he would.”

She raised her hands and pretended to wrap her fingers around the human’s head. Her eyes grew glassy and seemed to look beyond the forest around us.

“I pressed my thumbs over his temples and forced my magic into his brain.” She blinked several times then looked at Kenrid, dropping her hands into her lap. “I imagined it like a bolt of lightning. But as soon as my magic connected, I could see how he’d lived his life. All the murder, theft, assault, rape, everything. He was horrible.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and shivered despite the sweltering heat. Kenrid moved to her side and wrapped his arms around her. She easily fell into his embrace, burying her face against his neck.

He looked up at me and shook his head. With a desperate plea in his eyes, he mouthed silently, I’ve not told her. Not now.

I glared at him. How dare he tell me not to reveal what I knew! I would not continue to keep secrets from my soulmate. Not when I was certain that what she’d just described was demonic magic.

“I’m certain your projections are fae magic,” Kenrid said. “I can’t tell you what the other means.”

A low growl rumbled from my chest. He couldn’t because he didn’t know, or was it because he couldn’t speak of it? We were all about to find out.

“The ability to destroy someone’s mind through touch is demonic magic,” I said. “There may be spells created by witches that could have the same result, but only a demon has that innate ability.”

Lorna raised her head from Kenrid’s shoulder and narrowed her eyes at me. “But I’m not a demon.” When I didn’t correct her, she turned her focus to Kenrid. “I’m not a demon, right?”

Kenrid scowled at me. “This is not how I wished to tell her.”

I leaned forward and bared my teeth at him, letting a little bit of my demon side slip out. He had recognized the type of magic, which meant the fae had somehow acquired it.

“No, you never would have told her. You would wait until the worst possible moment to reveal everything. Or worse, she would find out from our enemies.”

The man who had become comfortable with me in the last few weeks vanished behind a mask of cold indifference. He reverted to the fae he’d been for the first thirty years I’d known him. But I did not regret my decision to reveal his deception. Lorna was our mate and deserved to know the truth. Kenrid would’ve kept it hidden from her forever if he could.

Lorna scooted away from Kenrid, her worried gaze dancing between us. “What are you talking about?”

Kenrid rose to his feet and brushed the debris from his trousers. I snarled at him as he strolled away from us and disappeared behind the trees. He couldn’t tell a lie, so he chose to say nothing.

“Kenrid?” Lorna whispered, her eyes searching the forest for him.

I moved to her side, but I didn’t try to embrace her. I was fairly certain she wouldn’t allow it. Once she got over her shock, she’d be furious.

“Unbeknownst to us, the fae spent centuries experimenting on the dhampir,” I said, watching her face for that moment when her sadness turned to anger. “They attempted to create a stable dhampir they could control. They wanted to make an army. Had they succeeded, they would’ve imprisoned the vampires to feed and empower their soldiers.”

She whipped around to face me, her eyes widening with each second. I could almost see her beautiful mind connecting the dots. We’d already explained a lot about the supernatural families. As a dhampir herself, she understood the strength she gained from sharing a vampire’s blood.

“They didn’t kill all the dhampir a hundred years ago, did they?” she asked.

I shook my head but remained silent, allowing her to work through it herself.

“The fae imprisoned us and experimented on us?” Her eyes darkened to black, a sure sign that her dhampir was actively involved in the conversation. “That’s why they were looking for me. Conrad said the fae were paying a lot of money to get me. Because I’m one of their experiments.”

She glanced over her shoulder into the trees where Kenrid disappeared. He was probably still there listening to our conversation.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, turning her black eyes on me once again. “If you knew all along, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know until we arrived at the fortress after we took you from Conrad’s,” I replied. “Kenrid told us the story when Elliott and Nathan discovered your mark on our chests.”

She frowned and looked back at the trees. “So how did I end up with human parents in rural New York?”

I searched the forest for Kenrid, but there was no sign of him.

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