Page 51 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Kiss

My feet carried me closer without me making the conscious decision, until I found myself perched next to him on the bed. “Why didn’t you just tell me? I know that what you did when you were on the drug wasn’t you. Not the real you, anyway. But why make me care? Why befriend me and make me love you? That’s the part I can’t—” I clenched my jaw, screwing my eyes shut so I didn’t have to see the pain in his eyes. “The lies, Rowan. That’s what hurt me the most.”

“She had me in thrall.” The words were a whisper and my reaction was instant, rage flooding me and shame stealing my breath—because how could I not have considered that before? “I tried to tell you, to hint at it when you interrogated the living vampire who’d given the drug to Novalie and Emerson, but her instructions were very precise.”

“Oh god, Rowan, I?—”

He pressed a finger to my mouth, the smile on his face surprising me. “Don’t. If you hadn’t killed me, I would still be under her control and dependent on the drug. Now that I’m undead, its hold on me has gone. This was the only way I’d get peace, Leah.”

“We’ll make her pay,” I promised and the fangs in his smile was still startling when he grinned.

“I’m already on it. That’s why I can’t stay, I just needed to see you.”

There was something in his voice that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “What are you planning?”

He didn’t bother denying that he was up to something. “I’m going to find her.”

“Elowen.”

“Yes.”

“And what are you going to do if you find her?”

He shot me a look as he stood up, halting a few paces away from me, a distance he could have crossed in less time than it took to blink. “When I find her, I’m going to kiss her arse.”

Not what I was expecting. “Diabolical.”

He grinned and I swallowed hard. “Keep your enemies close, Leah.”

“Noted.”

“How are Novalie and Emerson? Are they…?”

“Both undead,” I said with a grimace, but then shrugged. “But otherwise fine. I’m pretty sure they’re together now.”

“About time,” he said, rolling his eyes and I laughed. “I missed this.”

“You were dead. Can you really miss things when you don’t know you’re missing them?”

He snorted. “I was healing, not dead. I was semi-conscious most of the time.”

“Well, I’m glad we’re okay?” It came out as a question and his eyes softened as he cupped my jaw.

“Yes. We’re okay.” He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead and then his head snapped up, the smile on his face growing. “That’s my cue. But I’ll see you soon, okay? And if you need me…”

I coughed slightly, nodding to the wall to my right. “I, ah, need to get a new phone.”

The laugh that left him warmed me in a way I hadn’t realised I’d missed since he’d been gone. With my next breath he was by my side, pressing a kiss to my cheek before flashing to my door. “It’s good to be back.”

The door opened and shut so quickly there was barely a breeze and, mere seconds later, Hayes burst in, panting and smeared with mud, naked. “Fuck.” He ran a hand through his silver hair, only making it stand up at stranger angles. “Rowan’s back.”

Why was he always naked? I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

“You’re okay?”

“Never better.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hayes

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