Page 18 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

“Actually, I think I would like to speak to your superiors,” the morgue attendant cut in. I turned to look at her and saw that she was clutching a phone. “You see, there were two other men here earlier today, asking to look at this same body. They claimed to be FBI agents, too. Two sets of FBI agents in one day, none of whom have any jurisdiction over this case at all, seems pretty strange to me.”

I glanced over at Bryan and saw that he seemed startled by this fact as well.

“So, then. You didn’t know,” the attendant said, obviously catching our surprise. She sounded far warier this time. She took a step back, toward the door. “Yeah, I’m going to need to call your bosses, so I can verify that you’re actually who you say you are.”

“That’s not necessary,” Bryan replied, flashing her an innocent smile. “Seriously, this kind of thing happens all the time. I mean, bureaucracy, am I right?”

She took another step back. “You know what? I think I’ll just call security.”

I sighed. “No. You won’t.”

“Tobias, don’t,” Bryan hissed, shooting me a warning look.

Grimly, knowing that he wouldn’t like it one bit, I launched into a compulsive spell, very similar to the one I’d used on the demon the night I had learned that Bryan was in danger, except a much weaker version of that. It wasn’t like I was trying to get the morgue attendant to open a portal to her home dimension and be on her way. I just needed her to put the phone down and think we were who we said we were.

There was no accompanying light show this time, but the result was still pretty much instantaneous. All the suspicion drained out of the morgue attendant’s face and her gaze became unfocused and staring, like somebody under deep hypnosis.

“What did you do?” Bryan demanded, coming around the gurney that the body was on. He looked more startled by what I had just done than angry. “Did you just use magic to control her mind? What is wrong with you?”

“It’s not like I enjoyed it. But she was going to call the police. This would have gotten a lot messier and harder to handle if she had.”

“Look, I was doing fine until you got here!” Bryan snapped. “She was about to show me the body!”

“No, she was about to call security to have us forcefully escorted out of the building! Or maybe she would call the cops and have us arrested for impersonating federal agents,” I retorted, gesturing to his outfit. “I had to stop her, didn’t I?”

“You can’t just play with people’s minds like this!”

I winced at that; it wasn’t like he was wrong. “Look, I promise that I don’t do this sort of thing unless I have to. And the damage is done now. So, the sooner we examine the body, the sooner I can release her from my spell.” I paused, then added, “She’ll be fine, I promise.”

“No.” Bryan shook his head. “You should leave. I don’t know how much clearer I can be. I don’t want you here.”

“You’re looking for markings on the chest of the corpse if it’s a revenant,” I replied, pretending I hadn’t heard that. “They tend to—”

“Siphon the life-force off their victims as they’re dying. It leaves marks on the body that look like welts. Usually near the heart,” Bryan cut in, still glaring at me. “Yeah, I know. Thanks. Now, please go away.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t need you to be with me if you don’t want to. That sucks but it’s fine. I get it. That’s not why I’m here, I swear.” I said, hoping he’d hear the truth in my words. “And I won’t ask you not to do something that makes you happy, no matter how insane, so I won’t ask you to stop doing this.”

“Gee, thanks so much for that.”

“But I do need to know you’re safe before I can leave. I really did have a vision of you dying. I wouldn’t lie to you about that.”

He nodded grudgingly, though it seemed like the small admission cost him something. “Look, I know you’re not a liar. I believe you saw something that freaked you out.”

“You dying,” I reminded him. “I wouldn’t be here, otherwise.”

“Fine. I believe you saw a vision of me dying.”

“Good.”

Then he winced, and some of the stoniness of his expression softened, as the truth of his own words seemed to register for him.

“Uh. So, you really saw me die? You’re sure?”

I nodded, though the movement sent jolts of pain through me. “Yup. Sure did. Hence why I drove four hours and barged in on what you’re doing, after I promised not to.”

Absent-mindedly, I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to get the kink there out. Sleeping in the car was turning out to be a painful experience. And this was only after one day. Fantastic.

Bryan seemed to catch it too because his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Did you mess up your neck or something?”

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