Page 21 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

And if it had always been this powerful, why hadn’t it killed Lee Chamberlain sooner? He and his family had lived in the house for months before it had attacked them. I mean, if it just wanted to kill people, why wait? It could clearly manipulate the physical world with an ease that, according to what I’d read so far, most ghosts were supposed to lack.

The entire time I gathered up my stuff I could feel eyes on me. But nothing manifested and, while the knife drawer did rattle ominously for a long moment, nothing lunged at us. It was like there was an invisible wall between wherever it was and the reality we occupied.

“Well, that was fun,” I said, flashing Tobias a grin as we left the house, determined to put on a bright facade. “Um, I could kind of…” I trailed off, trying to put it into words. “…Sense it? Somehow? Like, it was there watching us. It was trying to get at us, only it couldn’t. Is that weird?”

“It’s not weird at all. That’s exactly what was happening.”

“Either way, the important part was that it couldn’t get to us. Because of your magic.”

He shrugged, not answering me. Then he yawned, twice in a row. His eyelids began to droop and he swayed on his feet.

I caught him by the shoulders before he could fall. He blinked rapidly, seeming to jerk back awake.

“Um. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he replied, too quickly. He flashed me a smile, but it didn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. Something twisted painfully in my chest. “I think I’m just tired. I cast a lot of spells today. This last one really took it out of me—that thing is angry. I just need to get some sleep.”

He said the last part so wistfully that I felt my eyebrows slam together. Why did it sound like he wanted to get some sleep but knew he wouldn’t be able to? That was weird, right?

“Sure, we can put a pin in this for right now and figure out our next steps tomorrow.”

He gave me a hopeful look. “You’re not anxious to get this over with?”

“The house is empty. Another night isn’t going to hurt anything.” I paused. “Are you okay to drive?”

“I’m fine,” he repeated.

I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t press it. I couldn’t exactly act like a concerned boyfriend while I simultaneously slammed the brakes on any emotional involvement. It wasn’t fair to either of us.

“I’ll give you a ride back to your car,” I muttered.

“Sure.” He yawned and stretched, then winced, as though the small movement had hurt him. It was like the tenth time I had seen him do that. He had definitely done something to mess up his neck. Or his back. Or possibly both. I fought the urge to demand, yet again, to know why he was in visible pain every single time he moved. And I didn’t like it. I hated that I didn’t like it. But that still didn’t change the way it set my teeth on edge to see him in any sort of discomfort.

But saying something would mean letting on how much it bothered me to see it. No doubt, he’d trundle happily through all the reasons why that could be and land right back at the mate of it all. Which really wasn’t a good idea for either of us. So, instead, I asked, “Where are you staying?”

“Um…” He trailed off, giving me a deer-in-the-headlights look. After a pause that lasted way longer than it had any right to, he added, “Uh, there’s a hotel in town. I’m staying there.”

He even grimaced as he said it, like he’d heard how unconvincing it sounded.

Well, that was a weird thing to lie about, but whatever. If he wanted to keep secrets, that wasn’t my problem.

Right?

Right. He was my partner for this one very specific and very time-limited situation.

Or, I supposed, he was the bodyguard I had never asked for and hopefully didn’t need. So it shouldn’t have mattered to me one bit where he was staying, or how he’d managed to mess up his neck and back so badly, or how he felt about literally anything at all, including the fact that I had left.

Yet, even as we piled back into my car and I began driving us back to the city hall where he’d parked his car, I couldn’t help but realized that those things did matter to me. They mattered way more to me than they should have.

*

I hated everything.

Back in my motel room with nothing to do, I tried to read the book of necromancy. When that couldn’t hold my attention, I tried to watch TV on the dusty television set that had to be at least as old as me. There were a grand total of six channels. Half of them were playing old romantic comedies and the other half were fuzzy broadcasts of sports games. Even in life, I hadn’t been a big fan of any variety of sportsball. Now, as a vampire capable of outperforming even the best human athletes without half trying, it held even less appeal. And I sure as hell wasn’t watching a kissing movie, since that would no doubt lead to dangerous ideas about a certain warlock I wanted to kiss very, very badly.

In disgust, I flipped it off.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my social media apps, mostly as a habit. I stared at posts made by my old friends from college and high school until my heart split open. The person who had laughed and joked and hung out with those people wasn’t who I was anymore. That guy hadn’t ever hurt a single person in his whole life. He was nothing like me. I closed the apps and put my phone to the side.

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