Page 45 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

“If you had stayed behind, you would have been killed as well,” Tobias said, his tone soothing and kind. “You got your daughter to safety. An entity like the one that killed your husband is extraordinarily dangerous. It would have taken everyone in the house, if it could have.” He paused, letting out a small breath. “Lisa, we need to know… did you actually see the ghost?”

Lisa nodded, then grimaced. “Yes, I did. I won’t ever forget it, either. It looked like a woman. Except… not. She was way too tall—no person is that tall. And she was thin. And she was wearing rags. And her arms were so long that her hands scraped the ground. And her face…” Lisa shuddered, her hand flying to her mouth again. “It was grotesque. Distorted.”

“How so?” I asked.

Lisa gasped, screwing her eyes shut for a long moment before opening them again, like she was trying to banish the memories from her mind. “It was too long. And her mouth was too big. It stretched from ear to ear. And she kept laughing…”

This time, it was my turn to shudder. I remembered that laugh. High-pitched and so deranged that it didn’t seem like a person should be capable of making a sound like that.

“I left him with her,” Lisa’s voice broke again. “I took Annabelle and ran to the car. And when I realized Lee wasn’t with us, I didn’t go back.”

“You protected your daughter,” Tobias said softly. “You did the right thing.”

“She didn’t see anything,” Lisa’s voice rose, like she was begging us to understand. “She didn’t see what I left Lee with. She doesn’t know. Not really.”

Absolute, stunned silence followed that.

“Was that enough?” Lisa asked, finally, looking from Tobias to me, searching our faces. “Does that help you?”

Tobias exchanged a glance with me, and I nodded back at him. Based on the distorted size and shape of the spirit she’d described, we were dealing with a wraith.

“Yes,” Tobias replied, turning back to Lisa. “I think we have everything we need.”

Lisa nodded, letting out a long, agonized breath. She looked to be on the verge of another breakdown. The tears were flowing down her face freely and her jaw was clenched like she was struggling to hold in her grief.

Tobias placed a hand on her back and spoke a short incantation under his breath. The tension drained out of Lisa almost immediately. She blinked a few times, her face growing relaxed and calm.

“What are you doing?” Ash asked, rising to her feet, sounding alarmed. No one answered her. I didn’t even look up.

Instead, I was too fixated on Tobias. The gentle compassion on his face had transformed him yet again. He hated her suffering just as much as I did.

“Let go of your guilt,” Tobias said to Lisa, so softly that the only reason I caught it was because of my vampiric hearing, even though I was standing right beside him. “None of this was your fault. You saved yourself and your daughter. And you were so brave, to tell us the truth about what you experienced. I know that hurt, but you did it anyway. We’re going to make sure this doesn’t happen again, I promise. And you helped us to do that.” He gave her a small smile and then added, “You can grieve your husband as freely as you wish, but the horror of what you have seen is already fading from your mind. And the guilt is already gone from your heart.”

Lisa nodded at him, wide-eyed and calm, her lips slightly parted.

By the time Ash made it around the table, Tobias had already released Lisa from the spell. She was blinking rapidly, and the wide-open look on her face was fading. But in its wake, she was calm for the first time since we’d arrived.

Ash marched us to the front door. “If you come back, I’ll call the police. I’m serious. I don’t know who in the hell you people think you are, but if—”

“Ash, stop it,” Lisa said, her voice carrying from the dining room. “They… they were here to help. Let them leave in peace.”

She’s just protecting her sister, I reminded myself. In her shoes, I’d probably be just as bad, if not worse.

“We won’t be back,” I promised her.

Once we made it back to the car, Tobias began driving immediately. He looked tense, like he was bracing himself for a blow.

“Go on, then,” Tobias told me, after several minutes had passed and he turned onto a deserted side street. He put the car in park, then turned to face me. “Get it over with.”

“No,” I replied, already guessing what was on his mind. “I’m not angry with you, Tobias.”

“Even though I messed with her mind?” He met my gaze, suddenly defiant. “Because I know I said I wouldn’t mess with anyone’s head, especially not in front of you, but I’d do it again for her, in a heartbeat.”

“Good,” I said fiercely.

I took his hand without even meaning to. His skin was warm and firm. His scent once again intoxicated me, so potent in the enclosed space. And I didn’t stop to second-guess myself or worry about what it meant. I wanted to, so I did it.

“You took the horror of what happened to her away, so that she could heal. That’s different from what you did with the morgue attendant. You didn’t mess with Lisa in order to get what you wanted or to protect your own ass. You…” I trailed off for a moment, trying to think of an analogy. “You helped set a broken bone for her, so it could heal properly.”

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