Page 109 of Bewitched By a Vampire

They narrowed on him, a crease forming between his brother’s eyebrows as he muttered, “What rumours?”

Night grinned. “You do have a heart.”

“Shut up.” Grave scowled at him and held his hand out to Isla.

It didn’t stop Night from grinning as he reached for Lilian and wrapped her in his arms.

Grave started across the park with Isla, his voice grim in the darkness, sending a chill down Night’s spine.

“It is a long walk back to the theatre, and I am going to use every second of it to make it painfully clear how angry I am with you for not telling me your foolish plan to get yourself killed.”

Night bit back a groan.

This was going to be the longest walk of his life.

Chapter 30

As threatened, Grave had scolded Night all the way back to the theatre, not allowing him to get a word in to explain himself. His brother stood over him in the back room of the theatre as Lilian helped him remove his shirt and Elissa moved around him to get a look at his shoulder.

Anger rolled off Grave in powerful waves. His brother scowled and waved Elissa away as she looked at him.

The silver-haired witch huffed. “I wasn’t going to tend to your wounds, anyway. I just wanted to know if Isla needed healing too.”

Grave grunted, “She is resting. Her wound will heal by itself soon enough.”

He folded his arms across his chest, tightening his dark shirt across his shoulders, and stared at Night.

Night snapped, “I didn’t tell you because I knew this was how you would react. You would have tried to stop me from going, and I needed to go. Lilian needed me there and she would have gone without me.”

“Perhaps I might have reacted a little better. Perhaps I might have surprised you,” Grave barked, the air around him chilling as a blue glow lit his aquamarine eyes.

Night looked at his brother and admitted to himself that Grave might have, because his brother was different now that Isla was back in his life.

Grave kicked one of the crimson couches, knocking it towards Aurora as she carried a pitcher of water and some rags towards him, and earning himself a scowl from Snow.

But not that different.

His brother growled, baring his fangs at everyone, and pivoted away from Night. He strode to the middle of the double-height room and began frantically pacing, taking swift strides between the corridor that led to the foyer and the stairs that led to the staff quarters. Night winced as Elissa pressed her fingers to the wound on his shoulder and pain bloomed in it, a fiery sort of stinging that made him turn his head away from it and focus on Grave, because he didn’t want to see his flesh knitting back together.

Lilian sat beside him and placed her hand on his thigh, drawing his gaze there. He looked from her hand to her face, right into her eyes, and smiled as he saw the concern in them. He was fine. She didn’t need to worry. He had survived worse injuries.

He was worried about her though. She was still too pale.

“How long will it be before you’re fully recovered?” He wanted to reach for her and stroke her cheek, but moving his arm would be a mistake. He knew what happened when witches lost their connection to healing spells, had witnessed it for himself once. The spell would go haywire inside him, causing him more pain and injuring him.

Lilian shrugged. “A few days. As long as I don’t do any spells. My… my connection to my coven is still intact. Their power is trickling into me to recharge my battery.”

She looked relieved by that. He placed his left hand over hers on his thigh and gently squeezed it. As much as he hated her coven for what they had done to both of them, he was glad they hadn’t severed ties with her and that if she wanted to one day, she could work with them again.

As a freelance witch.

No way he was going to let her go and live with them.

She was his now, part of his family, and sooner or later he would find the courage to broach that subject. Right now, the crushing nerves he felt whenever he thought about asking her whether she wanted to stay with him, and the fear she might say she preferred to be with her coven, had him leaning towards it being later. Much later.

Grave paced back into view, scowling at his boots as he muttered, “Some might call it insubordination. A fitting punishment might be relieving him of his position.”

Night shot to his feet and grimaced, biting back a bellow as Elissa lost her connection to him and the spell tore through him.

---