Page 89 of Bewitched By a Vampire

He decided to ask her about that when he found her. He wanted to show her that her being a witch wasn’t a barrier between them or something he needed to overcome. Just in case she felt it was and that was the reason she was avoiding him.

Where had she gone? She had returned briefly when he had been moving their things and had made her excuses and left just as quickly once he had told her which room they were in now. He was sure she had muttered something about Elissa.

Night went in search for the witch’s mate, Payne. The part incubus vampire had a room on the same floor as Night’s new one and it wasn’t hard to find him. He simply followed the sound of a child giggling. He had learned from Antoine that Helena wasn’t the only youngster in the theatre now. Callum had twins with his werewolf mate, Kristina, and Elissa had brought a young incubus boy with her when Payne had brought her to the theatre. According to Antoine, Luca was her nephew and she had saved him after her sister had passed away.

And the child incubus was also Payne’s uncle.

But the half-breed was raising him like a son with Elissa.

Night poked his head around the door and peered in at the sandy-haired boy where he sat on the floor with Payne, playing with a wooden train set and laughing whenever Payne derailed it with his own engine and made a noise like the collision had caused them to explode.

“Is Lilian here?” Night said.

Payne lifted his head and shook it. He ran a hand over the dirty-blond spikes of his hair, flashing the line of markings that tracked up the underside of his forearm to disappear beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his dark pinstripe shirt.

“She said something about Elissa.” Night smiled at the boy when he stared up at him.

“Play?” Luca offered the train and blinked big eyes at him.

“Ah… not right now. Maybe later. I’m looking for Lilian.” Night awkwardly held his hands up in front of him, hoping the boy wouldn’t get upset.

He wasn’t really sure how to handle children—holding Helena had made that painfully clear to him. At least Helena could only kick, giggle or cry. Luca talked, walked and played, and was looking at him as if he was the biggest disappointment on the planet because he had refused to take the train. He waited, holding his breath and hoping that the boy didn’t burst into tears.

Luca shrugged and then beamed at him, his demeanour changing in an instant. “Aunty Lilian is very pretty. I told Mum that I’m going to marry her when I grow up.”

Night glared at the little imp. “She’s not on the market.”

Luca looked at Payne, his fair eyebrows pinned high on his head. “What does that mean, Daddy?”

Payne rubbed his neck now and patted Luca on his shoulder. “Um… it means that she’s spoken for… like how Mummy can’t be someone else’s bride because she’s mine.”

Apparently, Night wasn’t the only one who was clumsy with children.

Luca’s head swivelled towards Night and his eyes narrowed, a flicker of incubus blue and gold emerging in them as he pouted. “I don’t think Aunty Lilian would want to marry you. I think she wants to marry me.”

“Well, we’ll let her decide that.” Night stared the kid down, admiring how much gumption he had but finding it irritating at the same time.

“Are you the one who bit her and made her cry?” Luca glared at him.

Night’s eyes widened.

Before he could say anything, Payne was shaking his head. “You got it all wrong, kid. Night did bite her, but that was yesterday, and she didn’t cry then.”

“She had red eyes earlier. I heard Mummy say she was crying.”

“She was crying?” Night stared at the boy, needing to know the answer to that question as a thousand other ones filled his mind. Why had she been crying? Who had made her cry? Was it something to do with her coven? With him? Had he done something wrong?

Or had she been upset because she intended to leave?

She had threatened to do so earlier, when he had found her in the kitchen.

He didn’t wait for Luca to answer him. The need to find her had him racing through the building, using all the speed he could muster to cover every inch of it. She had to be here somewhere. She couldn’t have left.

He sped across the black-walled double-height room and froze as he sensed her.

His head whipped to his left, towards the ring of couches.

She sat there with a book on her lap, staring at him, surprise etched on her face. “Night. What’s wrong?”

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