Page 81 of The Vampire's Mate

Hannah pulled back, nodding and patting her eyes dry with the sleeves of her sweater. “Thank you,” she whispered, pressing a wet kiss to my cheek.

I resisted the urge to wipe my face dry—I really did. But my childish nature won out in the end. “I thought I skipped the phase where you’d snot all over me—” She smacked me in the chest. “Ow! Hey, I’m injured!”

Hannah said nothing, but I caught the hint of a smile as James ushered her toward the door. “Let’s go before you end up putting him in the bed next door.”

I jolted when James pushed me closer to the bed. He pressed a silent kiss to my hair before he and Hannah were out of the room.

Kian spoke first. “I’m with her.”

He sounded like his throat was coated with sandpaper. I looked around, and thankfully his cup of water was within reach. I didn’t want to face James’s or Hannah’s wrath if I was caught out of my chair. “What do you mean?”

“She loves you. We both do. What you did for me…”

“Was what anyone would have done,” I finished.

“Still… Thank you.”

Instead of going through the whole dance of “no need to thank me,” I went back to what Hannah said. “Why would she feel guilty about telling me that?”

He reached for his water again and after taking a sip said, “She didn’t want James to hear you say it to her first. Not when it’s so blatantly obvious you’re in love with each other. Yours and Hannah’s relationship is a little more complicated.”

I scoffed. “Complicated, right. Because falling in love with a vampire was easy.”

“You’re lucky I’m too drugged up to smack you.” Kian fought against shutting his eyes. “I’m sorry, by the way. I never should have taken those stupid diamonds.”

That made me sit up straighter. “So itwasyou.” I wasn’t angry. I probably should’ve been, but I wasn’t. I was too exhausted, too full of pain. “Why’d you do it?”

Kian picked at a loose thread on the hospital-issued blanket that covered him. “I knew,” he admitted. “I knew about Luke—about James—before I came to you. Six months after Luke disappeared, I was approached by Dani. I didn’t know who she was at first, not until you said her name back at the house. I mostly met with the twins. I met Dani once—to get the diamonds—and she kept her features hidden from view. Dark clothes, hood pulled up. She stayed in the shadows so I couldn’t tell you the first thing about her. And… she told me everything: about vampires, about hunters. She said that James was responsible for Luke’s disappearance, and if I did what she asked, she’d help me find him. At first, I told her no, but the more time that went on, the more I missed him. I wanted my brother back. I never expected to find those adoption papers.”

Kian took a shaky breath before continuing. “That’s when I agreed to do it. I was confused, I was angry, and if doing it would get Luke back here to answer my questions, then I said I’d do anything.”

I wrung my hands in my lap. “Did you know those gems were cursed? Or what that silver would do to James?”

“No!” Kian shook his head emphatically. “I never wanted anyone to get hurt. She only told me that I needed to place one in the bar, and one at your place. I figured they were trackers of some sort, and if James really was a vampire, it wasn’t a terrible thing to know what he was up to. Only… I lost one.” He finally looked at me. “After the night I spent at your place, the one with the silver chain went missing.”

“Carlos, the thieving little bastard,” I muttered. He must have taken it from Kian while we were sleeping and buried it in the backyard.

“I’m sorry,” Kian repeated, tears falling down his cheeks. His heart rate spiked, the beeping on the monitor increasing with it.

I lunged forward to grab his hand, wincing with the movement. “It’s okay. You were vulnerable, and she took advantage of that. That’s not your fault.”

I wanted to grill him, to keep him talking until I figured out what those horror twins meant.

“He knows who we are.”

But now wasn’t the time.

Kian sniffled, words slurring. “Whatever happens from now on, I’m on your side. I should have never doubted you.”

“It’s all over now,” I assured him. “Rest. I just had to see you were okay with my own eyes.”

“Thank you, Ryder,” he mumbled again before succumbing to the effects of the pain medication.

Even if I could have moved on my own, I didn’t want to. I sat next to his bed, simply watching the numbers on the monitors and the rise and fall of his chest. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but sometime later I heard the door open behind me. Assuming it was James and Hannah returning, I smiled to myself and waited for my wheelchair to be moved.

“He’s alive because of you, you know?”

I flinched and whipped my head to the left—too fast. “Luke?” I hissed, wincing at the bite of pain. “What are you doing here?”

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