Page 73 of Beneath the Watching

“Miss, you need to leave right now,” Benjamin ordered my friend.

She scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I shook my head at my bodyguard, attempting to dismiss him. “We just need to talk,” I tried to reassure and soothe his worried countenance. Jack didn’t seem convinced. “It's okay, just go. I’ll yell if I need anything. She’s my friend; I’m fine.”

We waited until they exited. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been stressed. Ilya erased my memory and then I remembered everything. He accidently poisoned me; he sort of killed Ramone. Ramone tricked me into working for him.” Kiara half-heartedly waved her hand at the pile of china on the floor, and it reconstructed itself into a stack on the tabletop.

Realizing I was holding the narrow door open and fixating on the miraculous plates, I let go and it swung shut with a snap. Kiara pulled out a chair and made herself at home, resting her elbows next to the dishes. “I have all this magic, but I feel like a milking cow. They just want to drain me. All of them.”

I settled across from her. “So, what are you going to do? I wanted to help you so bad. I tried, but....I couldn’t stop thinking about you and wondering.”

“I don’t know. You still didn’t tell me why you’re here.” She gave me a pointed look.

My arms joined hers, resting on the polished surface. “I can’t discuss it but I’m okay, I’m happy.”

She eyed me, her gaze skimming my edges before she examined me closely making me feel like I was in a display case. “Wait—do you have magic, too?” She asked. I shrugged, looking away. “Hm,” she hummed. Her shoulders hit the back of the chair.

“Everyone thought you killed yourself,” I said, softly.

“I’m aware,” she replied. “Can you imagine if Madison showed up here, too? It's been the three of us since high school; might as well be together here, too.”

Somehow, I doubted that’d work out. This didn’t seem like an environment our friend would be entirely comfortable in. There wasn’t enough shopping. “Are you going to stick around?”

Kiara ran a fingernail down the side of the plates. “I’m declared legally dead, so I have to.”

“What about you? You are staying?” she asked me after a moment.

“Yep. I prefer it here and it's where Stefan lives. He’s not like your boyfriend.” Kiara winced when I mentioned Ilya. “You’re with Ilya, right? Not Ramone?” It was hard to keep straight sometimes.

She leveled a gaze at me like I was the biggest idiot on the planet and then I remembered one of the men was maybe slightly dead. Kinda dead. Whatever the heck it was. Partially dead? I didn’t know if he was in recovery yet. “Oh yeah,” I muttered. “The coma-thing. Sorry.”

Kiara rolled her eyes and stood up. “I’m glad you’re okay. When I heard you were missing, I had no idea what happened to you, and I was worried. But you look good. You look more alive than I’ve ever seen you.” She gave me a smile. “Good for you.”

I sensed the sincerity in her tone and appreciated it. “Thank you.”

She headed for the door. “We’re gonna hang out. Tell Stefan I’ll protect you. He knows I can.”

The door swung shut behind her and I sat back down, stunned. I’d never expected to see her again. I’d known Ilya was trying to bring her back, get her away from the other man, but it’d seemed like a dream with all the horror stories I’d heard about Ramone and his craziness.

Things were finally coming together for me. Between a bake shop, a boyfriend, and a growing social circle—my life was headed in a great direction.

Everything was perfect.

Dead.

The voice in my head whispered and my heart fell to my knees. Then I remembered Ramone, he was the dead one.

26

STEFAN

Ilya was a smug bastard,gloating about how he finally had the promised magic source for a bride. Technically not a bride, as no one got married here. What one did was publicly declare the other person was yours, consummate the relationship, and you could refer to them as your wife. No need for a piece of paper that could be burned to ash.

My best friend sat across from me in the castle’s version of a bar—minus the tab. “We’ll have some semblance of peace now,” he added to his bragging and lengthy speech.

Setting my tumbler down on the cut-crystal coaster, I eyed him. He’d been feeding on her. A lot. My ability to perceive auras and energies wasn’t nearly as astute as my peers due to being tainted with human blood but I could see them occasionally and currently I was witness to an incredibly bright one.

Ilya oozed pride and magic. Together with his magazine worthy looks, his charisma was currently off the charts. More than one young woman had made it a point to catch his eye. Whether by swaying their hips, bending over, or a subtle but carefully timed little swipe of the tongue over their lips, they swarmed like sharks here in the bar.

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