Page 6 of Love Bites

We’d been hiding from him ever since, but we still had to feed. And apparently, he’d caught us.

“No, you needed to eat,” Clem said quietly, wiping her eyes. “It’s fine. We’ll be okay. Right?”

“Of course we will,” Avery said, nodding. “We’re going to figure it out.”

She looked at me.

Izzy glanced at me in the rearview mirror, turning down a street that didn’t lead to our house.

Because of the bond, Curtis would be able to track Clem’s physical location, so we couldn’t go home.

Clem looked at me, and Zora did too.

Their gazes and our past experiences told me that they expectedmeto figure it out. My mom had been the leader of our mothers’ group, so I supposed it was natural that the role fell to me, even if I didn’t want it any more than my sisters did.

I let out a slow breath.

We couldn’t go home, and we had nowhere else to go.

Hotels weren’t safe for sirens. People could feel our magic through the walls. And even if that was an option, Curtis could’ve tracked Clem there.

Which left us with exactly one option:

I said, “We have to go to the Manor.”

The Manor wasn’t actually a manor.

It wasn’t even a castle.

It wasfivemonstrous buildings, large enough to house hundreds to thousands of magical beings each, with another massive structure in the middle that connected all of them and housed even more people. There was one building for each type of magical being, ruled by its leader.

Whoever named it theManorwas a moron. Or just didn’t know what to call it any more than I did.

It was basically a city of its own, positioned right at the center of Mistwood.

“There’s no other option,” Avery agreed, her jaw set in a grimace.

“I could go to Curtis. You guys could go home,” Clem whispered. “It’s your best chance of survival. If we go to the Manor, they could hand all of us to him.”

“We’re not doing that,” Zora said flatly.

“Definitely not,” I agreed. “We’re technically ruled by the vampires, since they’re the strongest beings with parasitic magic. Hale will get to decide what happens to us, regardless of Clem’s mate bond. We don’t know him—he could be better than Curtis.”

Or he could be worse.

We had no idea.

Izzy raked a hand through her long, wavy platinum hair. Her skin was light brown, and her eyes were a deep, soulful shade of green. “It’s a risk.”

“Better a risk than a death sentence,” I said.

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Avery murmured.

“Is everyone in agreement?” I looked around the van. It wasn’t the fanciest of vehicles, but it got the job done and prevented anyone from looking twice at us.

“Yes,” Zora said firmly.

Avery nodded.

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