Page 139 of Bite Marks

Not to anyone, butespeciallynot tome.

Leaving me with the uncomfortable truth thatsomeonedid, and I had a pretty good idea who it was. I marched up the sun-soaked stairs to Danny’s apartment and pounded on the door, all the rage building up inside me letting loose on the act.

I heard shuffling before the door cracked open, Danny peeking around the edge curiously. They looked surprised and shut the door for a moment, releasing the chain before opening it fully.

“Fucking hell, Vi, I thought someone was trying to break my door down.” She slid aside, and I stomped past her. Kaylee was on the couch, and it looked like they were about to settle in for a movie.

“Did you know?” I asked, my gaze bouncing between them accusatorially.

They both froze for a second.

“What are you talking about?” Kaylee asked.

I pulled out the folded photo from my pocket and walked over, shoving it in her face.

“This. I’m talking about this. Did. You. Know?”

“Vi,” Danny started, “why don’t we sit down and?—”

“No,” I turned to them and stepped back immediately as I realised they were reaching for my shoulder. “I need a straight answer.”

The room was tense and silent. I was about to lose it when Kaylee finally sighed, giving up first. “Yes, we knew.”

White-hot rage like nothing I’d felt before took over me. Tears began to fall from my face, not ones of sadness, but of such a deep-seated anger that the feeling had nowhere else to go and overflowed.

These were the two people I trusted most in the world, and they’d let me believe I’d never seen my covenmates before. People who had meant so much to me, and one I’d lost. One that I’d been mourning without even knowing I was.

“Why?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“We’ll explain it all; just sit. Please,” Kaylee said.

As much as I didn’t want to listen to anything she had to say right now, I did need answers, and I knew she wasn’t going to budge.

I found a place on the opposite end of the couch, and Danny sat on the love seat against the adjacent wall.

“So?”

Danny sighed. “On Juniper’s birthday, you were attacked by another vampire.”

Though I knew that part because I had so clearly remembered it, thinking about it still sent a shiver down my spine. “I know.”

“But after that, you… weren’t the same. You became detached from everyone, but especially from the coven. You couldn’t even be around a vampire without flinching every time they moved. And no matter what we did or how we tried to help, you just wouldn’t get better.”

My eyes found the logo on the TV, bouncing around from inactivity. I followed it, unable to look at either of them.

“So Cherie came to us and suggested using compulsion to make you forget,” Danny continued. “At first, we weren’t sure, but you were just so… broken. It killed us to see you that way, so after a few days thinking about it, we all agreed. You included.”

I continued following the bounce of the logo, watching it almost hit the corner perfectly a few times, though it never did. That logo seemed to match what was happening in my head. Memories of my past life and my current one just bouncing around, trying to find their place, but unable to settle into a single timeline.

“What about them?” I asked. “Have all of them been hiding it from me? Just pretending for a laugh?”

“No,” Danny replied. “I remember Juniper and Ren beingpissedwhen we started discussing it.They wanted nothing to do with it, and everyone else was on the fence. Elsie just…”

“She just wanted you to be okay, and Cherie was very convincing,” Kaylee cut in. “Dana argued a lot against it at first. But she wanted to believe that it was the right thing, I think… So long as you’d be able to move on.”

“In the end, thought,wedecided, and Cherie put all of them under as well to smooth things over.”

I chewed on my thumbnail in thought. At least they hadn’t been lying to me. Despite my anger, I was sure they wouldn’t do that to me, but everything felt so fucked up right now. “So I chose to forget. But then why would you push me back to the club? Why couldn’t you just tell me?”

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