Page 56 of A Vow for the Vamp
She embodies every aspect of a queen as she walks to where I stand with her head held high. I grab her by the waist, and she relaxes slightly, draping her arms over my shoulders. She tries to kiss me, but I pull back.
“Tell me what’s wrong.”
She scrunches her nose and snarls her lip, simultaneously appearing adorable and fierce, before looking away.
“It’s… nothing.”
I chuckle. “Did you know when you lie, you can’t make eye contact? You fidget too. And your voice goes up ever so slightly.”
She rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, well, I only struggle lying toyou. I’m an excellent liar when necessary. And when I don’t feel like lying, I use compulsion. Which is another issue with you not being able to be hypnotized.”
I smile at her using the word I love saying when describing compulsion. I do it to antagonize her because I love seeing her pissed off…. Because she ends up taking it out on me in the bedroom.
But my smile drops, and I stare her down, raising a brow, until she relents with a sigh. The silent treatment always works when she’s trying to avoid speaking about something.
I rarely use the move, but I’ve learned over the past two weeks that Millie has never shared the details of her vampire life with anyone other than Layla. Getting ‘personal’ as she likes to call it, makes her uncomfortable. SometimesI sense shewantsto talk but just needs my patience and encouragement.
“There’s been another body,” she says, slipping out of my hold.
I close my eyes and curse.
“I need to meet with the council tonight so we can go over a plan of capture. We’ve employed the gargoyles, who stand guard over this city, but they’ve had no luck. We’ve asked other vampires and supernatural beings to be on the lookout, but Henry is powerful. He’s feared. No one will risk death to turn him in. If he’s been spotted, nobody is saying a word.”
“How could anyone be afraid of a man named Henry?”
Millie snorts. Not exactly the laugh I was hoping for, but I know she’s stressed. She steps away to walk into the kitchen where she pours herself a glass of wine.
“Henry is what I called him because it pissed him off. Heinrich de la Nova is the cold-blooded killer who has murdered not only humans, but vampires alike. He has no remorse. He kills for fun, and he is starved for power.”
I comb my hand through my hair, then scrub it down my face. “How do you plan to catch him? It sounds impossible.”
She winces. Another sign that she wants to lie to me. Or that she regrets something she’s done or is about to say.
“I need to figure out what he wants. If it’s me, then I will draw him out. The council will have to approve a security team. Plant snipers on rooftops—”
“He can die by a bullet?”
“A wooden one, yes.”
“What if he captures you?”
“Then I’ll escape. I’ve outsmarted him once. I can do it again.”
“How did you escape him?”
“He became bored of me,” she begins, sipping her wine and resting a hip on the kitchen island. “He’d disappear for days, weeks. During one of these hiatuses, I sought a witch to break his sire hold over me. Then I packed up the few belongings to my name and left. I didn’t imagine he’d care, but after a few months, I got word he was searching for me. I boarded a boat to America as soon as I could. He hated the new settlement. I knew it’d be the last place he’d come looking for me. I asked acquaintances to spread rumors of spotting me in various countries in Europe and the Middle East. Even Asia. It kept him busy.”
And likely infuriated him.
“Then he finally finds you and sees you with a human.”
She sets her glass down and returns to where I stand. She wraps her arms around my torso and leans her head on mychest. I cocoon her in my own arms, kissing the top of her head.
“Stabbing you was a warning. He was letting me know that he’s still in control, even after all these years with the sire bond broken.”
“Use me.”
