Page 25 of Visions in Blood
“Not really.It’s just frustrating that I can’t remember much.”
He ran through a quick and embarrassing replay of the event, including seeing the necklace, some instinct that made him rip it off, and the warmth it seemed to exude.He finished with the healer and her mention of telepathic residue.
I dropped the necklace on his desk and pushed it toward him.“Maybe we should keep it someplace safe until we learn more about it.”Part of me wanted to grab it back and hide it away myself.No.What I really wanted to do was put it back on, but what if I ended up in another psychic coma, or whatever state I’d been in, and never woke up?It was best if someone else held onto it for now.
“You trust me to do that?”
I snorted, fell back in the chair, and blew out a long sigh.“I’m sorry for getting huffy and interrupting your…” I wasn’t really sure what to call it.“Meeting.But with Christopher searching for it and… I don’t know, it seems to be calling to me.”
“You weren’t meant to see the blood transfer.”
It seemed we were both ready to make nice.“Is that what vamps call it?”
He chuckled.“I was trying to be polite.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the sparkle in his gaze.He was rarely in a playful mood, not since the night of the ball.Then his smile disappeared, and his expression turned grave.
Now what?
“You know I had Sergi run a background check on you.”
“Right.”Well, crap.“What did you find?”
His lips twitched but nothing else changed.He picked up his tablet and tapped a few buttons.“Does the name Rasmussen mean anything to you?”
I was ready to say no, but something stopped me.Now it was my turn to gaze out the window.Had I heard it before?Or perhaps some variation.
“Cressa?”
I glanced up and gave a half-hearted shrug.“I don’t know, and I know how that sounds.But I wasn’t very old when my father left us.My mother never spoke a word about him, except when she gave me that necklace.”I hugged myself as I rocked back and forth.A distant memory lay just out of sight.There was music, but I couldn’t quite catch the melody.I couldn’t even remember if there had been lyrics.
“Something pokes at me, just like the dream, but it won’t solidify.Like I could reach out and touch it, but before I can bring it into focus, it slips away.”
I jumped when he brushed my arm, forgetting how quick he could move.He took my hand and pulled me from the chair, his arm going around my shoulder as he steered me toward the door.
“I think every time you force your subconscious into revealing something it isn’t ready to share, your memory grows hazy—even blocked.You’ve barely recovered from a difficult experience that greatly taxed your mind.Telepathic residue is not something to take lightly.”
When we stepped into the hall, he let go of me, but not without his hand cupping my cheek for the briefest of moments.“You should try eating something.It will help with the mental healing.And since you seem incapable of remaining in your room, please find something to do that will take your mind off everything we’ve discussed.There will be time for that later.”He lifted my chin.“Can you do that?”
I pushed his hand away but gave him a wink.“What trouble could I possibly get into stuck in this gloomy mansion?”
“That’s the spirit.”He turned, but hesitated.“I’ll see you this evening for dinner.”
Then his door shut behind him.
ChapterTen
By late afternoon,I was restless.Whatever had been in that pink vial had not only banished the headache, it left me energized.But with Devon’s house restrictions, I had few avenues to expend it.After a long stroll outside and another one through the house, I curled up on one of the overstuffed chairs in the library with the tomeHouses of the Vampire, my focus on the Houses of Trelane and Venizi.Each of the lengthy House chapters covered four families, but from what I’d read so far, and Anna had confirmed, the other two in this particular section were considered lower Houses, neither having family on the Council, so I’d only skimmed their pages.
These four Houses were created in the same decade, and like the other chapters, each section described their beginnings.From what I’d been able to gather from the tightly written script, the Trelane and Venizi Houses had been very similar in their origins.
Each House leader, referred to as Father, had been born vampire from less distinguished families.Both Trelane and Venizi had fought glorious battles, earning great praise and special recognition from the Council.They’d each been given land and their House names had been added to the nobility and officially recorded.These two men had been friends, fighting side-by-side in many battles, and as their Houses grew stronger, both men were invited to positions on the Council, which lifted them to the highest ranks of aristocracy.This occurred two thousand years ago, and based on the family trees, intricately drawn at the beginning of each section, these two men were the grandfathers of Devon and Lorenzo.That was a hard one to wrap my head around.
Anna had only scratched the surface in our classwork, so when I had time to peruse the tome, I skipped ahead, flipping through pages to see where the two Houses might have broken away from their long friendship.
After an hour of reading, my eyes blurred over the old text, and I nodded off, only waking when my forehead brushed the book.Or maybe it was the scent of coffee that tickled my nose.I turned around, thinking someone must have entered the room.No one was there, but a serving tray had been placed on a table in front of the hearth.
I hefted the tome and dropped it on the couch in front of the slow-burning fire.I took a stroll around the room, stretching my back and neck, working out the kinks.I stopped to stare at a huge portrait of a man I now knew was the man I’d been reading about—Devon’s grandfather.Instead of thinking of his family, portions of Devon’s words from earlier in the day bounced around in my head.
