Page 24 of To Love a Vampire
She pauses, her shrouded, faceless body appearing to stare at me for a moment longer before she sweeps away, shifting dead leaves and dust in her wake.
Lord Raske, Kaino and the other representatives trail after her. Except for Michael.
My mentor’s brows crease as he looks down at me, his lips pinched into a thin, almost nonexistent line. “Be careful, Fallon. Of who you trust, and of who you love. Just”- He swallows hard, a minimal amount of stubble coats his throat and jaw line. He glances over his shoulder at the group of mortals and mystics that are fading into the shadows of the night. “Just don’t… Don’t marry that wolf, Fallon. Nothing good will come from uniting our races. Nothing.” He turns before I can even reply, before I can even fully consider his strange words.
He runs after his president, wading through the thick trees and shadows until he disappears entirely.
“What right does he have to tell me who to be with?” I ask more to myself than to Ayden.
I glance up at him and find him staring at me. A deep line etched between his brows as he glares down at the person he once called a friend.
Ayden’s always hated the mystics. More than most humans. He might hate me, too, now.
“Because he’s your father, Fallon.”
Eleven
Like a Memory
The representatives left earlybut I laid awake thinking about what Ayden said to me long into the quiet night. I didn’t sleep for more than an hour. After the shock wore off my tired eyes finally drifted to sleep. I awoke soon after with the voices circling my mind again, gnawing at my consciousness until my eyes flew open.
Leaving me to dwell on my life.
Ayden wouldn’t lie to me. I don’t think he’ll ever be dishonest with me no matter how much he may hate me now. It makes sense that Michael would be my father really. He’s been a part of my life since I can remember. Visiting me twice a year during school to make sure I focused on all the right subjects, he helped me find my talents, he arranged my union… I guess in a strange way he’s the reason I am where I am in life.
A yawn pulls at my tired body as I blink hard and try to find the positivity that this day holds.
Hours later I lead Gabriel into the empty clinic, Asher and Luca follow close behind. Gabriel’s eyes shift around, his head tilting, listening for any kind of insight his other senses might offer him. Suddenly, I’m aware of what he might sense; the way the sun filters off into the humid room, the way my boots softly thud against the tile, the way we’re all holding our breath as we watch the blind hybrid stare aimlessly around the clinic.
“We’re inside?” He pauses just within the doorway, his lean frame blocking out the bright rays of sunlight.
Asher and Luca trail in after Gabriel taking up the majority of the space within the small white room. I walk to the back where the package was left for me, excitement simmers in my chest and soaks through my limbs at the idea of what I’m about to do.
“You know if you have some kind of attack planned, you can’t really do any more damage than there already is,” Gabriel says, his voice echoing through the empty room.
I smirk at his words. He stands leaning against the wall, almost hesitant to proceed any farther into the room. His fiery red hair has been trimmed and shaven close at the sides, a much cleaner look than when he first arrived, he looks a little less broken, too.
“Listen, it’s not every day a girl approaches you with a surprise. Maybe you should hear her out first,” Asher says to him, smirking at me out of the corner of his eye.
My face warms at his words and I can’t help but smile. Luca assesses Gabriel discreetly. Something she does to everyone, I’ve noticed. This time it’s different. Her eyes travel over the hybrid, looking not at his stature or motives but really at him. At his body, at his wide shoulders and slim waist and everywhere in between.
I arch an accusing eyebrow at her and she shrugs, her shoulders rising minimally when she realizes she’s been caught. She offers a small smirk before turning away from us to look around the room at the few pictures that decorate the walls.
The pictures are old, from ages ago. From a time when medicine wasn’t just for the dying but for the sick and the elderly. It was all but wasted on such minor issues it makes me sick to my stomach. Imagine what a plethora of medicine like that could do for the people back at camp.
“So, what is it? You going to put a band aid on this limb or what? Listen, I’ve tried and the whole band-aid thing doesn’t make it much better. Prettier; but not better,” Gabriel says with a half-smile.
“Do you always talk this much?” Luca asks, her back still turned to us, her fingers brushing over a framed picture of a doctor helping an elderly lady with a walker.
“Only when I know people are listening,” Gabriel replies, his body shifting toward her voice.
Ignoring their banter, I start pulling the wrappings from around the item within the box, my excitement increasing with every piece of tissue and plastic I pull away.
Asher grows serious as he watches me. Our eyes meet for just a moment before I look away from him. A strange fluttering awakens within my chest, a feeling that he’s given me since the day we met.
Luca turns to me just as I pull away the last of the plastic wrapper from around my gift to Gabriel. Her surprised intake of breath is audible and Asher’s eyes widen as he stares down at it.
The room is entirely silent. The item is smooth against my palms, a symbol of something clean, new and full of hope.
