Page 78 of Stitched Up in You
I tug at the gray fabric of my jacket and expose my wrist before bringing a spark of power to my palm to show her. “If you look closely, you can see the stitching.”
“Wow,” she says, rubbing one finger across the line Odette’s magic made.
“Frankenstein symbolizes the danger of unchecked scientific ambition. I’m a product of my creator’s unchecked magical ambitions, but that is where the similarities end,” I say, knowing from the moment I was brought into existence, I’ve never had any love or even likability for the witch, vain and unsympathetic as she is to the strife she causes others.
“So you were created by her?”
“Created, but not bound to her. Odette has extraordinary magic and once tried a spell so massive it created dozens of ghouls, but left them stranded and without direction. She’s known for her amazing feats, but not all of them are good.”
The train thankfully pulls to a stop before Bernadette can ask any more invasive questions. I wait for the doors to open and hold a hand to help her from her seat.
We make our way through my underground facility, and I notice how her gaze latches onto the electrical pod as we pass it on our way to the stone steps that lead back into the house.
I find myself wondering what she could possibly be thinking, and once we reach the landing, I press my palm to the control panel, unlocking it with my touch. I frown, the realization coming over me that since she stopped me in the foyer earlier today, my power levels have been stable when they hadn’t been for weeks.
It’s possible I could have been reacting to the mate bond taking hold before she ever arrived here, which fits, since other than this morning, the surges have been minimal now that I’ve mated with her.
“This has been the weirdest and coolest day of my life. I’ve got to go feed Edgar and hunt down some food,” she mutters under her breath, pulling me from my thoughts.
She smiles up at me suddenly, and the soft curve of her lips sends a wave of tenderness through me. Only a short time ago, I wanted her snuffed out for what she’d done, now I’m practically giving her the keys to the castle. Yet, I’m experiencing no inklings of impending doom or disaster as I usually would if there’d been even an utterance of the wordhuman. With her, every intuition I have tells me it's right to share with her.
“Speaking of food. Who do you have working for you, ninja maids? I hung out by the door one afternoon after I figured outfinally that dinner comes around seven, but I didn’t see anyone in the hall,” she says as we make our way through the foyer.
I laugh, the ghouls are stealthy and prefer to move about undetected in the best of circumstances, and the staff I’ve had coming for daily cleaning and meals were ordered to stay hidden. The last thing I needed when she arrived here was to give her access to the internet or anyone that could be persuaded to help her.
“Fine, don’t tell me. Do you want to hang out some more after I feed my cat?” she asks, a small smirk on her lips telling me she’s not upset I’m not divulging information to her.
After the last few hours, I half expected her to double her efforts once we arrived back at the house to track down any device to get her out of here. Instead, she asks me to spend more time with her.
Females are a conundrum at best, but this time it seems to be paying off.
“I’d like for you to show me around some more later. I mean, if you’d want,” she says, as we make our way to the steps of the grand staircase, when a commotion can be heard coming from the dining room.
Without pausing, she starts toward the sound before I can stop her. I follow on her heels as she heads into the dining room to find Mikael and the rest of my security team at the long table.
“Oh good, we were wondering when you’d finally show up,” Bruno says, smirking while his twin broods, staring at the dark wood of the dining room table.
I turn back to Bernadette, pushing my hands into my joggers’ pockets as I do. “Why don’t you go feed Edgar, and I’ll come find you later?” I ask.
She purses her lips as if the last thing she wants to do is leave, but her small shoulders shrug and she moves to do as I ask.
I touch her at the small of her back and lead her back to the staircase. “I’ll see you soon,” I promise, and watch as she makes her way upstairs, cursing Mikael’s timing.
“Alright, what do you have for me?” I ask them the moment I step inside the dining room. The faster this is over with, the faster I can join Bernadette for dinner.
Chapter 30
BERNADETTE CRENSHAW
After feeding Edgar in record time, I make my way back downstairs, tiptoeing down the stairs in my socks, trying to make as little noise as possible as I listen for anyone talking. There’s no way in hell I’m sitting upstairs and not ear hustling to find out what’s going on. Vampires, werewolves, and Frank Stein, oh my.
The closer I get to the bottom step, the louder the voices, and once I make it to the bottom step, I realize I can just barely make out what they’re saying.
“She’s not going.” Frank’s voice is firm.
“What do you mean she’s not going? The mayor insisted she be there,” Mikael protests.
My gaze flies wide, and I cover my mouth at what I’m hearing.
