Page 23 of Love Heals
Chapter Nine
Istared at Jared. "Are you having any witches over?"
Or was it one of the other vampires? No, I'd never felt magic like this from Talon or Aldrich. So was it one of the witches these people worked with?
That didn't quite feel right either.
There was somethingominousabout the shift in atmosphere that made the hair on my forearms stand up. I didn't like it.
Jared gave me a puzzled look. "Why do you ask?”
"I just... I thought I felt magic. Powerful magic."
Jared took a moment to study me, filing my talents away in the back of his head, no doubt. "I'm not aware of any visitors," he said finally.
But I was proven right only a moment later when someone knocked on the door to my room. The girl poked her head in. Elena, I thought her name was.
"You need to come down," she said. "That vampire is here!"
"What vampire?" I asked, even as Jared was already getting up. "Wait!" I called before he could leave me alone. He hesitated, turning back to me. "Unchain me." I tugged at the ties that bound me. "You said I wasn't a prisoner. I promise I won’t do anything to hurt your family." My eyes fixed on Jared, because I couldn't let him leave this room while I was still bed-bound. Not while there was an unknown source of magic in the house. Maybe he realized this too, because he turned on the light, got a key from the small desk in the corner and came back to the bed.
Leaning over me to get at the chains, he locked eyes with me. "I trust you."
He didn't sayplease don't let me down,but I heard it all the same.
The key clicked in the lock and my chains fell off me. I rubbed my wrist.
For the first time in a long time—possibly since the moment I had been turned—I was a free vampire. And what was I doing with that freedom? Rushing after Jared as he vanished from my room. I followed him downstairs, where the rest of the family was already gathered in the living room, forming a wide circle around a vampire I'd seen only once before.
Vlad.
He'd joined our coven after Zenon's death. There'd been a lot of restructuring going on during those days as some vampires chose to abandon us and others came in to fill their ranks, mostly sent from nearby covens. I wasn't sure where exactly Vlad had come from, but then, I'd never paid much attention to those things. Coven politics. I'd been happy to let Nicolai worry about that.
I got a bad feeling around Vlad, though. When I mentioned it to my sire, he told me not to worry about it. That I was being too sensitive. He never quite understood that my sense of magic was more developed than his, that I could tell how powerful someone was, no matter if they tried to hide it or not.
Stepping into the living room now, I found my old fears confirmed yet again. Vlad's magic emanated from him like a predator’s roar, almost making me want to cover my ears, even though it wasn't my ears that sensed his magic. I hung back behind Jared, instincts stopping me from getting any closer to Vlad. He was a whale, and I was the small fish trying not to be pulled into his mouth as he swam past.
How old was he?
Incredibly old, he had to be.
I glanced back at the door I'd entered through, suddenly filled with the urge to just leave this house. Run far, far away and never look back.
But then Jared took another step forward, toward the monster, and I found myself rooted in place. I didn't want to leave him behind, not while I didn't know what made him act the way he did. What made him care about me…
Snap back to reality,I told myself.Focus.
People were speaking.
"You still haven't told us how you got in here!" That was Collin's voice. He sounded pissed. Out of all the people in the room, he was the one standing closest to Vlad, with his boyfriend right behind him. It was almost as if Talon was waiting for a good moment to pull him back.
"I told you I have my ways," Vlad said. He didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that nobody wanted him here.
"This is supposed to be a safe house," Luke chimed in. "We need to know how you breached the walls."
“There’s nothing for you to worry about. Your house is still safe. I got in the same way your boyfriend did."
"Bullshit," Collin claimed. "Crimson got my permission to come in here."
