Page 28 of Love Heals
Jared's eyes darted to Luke, who had gone as pale as a corpse.
"I suggest you avoid getting bitten in the future," Vlad said.
Luke cast his gaze to the ground. Jared almost wanted to go to him to comfort him, but Crimson was already taking over that job, laying an arm around Luke's shoulder and holding him close. Jared let himself relax a tiny bit, knowing that his brother was safe and in good hands.
Vlad, meanwhile, strode over to the coffee table and set the gem down on it. "I will leave this with you as a sign of my trust," he said, facing them again. "I urge you to find out how to activate it. The vampires in this city won't rest until they've killed you... or they're stopped. Finding out the exact contents of the prophecy will be paramount to your survival, I promise you that." There was something in his eyes as he said that, a weariness that spoke of all the centuries he must have seen. And then he vanished. There was no popping sound, no smoke, no magical mist of any kind. From one moment to the next, he was just gone, as if he'd never existed at all.
Goosebumps rose on Jared's skin.
If Vlad could disappear without notice, could he appear the same way too? If so, the vampire could probably kill any one of them before they ever even noticed his presence.
Speaking of disappearing vampires, though... Jared turned his gaze to the stairs Silas had run up.
"Jared, wait," Remy stopped him before he could go after the younger vampire.
Jared shot his brother a questioning look. "What is it?"
Remy hesitated, as if he wasn't quite sure how to put his question. Then he asked, "Do you think you can get Silas to tell us what he knows?"
"I’ll try, but he doesn’t trust us yet."
His siblings looked at each other, but remained quiet.
It was Aldrich who first broke the silence that had fallen over the room. "Are we really going to believe in prophecies now?"
"You don't think they're real?" Remy asked.
Aldrich shrugged. "I've heard of weirder things for sure, but still... some dude said something a few centuries ago and that's what we're gonna pin our hopes on now? Who's to say he wasn't just high off his ass?"
"The vampire elders certainly believed that wasn't the case," Talon said. "They wouldn't have moved because of something an addict said."
Aldrich shrugged again. "Whatever."
"I'll talk to Silas," Jared said, and then he left the room. Not just because he wanted to talk about the gem on the table, but because he needed to know how Silas was doing. That vampire had threatened him, and Jared had to make sure Silas knew that no one in his family would ever hurt him—and that Jared wouldn't allow anyone else to, either.
