Page 133 of Mortal Shift
No-one stopped me as I strode straight into the infirmary and rushed right up to Thaden’s bed. Thessalia came into sight first, standing beside the bed and holding a hand in hers. And then I saw Thaden, sitting up in his bed, face animated as he spoke quickly to his sister in a voice too low for me to catch. Then he caught sight of me and his eyes narrowed. Thessalia twisted round quickly, and then her eyes narrowed too.
“Nice to be wanted,” I said brightly.
“I gather I owe you my thanks, sweetness,” Thaden said, his voice just a little too tight to be his usual seductive purr. Thessalia snorted.
“Hardly. She demanded a high price for her blood.”
“Indeed,” Thaden said, eyeing me speculatively. “And yet you gave it to me freely so many times.”
“I never gave it to you,” I snapped with a scowl. “You took it. That’s not the same thing.”
He shrugged. “It is to me.”
“Which explains so much about vampire culture.”
Ling cleared her throat quietly and Thaden’s gaze snapped to her, and his eyes narrowed again. He opened his mouth to speak.
“Yeah, yeah,” I pre-empted across the top of him. “Who is she? Move it along already.”
Thaden smirked. “In such a hurry for me to drain you again, sweetness? You must have missed me.”
“Hardly,” I said, crossing my arms. “Don’t flatter yourself. There’s only one thing I want from you.”
His face turned serious.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and my heart stuttered at his somber tone. “I don’t remember a thing about the attack.”
Chapter Forty-Four
I kicked a stray acorn from my path, watching as it crashed into a tree trunk and bounced back before lying still. Stagnant. That about summed up my progress. Everything I’d done had come to nothing. Cole was still behind bars, and my best hope for freeing him had just gone up in smoke.
Fucking vampires.
“Thought they were supposed to have supernatural senses,” I griped as I stalked across the grounds. “Heightened awareness, all the shit. How the hell couldn’t he have seen who attacked him?”
I kicked another acorn in frustration.
“I don’t know,” Ling said, “but I think if the flora knew it would have told you by now.”
I exhaled heavily and my shoulders slumped.
“What the hell am I going to do, Ling? He was our only hope. Our only witness. Everyone else believes Cole had motive for the attack, and there’s nothing I can say to convince them otherwise.”
“He did, though,” she said, watching me from the corner of her eye. “Have motive, I mean. Right? You were his motive.”
I shook my head. “Thaden hadn’t fed on me for weeks. And Cole and Thaden—”
I broke off sharply.
“What?”
“It’s not my secret to tell,” I said. “Things are…complicated. But you’ve just got to trust me when I say Cole was the last person who’d ever do that to Thaden.”
“I do trust you,” Ling said. “If you say he’s innocent, I believe you.”
“Great.” I shot her a wry smile. “Too bad the council aren’t so easily convinced.”
“Tell me about…” She trailed off, her eyes fixing on a point somewhere over my shoulder.
