Page 48 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

Julian: You guys don’t have to thank me for taking care of my family.

Julian: She knows who her biological father is and wants to find him using magic. It’s a long story and I’ll let her tell it to you in the morning, but she’s got a box full of letters and pictures from him.

Julian: She needs clothes. Damien, do you want to go shopping with me tomorrow to get her some stuff?

Quinton: I’ll be over in the morning and I’ll do whatever I can to find her dad for her. He better not be an asshole.

Damien: Hell yes! I want to go shopping. I’ll come by in the morning and bring you some clean clothes. Then we can go. I also have the DVD’s I got her in my car and I need to drop those off for her. She left them at Quint and Ty’s and I don’t want them left over there.

Abel: I told you, we weren’t going to watch her DVD’s!

Quinton: Heads up – the Council has Chucky. They refused to tell me why and said they’d explain it to me when I see them next. I don’t think they are going to leave until they get to meet her. I don’t think she’s going to like it and I don’t think she’s going to want to meet them. Honestly, I don’t want them anywhere near her.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

We did not need a visit from the Council right then. We were down a person and now Ariel had a scar on her face. The Council would have a field day with that and it would come at our expense.

Quinton: Get some sleep. All of you. We’ll look at it all tomorrow with fresh eyes.

Tyson: What about the football player?

Quinton: Tomorrow. Go to sleep.

I shut my phone off, not bothering to see if anyone else was going to reply.

I wished I could have shut my brain off as easily as I had my phone.

It took me over an hour to fall asleep. And when I did sleep, I had horrible nightmares where everything around me was painted in blood. Sadly, it wasn’t the worst nights sleep I’d ever had.

I only got up twice to check on my family upstairs. Those two both slept soundly, and I was glad for it.

Chapter Fifteen

Before opening my eyes, I stretched and rolled over.

I let out a short shriek as the floor rushed up to meet with my face. I threw my arm out in time and my forearm made contact first, jarring me before the rest of my body ungracefully flopped down onto the rug.

“Son of a…” I grumbled in pain.

I leaned forward and dropped my forehead down onto the rug. I took stock of my body. Nothing was broken. My arm stung, and my stomach felt like someone had punched me in the guts.

That had not felt good.

What the hell? I groaned loudly. I never slept so close to the edge of the bed. I moved around a lot when I woke up and liked not face planting on the floor.

How did I even get up here? The last thing I remembered was falling asleep downstairs on the couch with Julian. I didn’t remember waking up and coming up the stairs. Had I taken up sleep walking? I didn’t have very many hobbies, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to get into that particular one. I would end up breaking things or broken myself. And, I’d read somewhere once that people who sleep walked didn’t remember the things they did when they woke up. That was a scary thought.

I was contemplating getting off of the floor when the door blew open. I turned my head to the side in time to see Addison and Abel run in. They skidded to a halt and I saw their eyes frantically skirt through the room, looking for what, I didn’t know. Why were they in my room?

I gave a little huff and pushed myself up to my feet. I shook my arm out, trying to shake off the slight pain. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel good. Popping a Tylenol would take away the sting.

I felt funny standing there with my hair crazy and all over the place and my pretty purple robe draped around me.

“What are you doing?” I asked in exasperation. I stuck my hand out and waved it around the room. “In my room. You burst in here acting like Quinton. What’s up with that?”

Their mouths dropped open and they gapped at me.

“Us?” Abel asked in disbelief. “You want to know what’s wrong with us? You were screaming and then we come in here and find you laying face down on the floor. There’s no one in here with you. What the hell are you doing on the floor? What’s going on? Why were you screaming? You scared the crap out of us.”

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