Page 28 of Captive Hybrid

My gaze snaps to her. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Of course.’

Something settles in my stomach. ‘I really don’t mean to be ungrateful. You’re being so nice. I just… I want to go home. I don’t want to stay here.’

Evelyn gives a thoughtful ‘hmm’. ‘I get that. Drusilla won’t change her mind. Best you can do is stay out of her way until this all goes down.’ She settles into a comfortable armchair. ‘Believe me.’

‘Is it true she wants a war? To take out the other three Origins? How does she think she can do that?’

Evelyn purses her lips. ‘My queen is ambitious. And you’re an unusual, potentially valuable chess piece.’

I don’t have a response to that, so I just nod and shut the bedroom door. I change into the simple but pretty azure dress, tossing the grey thing in the bin with a shudder. I should smack Callen’s smug face for putting me in that, knowing what it would make me look like.

And Godric. He saw the dress and didn’t say anything.

I emerge from the room, turning things over in my mind. This vampire has been kind to me so far. I wonder how far that extends. I can’t stay here. I won’t remain a prisoner. Even if there is a library.

I settle into one of the leather armchairs, Evelyn in the opposite one. I pretend to look up at the books. ‘Thanks for the dress.’ I smooth down the blue fabric before me, settling on a safe subject to broach. ‘You took one look at me and knew I was fae. Have you met a faerie before?’

Evelyn sits back, completely calm and at ease. This is her domain. Though there’s a striking absence of something when I look at her. She has pale skin, auburn hair past her shoulders, and copper eyes which aren’t warm, but cold as metal. Yet, there’s no arrogance in her frame, on her features. She’s calm as a statue, but doesn’t exude the same predatory darkness that the other vampires do.

‘I have, yes. Several.’ She tilts her head. ‘You haven’t? How can that be?’

I return my gaze to the books. ‘My parents abandoned me when I was a baby. I was raised by a witch, the only mother I knew, in the Triple Moon Coven. There, we share an alliance with the local wolf pack. We—they—live together in peace, protecting each other.’

A soft exhale. ‘Well, that’s different. How did that come to be?’

I shrug. ‘I don’t know. It was always like that.’

‘Do you know anything of your birth parents?’ Her voice is surprisingly kind, gentle.

‘Not really. Just that my mother was a witch, father a fae.’ I turn to her. ‘Do I get my looks from my father, then? My hair?’

Evelyn offers a soft smile, her red lips curving. ‘I would think so, yes. Fae genetics would dominate that of a witch. Though, I’d be curious to know what powers you have?’

I swallow, all too aware of my new abilities with my vines. If Evelyn learns of it—

‘You know what?’ She sits up. ‘You don’t have to answer that. I won’t third degree you. Your powers are your business.’

That catches me by surprise.

She offers a friendly smile. It seems she wants to be friends. Or, at least, stay on my good side, too. Evelyn claps her hands to her thighs. ‘Are you hungry?’

I shudder to think what ‘food’ might be available here. As though seeing the thought in my mind, she chuckles. ‘I have real food!’ She shakes her head with a smile, as though I’m completely daft for not assuming my vampire host will have human food for me.

‘Uh, Evelyn?’ I follow her into the kitchen. ‘Can—can I ask you something?’ I’m starting to get the feeling that I like Evelyn. For a vampire. And that’s a dangerous assumption. I need to know what she’s really like. If I’ve learned anything from the three vampires I have interacted with, it’s that no matter what they say, they all have their own agenda.

Evelyn’s head is in a white bar fridge. For a moment, I’m startled to realise they have electricity and indeed her apartment hosts a few candles, but the rest are overhead lights. It seems the vampires like to keep their old-world-chic to the main halls and walkways—and dungeon cells—but enjoy modern technology in their homes. ‘Yeah?’

I count my blessings that I can’t see what’s in the fridge. In fact, I make a point to half-turn away from it, but keep the vampire in view. ‘Do you, uh, you don’t want to kill me, do you?’

Evelyn’s head knocks the top of the fridge. She claps a hand to her head and turns, copper eyes wide. ‘No!’ A light chuckle escapes her lips. ‘Why would I want to do that?’ She hands me a carton of apple juice. A ridiculously innocent juxtaposition to the presence of a deadly vampire who’s keeping me hostage.

‘Um.’ I take the juice, but don’t drink from it. In my first days here, I’d worried there was poison in the food or drink. ‘Just the way the others talked to me, I guess.’ I avoid adding, Because you’re a vampire, duh.

Evelyn shrugs. ‘Not me. And probably not them, either, really. Sure, you might be a delicacy of sorts, but vampires know what they like. Personally, I’m partial to male witches. They have a really delicious spicy taste—’

My blood runs cold as I drop the juice. My survival instincts take hold and yank me toward the front door as fear curls around me. Witches!

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