Page 73 of Deceived

We take a quick, efficient shower and I make sure to pay extra attention to getting his wounds clean.

We make it downstairs to find the others gathered in the kitchen, making coffee or eating breakfast.

Griffyn hops up immediately. “I’ll get you both something. Sit down.”

I feel too raw after yesterday to fight with him. It takes the wind out of your sails when someone holds you as you cry over your injured mate.

A few minutes later, Griffyn is setting a perfectly made cup of coffee in front of me and Felix.

“Brian has reached out to me since Felix was hurt. He said the Garmentas admitted to wanting to weaken other demons so they could come out on top,” Griffyn says.

“I don’t think that’s all, otherwise why did they have wolfsbane too?” Aksel says.

“Who knows what else they had,” I add.

“And you’re sure we can trust Brian to have our backs on this?” Aksel asks Felix.

“Yeah, he’ll cover for us and say they needed backup. He’s a friend and I know he has our backs.”

“Wow, it’s almost like having friends pays off!” I say with a laugh while staring at Aksel. He only glowers at me in response.

“Then that’s covered for now,” Aksel says.

“I’ve been wondering, what if someone I thought I used compulsion on had wev in his system? Would I taste it? I didn’t know it existed,” I say.

“If he had drank it, you would have been poisoned with his blood. But he could have been wearing it to have the same effect,” Aksel explains.

Fuck.

“However, we didn’t find the weaver we needed so we are back to square one on that.” Aksel cups his chin.

I rub my temple. “That makes my head hurt.”

Felix’s head whips towards me. “Anna, you keep saying that. I assumed it was a figure of speech but I can tell you’re actually in pain… are you?”

“Why would I not be serious? Of course you guys are giving me headaches!” I respond.

My head hurts and he’s asking me if I’m serious. Why the hell would he do that?

“She’s probably hungry. Just open up a vein blood bag,” Aksel chimes in.

“Shut the fuck up Aksel! She just fed yesterday morning. The only difference today is that she didn’t feed this morning since I’m injured.” Felix sounds worried.

Blaze and Griffyn both look over at me with concerned eyes.

“Why are you concerned by this?” I ask.

Felix slowly swallows. “Anna, as a vampire you shouldn’t be getting headaches. It only makes sense if you’re starving, which should not be the case considering you fed yesterday morning.”

“Wait what?”

Felix looks to the others for help as he moves closer.

“These are really headaches? Not just something bothering you?” Griffyn asks, not like he doubts me but just to be sure.

“They’re bad and only getting worse,” I confess.

“We need to investigate this. Something is causing them. It’s probably fucking Rion. Let’s go ask him.” Aksel’s voice is fierce. He looks around the room like he would fight Rion right now if he was here.

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