Page 87 of Outlaw Witch

Still, the two of them clearly have a strong bond and they love each other fiercely. Me and Ember are a lot like them, except we seem to rub each other up the wrong way like a couple of angry cats in a box.

Doesn’t mean I don’t love the fucker though, and I’d do just about anything for him and know he’d do the same.

“How are you feeling, bud?” Fabian says. “You seem to be doing good today.”

“Silver got me some more vamp blood,” Seb announces. “And I haven’t felt this great in ages.” He beams at me and I pat his hand, hoping that I haven’t overstepped.

Fabian doesn’t reply immediately and I’m nervous to look at him to see his reaction.

My stomach drops with his next words. “Hey, bud, you mind going to get us some snacks?”

Seb springs up and bolts out of the room with a little wave and grin. Very un-teenagerly of him. I guess the vamp blood has had an effect already.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out as soon as he’s out of earshot. “I went to talk to Dante about the curse, see what happened last night and where I messed up. I figured I’d ask him for some blood for Seb at the same time since I remember what you said about it helping.”

“Silver,” Fabian says sternly. “Chill out. I’m not going to yell at you. Am I happy you went to see a vamp on your own? No. Am I incredibly grateful for all the things you’ve done so far and for you thinking about my little brother? Fuck, yes. I mean, Zeph’s gonna be pissed when he hears you went in there alone, but he’s got a grim history with vamps.”

“Okay.” I swallow hard.

He squeezes my hand firmly, and my heart gives a little flutter. “Any idea where the guys have got to? I figured they would have been poking their noses in by now.”

“Roscoe said they had some business to attend to. He said things are a bit of a mess.”

“It’s a shitshow at the minute.” Fabian sighs deeply. “I’ve let a lot of things slide recently. What with the vamps causing trouble and there are a bunch of smaller gangs that think they can take on our entire district and control a corner of the market. Right now, we have everything in the district under our control. There are always people trying to infringe on our turf, but it’s a total clusterfuck when we don’t fight back.”

I relax back in my seat, folding my legs underneath me. “Is continuing the family business what you always wanted to do? You never considered doing anything else?”

He shrugs his big shoulders and I note he looks tired again. “I guess it was always just expected. When I was younger than Seb, I had dreams of doing other things. I always thought Ro would make an amazing tattoo artist. And Z’s competition level with his martial arts. They could both do a lot. Live entirely different lives, you know?” He smiles and shrugs, but it’s like there’s a lot weighing his shoulders down. “How about you?”

“Can’t say I’ve ever thought much about the future,” I say. I’ve never been able to. But I don’t say that. I don’t want to bring the mood down even further. “I’m more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of person.”

“I think you could do anything you set your mind to,” Fabian says with a soft smile.

It’s a sweet thing to say, especially with the way he rubs his thumb over the top of my hand. The gentle touch is enough to send my heart fluttering like I’m hosting a horde of moths inside my chest.

I have to admit I’m curious as all hell to know what he knows about me. Last night demonstrated that it’s a lot more than I thought. For all this time, I figured I’d gone through life undetected.

Incognito.

I wonder about the others too. I wonder how much they noticed last night and whether things are going to be different now.

I wonder how many of my secrets they know.

Licking my lips, I figure it’s time to rip this particular bandaid off. “Uh, about last night. The whole sacrifice thing. How did you—”

“Seb’s magic,” Fabian blurts out, seemingly changing the subject so quickly it makes my head spin. “I never told you what he can do, did I?”

I think back to our previous conversations, which mostly have revolved around the curse and Sebastian’s illness.

I shake my head, confused. “You haven’t.”

“And I don’t think we’ve ever talked all that much aboutyou,either.” He squeezes my hand tighter. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I’ve been so wrapped up in myself.”

“It’s fine, Fabian. I’m not exactly an open book.”

He nods. “Right, okay. Anyway, there are things Sebastian can do that he... shouldn’t be able to. I first noticed when he was a little kid, maybe five years old. We’d catch his nanny sometimes wandering around the building, confused, like she wasn’t sure where she was or what she was doing.

“We dismissed it as her getting sick and my father fired her.” He rolls his eyes. “But then I noticed some weird shit with his school friends. They’d crow about the teacher forgetting to give them homework or not teaching a lesson at all.

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