“This is my boyfriend, Aiden,” she announced, gesturing to our rescuer. She smiled as she nodded towards me. “And you already know who she is.”
He flashed a smile. Even that seemed to have an edge to it. “Do I ever,” he smirked. His voice was deep and had a rasp to it. As he turned for the stairs I noticed a long scar down the side of his neck. Whatever caused it had gone deep.
As London and I followed him up the stairs, thoughts churned in my head. How would he know who I am? Unless he knew me from before? Or knew Tristan? London turned around with a grin and nodded. But if he knew Tristan…I thought about how quickly he’d appeared, how effortless it was for him to hold up that man for so long…Was Aiden a vampire too?
“Oh yeah,” thought London. “We’ve got more than just mind reading in common!”
My mind slid the pieces into place. London’s connection to Tristan, the person knocking on the cabin door to alert Tristan when it was time to go—it was Aiden.
“I can’t wait to see his face,” I heard London say.
“I can’t believe you pulled this off,” Aiden responded.
“He’s looking in our direction, you think he knows?”
“Nah,” said Aiden. “He’s probably just wondering what took me so long. We both heard those men talking. When I heard your voice, and realized that they were talking to you two…”
Just when I began to wonder what exactly it was I was walking into, I saw him. He was standing next to a pool table gazing curiously in our direction. And then he noticed me. He quickly turned his head. I could tell that he was angry.
Aiden looked down at London. She bit her lip. “Uh oh,” she said softly.
I just stared at Tristan. He looked uncertain as to what he should do next. He started to walk off a couple of times, but stopped himself, managing a tense “hello” once we reached the table. He didn’t meet my eyes.
But my cold reception didn’t stop me from feeling hopelessly attracted to him. His green eyes, framed with loose strands of his black hair, still captivated me. I imagined those perfect lips pressing against my own. Again the urge to go to him seized me, but he spoke before I could move.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” he said suddenly.
London looked stunned. “But…”
“I told you,” he nearly shouted. “I changed my mind.”
“She doesn’t have the memories Tristan, but the feelings are still there.”
That seemed to take him by surprise, and his anger lifted. But only for a second. His face became hard again, and he began to move in the opposite direction.
London was about to protest but stopped. Her eyes got big and she turned to me, and then back to Tristan. She’d seen something in his head, something about me, enough to make her back off. And then I knew. She’d seen the “something bad” he meant to tell me. She wrapped her arm around Aiden’s and led him away. He seemed confused but didn’t argue.
Seeing London and Aiden leaving, Tristan turned to address me again. “You…you should just go,” he said wearily.
I’d felt like I’d been hit by a truck. He hadn’t planned on coming back tonight.
“I believe what you said the other night,” I started. “I guess I just wanted to talk about it.”
“Well, I don’t want to tell you. Not now. Not with you mother dying.”
“She’s not anymore,” I said quickly, hoping the news might change the dynamic of this conversation. It didn’t.
“It doesn’t matter. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have given you the choice. Go home, Lexy—” He sighed. “Go home, Ana.”
This time he did walk away, leaving me feeling very much alone and totally rejected. I took a couple deep breaths and started for the car when I felt something wet hit my arm. I was crying. Pain burned in my chest and I ducked into the bathroom, locking myself into a stall. It seemed like I was always crying now.
I heard the bathroom door swing open and frantically wiped my face with my sleeve. If it was London, I didn’t want her to know that I was crying. Who was I kidding? Of course she’d know I was crying, what didn’t she know?
“Not much to choose from tonight, Stephanie,” a voice sounded.
“Yeah, broke my heart to see tall, dark, and dangerous spoken for. His friend’s just as hot though, if you like the model type.”
The first girl laughed. “Did you see how quick he sent that young girl away? Guess he wasn’t happy being stuck babysitting.”
The other girl laughed. “She’s young. She’ll learn that guys who look like that, don’t go for girls that look like her. They tend to like girls…with a bit more to offer.”
“And a bit more willing to offer it!”
“Let that be a lesson to you!” she shouted, pounding my stall door. They left the bathroom laughing.
I buried my face into my hands, wondering if it was possible to feel any lower than I did right now. There was a tapping sound on my stall door about a minute later.
“Go away,” I said, sounding pitiful even to myself. I could have sworn that those girls had left.
“It’s me,” London spoke in a soft voice.
I didn’t answer.
“When I connect with someone’s mind, I can do more than just hear their thoughts. I can experience what they feel. That longing, that connection you feel toward him, he feels it too. Only with him, it’s so much deeper. It’s intense. Believe me, he would like nothing more than to take you up in his arms and kiss you, I’ve seen it. But he’s trying to push you away because…well, he’s afraid you’ve given up too much for him. But you have to make him see that he’s wrong. What you two have— it’s rare…so rare. I’ve probably connected to hundreds of minds since learning that I could, and I’ve only felt real love only a handful of times. I’ve met couples who’ve been together for forty years and not have what you guys have. But you’ve got to fight for it Ana. Do whatever it takes. I’ll help you. I’ve been helping you—well, trying at least.”
I pulled myself up and unlocked the door.
She pulled it open. It surprised me to see her face wet too. It was obvious to me that she’d been sincere. So when she reached out for a hug, I fell into her arms. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I really thought I was helping by bringing you here tonight.”
To my relief and slight disappointment, Tristan had already left when we emerged from the bathroom. Maybe it was for the best, his not being here right now. I needed time think about things, to think about what it was he thought I was giving up for him. I wondered when I’d see him again. Or if I ever would.
Aiden had chosen to stay, and walked us out to her car. It was a good thing he had, because the men from before were standing around a pickup truck joking loudly about what had happened to rude guy who’d grabbed London. I could see that the guy, still visibly shaken, didn’t find it nearly as funny as his friends did.
London tried her best to distract Aiden, but once he recognized them, I saw his jaw set. That anger was resurfacing, and again London had to put herself between them. Emboldened by the distance, the men began to taunt him.
“What’s wrong? Your lady gotta sign your permission slip for you to come over here?”
I could see the fire burning in Aiden’s eyes. He was barely keeping himself together, and London, though much taller than me, was nothing compared to him. He could get through her without any effort at all.
“Think about this,” she said to him. “Do this for me. You have to learn to control it, Aiden. It’s the only way we can be together.”
Once again, she seemed to know exactly what buttons to press. His body relaxed. London gave him a big hug and closed her eyes. “I’m so proud of you.”
The men kept taunting him, but he was able to ignore it this time. He hopped onto a motorcycle and followed us in London’s convertible for a little while before turning off the highway.
“Don’t worry,” London said, noticing my concern. “He won’t go back. He just needs to blow of
f some steam, that’s all.”
I thought about what Tristan had told me that first night.
Again London answered my question before I could ask it. “Yep, I brought him back. Well, my face did anyway. A long, long, long time ago, when they were both still human, he and Tristan used to live together. They were like brothers. But they were extremely poor. To survive, they did odd jobs to earn money. Well, Aiden used to work in the fields for some really rich guy. One day the guy’s niece visits by and they hit it off. She gives him his first kiss. He thought that he was in love but she went back home that same night and he never saw her again. Fast forward to about a year ago. I’m at a club having a good time when this huge, amazingly gorgeous guy comes up and just stares at me. When I connect to his mind, I can see what he is, and I’m about to drop him immediately, when I stumble across his human memories. I made him think of her, and thinking of her made him think of his first kiss and his first heart break. Experiencing those emotions reminded him of his human side.”
“Wow,” I said. “And it really happens just like that?”
“Yeah, but it’s keeping his human side in control that’s difficult. He fights the animal inside him constantly. It’s always there in the back of his mind, threatening to take back control. It’s in Tristan’s mind too, he’s just had a lot more practice in dealing with it. Anyway, I know Aiden’s grateful to me for bringing him back—for allowing him to reunite with Tristan, too. Before he’d met me, he couldn’t understand what had made Tristan give up his old life—he’d really resented him for it. What started as just being grateful has blossomed into love.”
She smiled.
“He really tries so hard to control the urges, and I’m the only reason for it. And he beats himself up a lot, because sometimes he feels like he isn’t worthy of my patience. But I love him. And when I connect with his mind, I can feel that same love coming back to me. It’s why I’m so willing to help you, I think. If you guys can do it, then why can’t we? We really are kindred spirits you know— conjurers in love with vampires. The vamp tramps!”
She laughed out loud at the cringe that name evoked. Despite the difficulties that taming a vampire seemed to present for her, I knew that she truly did love him. I noticed the haze of happiness that settled over her as she spoke about him, and even now, as we rode in silence, I could see that she was still beaming. I found myself wishing that Tristan and I could work through whatever barriers we had as well. But then, I didn’t even know what it was that was keeping us apart.
“Can you tell me what you saw in Tristan’s head?” I asked finally. “The thing that was so bad?”
London’s smile evaporated. “He would never forgive me if I did that.” She never quite looked comfortable after that. When she turned up the radio, I knew that I had wasted a good opportunity to learn more about Tristan’s and Aiden’s shared past.
When we pulled back into the Big Buy parking lot on the edge of town, I assumed it was just to give her an opportunity to change, but she brought more than just her “community service” clothes up to the driver’s seat. She had a very old looking book as well.
“Okay, so I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of memory spell they might have placed you under and I’ve narrowed it down to one choice. There was a second choice, but if they’d used that one then surprising you with Tristan again tonight should have brought you out of it. I kinda figured it was a little weak, but seeing as how it was your own grandmother, I thought she might be hesitant to use permanent magick.”
“I guess not,” I replied.
Her eyes were sympathetic.
“Did you find something for the permanent spell?” I asked hopefully.
She smiled. “I did.” She used the cloth bookmark to find her page and used her finger to read the faded text. Once she’d read the entire page, she looked up at me again. “Okay, so lean your head towards me.”
I did as she asked, and she placed her forehead against mine. It was an odd position to be in and we both found ourselves chuckling. “Stop laughing!” she snorted.
“I’m trying! But when you laugh, it makes me laugh too.”
Rolling her eyes playfully, she leaned her forehead into mine again. She began to read the text under her breath, it was nothing I could understand, but as she did so, I could feel a tingling sensation inside my skull. I waited until she finished before I told her.
“Really!” she exclaimed. “Well, do you remember anything?”
I searched my mind for anything new. I focused on Tristan’s image in my head, willing for some new memory of him to appear. After a few minutes, I was forced to accept that it simply wasn’t there.
London looked crushed.
“Maybe it was a different spell,” I said, trying not to let the disappointment I felt carry over into my voice.
“Or maybe I’m not good enough to do a spell like this,” she said. She looked demoralized and her eyes were suddenly distant. This was about a lot more than just me getting back my memories, I discovered.
“It could just take some time to work,” I said hoping to bring her back from wherever it was she went.
She bit her lip and read the text again. “I suppose it’s possible,” she said finally, a glimmer of optimism in her voice. “Well, I guess I better get you back.”
As we turned onto the driveway, a thought struck her and she stopped the car.
“I just remembered. I’m supposed to tell you why we’re pretending to hate each other.”
“Right, I forgot about that.”
“It’s a simple reason really. It’s to protect each other in case one of us gets caught.”
“Caught?”
“With a vampire.”
“Oh.”
“They would never understand. It’s why I’m leaving this place as soon as I graduate. But for now, it’s important that we don’t appear very close. If for some reason one of us did get busted, then they’d immediately begin to investigate all of our friends to see who knew, and to see if we were the only ones.”
“That makes sense,” I said.
She nodded.
Not a full minute later, she was skidding to a stop beside my house. I told her that I hated her and hoped she fell out of a tree. She gave me a kind of bizarre look for a moment but quickly returned with an insult. My grandmother, along with the group of men she was speaking with outside, stared in silence as I stomped up to the house and into the ballroom.
“You hope I fall out of a tree? Way to sell it,” London thought in an amused voice.
I found myself smiling, until I looked up and saw Duncan staring at me from the other side of the ballroom. Again, he didn’t speak, but he followed me with his eyes as I moved across the room.
I wasn’t able to breathe again until I reached my bedroom. “He knows,” I told myself. “He has to.” How else to explain the sudden change in attitude?
My worries getting the best of me, I dove into my bed and placed a pillow over my head. A voice spoke my name and I jumped. When I sat up, Tristan was next to me, moving his face closer to mine until his lips pressed gently against my own. In an instant, my worries faded and something deep inside—my soul, seemed to burst, allowing me to feel things I’d never felt before. My entire body felt warm. I invested everything, all of me into that kiss, the only thought I found myself capable of was my never wanting it to end.
Chapter 20
Apology
“I’m sorry,” he said, once he’d pulled away. It took a moment for me to get my bearings after experiencing such a surge of raw emotion. “I don’t mean to hurt you,” he continued, “and it kills me to see you upset. I just thought that with your memories gone, it was my chance to finally give you what you deserve. But I see now that you still feel it, even if you don’t remember why.”
Those beautiful green eyes stared into mine, and he let his fingertips graze my cheek. His touch seemed to resonate through all of me and I felt myself slip into delirium. I forced myself to sp
eak. If this was our last moment together, then I couldn’t risk anything being left unsaid.
“These feelings that I have, I’ve never felt anything like this.”
He shot me a half smile. “Technically you have.”
I dropped my head, feeling the emotion rushing into my face. “What I mean is—well, I don’t know how I should act, or what I should say. This is so new to me and I don’t want to do something that makes you change your mind again.”
He looked angry with himself now. “I’m not going anywhere, Ana. Not anymore. Now that I know about your feelings, I’ll stay with you for as long as you want. But you have to promise me something.”
Relief flooded into me. I would have promised him anything in that moment. “What is it?”
“You won’t ask about the “bad thing” I was going to tell you about before.”
Well, maybe not anything. “But…”
“Please,” he followed. “It’s very important to me.”
I studied his perfect face. His eyes pleaded his case. So unfair. “Okay,” I said finally. “But you have to promise me something in return.”
His eyes widened before giving way to an amused stare. “And what’s that?”
“You have to answer the rest of my questions. I mean, you’re practically a stranger.”
He really laughed at that. “Okay, fair enough.”
A million questions popped into my head all at once. I sifted through them until I found the first one with substance. I wanted him to know that I was after real answers. But before I could ask, he volunteered something that shocked me.
“If you’ve been wondering if I was the one who saved you that night, I am. I also carried your mother to the hospital.”
I was stunned. I was certain my mother had prearranged some kind of “emergency” help for us. But I never imagined she’d turn to a vampire for help against, well, vampires.
He laid his head back on my bed, placing both hands behind his head. My astonishment amused him even more. “I used to check up on you two from time to time. The first few times was just because I worried about Aleksandra’s little sister being out in the open like that. It was common knowledge that she’d taken the Rasputin heir with her, so I knew that she would be a high priority target for the vampires who’ve gone rogue. But your mother got good at disappearing. I lost track of her. And then about three months ago, I saw you on a bus in South Carolina—
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