This all has to be for something. I don’t have a choice. My secret demands things from me. But if I can use it to help Lumi hate me, then it will be worth it. My life will be worth it.
“You will. Our blood deal demands you do everything you can to protect Lumi. Telling her will go against that.”My words are a bluff.
I can see Ambrose testing my words.“I don’t think the blood deal agrees with your assessment, vampire.”
I take a deep breath, cooling my mind to him. Not letting him know what’s coming next.
And then, I attack. I attack harder and faster than I ever have before.
He tries to fight me off. But I’m faster. And I’m not looking to hurt him, to overpower him, to kill him. I’m just attacking for one single thing—a single drop of his blood.
The tangy taste rolls over my tongue as I shift back into my vampire form, standing in the shadows.
I can see the fear form in his eyes. See that for a moment, he thought I was better. That Lumi had made me a better person. But I will do everything I can to protect her. Even using my own painful situation to save her.
“Ambrose, you will not tell her my secret. You will not tell her anything about what transpired here. You will forget my secret. You will forget,” I say, using my mind control on him.
I know my powers have weakened, but in this moment, I pour everything I can into it, and I know the moment that it works.
My breathing eases, and I turn back into the shadows. “We’re done here.”
But I’m not done. I have to figure out why Lumi had that dream in the first place. Because as much as I wanted to hurt her, I never intended for her to have a nightmare like that about me. The scent was all that she was supposed to experience.Fuck, what does it mean? Why?
Chapter 16
Lumi
“Done fighting?” I ask Ambrose when he finds me sitting in the small library on the second floor, which gave me a perfect view of their fight.
I have no idea what they said to each other. They spoke mind to mind, and Ambrose kept me entirely locked out of his mind the entire time. It doesn’t matter what was said. It was clear enough what the fight was about and who ended it.
Ambrose stares at me for a moment. He’s wearing only loose shorts, apparently; he wasn’t able to find a shirt before coming to find me.
“Where is everyone?” he asks. But I know what he’s really asking.Where are my guards?
I shrug.
He sighs, taking a seat in the small, high-backed chair next to me. He stares at me, and his gloss over. He opens and closes his mouth several times as if he’s trying to tell me something, and then forgets completely.
“You okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I just have a pounding headache.” He gets up and finds Nyx’s liquor. Pouring himself a glass of amber liquid, he sits back down.
“Probably that fight you just had.”
“Maybe,” he says, but he doesn’t sound convinced.
“You going to tell me what you two talked about?”
His eyes darken. “You already know.”
I sigh. I guess I do.
I pull my legs up in the small chair, tucking them against my chest.
“Don’t you think it’s strange that we haven’t been attacked yet? That the witches haven’t found us?”
He thinks for a moment. “Not really. I’m sure they know exactly where we are. They have a plan. And even if they capture us, they can’t use us to break the curse until the next full moon. They’ll attack closer to then, and we’ll be ready for them.”