“How long have you had a phone?” she asks, her expression neutral and unreadable.
Like a deer in headlights, I freeze. My mind blanks.
She sighs. “It’s really dangerous to make calls. Phones can be tracked very easily.”
“It’s a burner,” I say. “I bought it when Becks purchased one.”
“That’s good, at least. Does he know about it?”
I shake my head.
“And who did you call? A boyfriend?”
“What? No! Just my two friends. They’d never tell anyone.”
“Okay,” she says, sounding tired. “Let’s go. Everyone is waiting.”
She starts to turn.
“Are you going to tell him about it?”
“Who, Becks?”
I nod and she pauses. “No point,” she finally says. “By tonight, the phone will be a non-issue anyway. The one place you can’t track a phone is a different dimension.” She gives me a crooked smile.
“Thanks,” I say, and she nods.
“About Becks . . .” she starts, and I catch a flicker of nervousness skate across her features.
“Yes?” I ask, and then hold my breath, feeling like she’s going to do it. Confess their history, right here, right now.
I brace myself to hear it thrown in my face again, but seconds tick by until Locklyn just shakes her head.
“He’s a good guy,” is all she says, confusing me.
“Okay.”
“Let’s get back. Everyone is waiting.”
Twenty-Seven
BECKS
The wind whips around us as we stand atop a small hill outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It’s much warmer here than it was up in the mountains, but a chill runs through me just the same. It just doesn’t have anything to do with the temperature.
Being a vampire, Cassian’s power is amplified by blood. This location was picked because he said we needed to be somewhere a lot of blood was spilled. Fifty thousand humans perished on these fields and hills over a three-day period during the Civil War, making it the bloodiest battle in this country’s history, and a great location for him to open a portal. But something about this place is off. Like so much death has changed it irrevocably.
Beside me, Haven wraps her arms around herself, her unbound hair lifted by the wind and thrown around her head. Even bundled in a coat, she looks like a goddess, and I have trouble not staring. I don’t know if she has me under some spell, but every moment with her I sink a little deeper, falling harder for her.
I wish I would have had some time alone with her today. Something is wrong, that much is clear. It has been since right before I left for New York. I don’t know exactly what it is, but my suspicion is that she’s second-guessing my intentions, and it’s causing her to pull away.
She bounced between hot and cold in the car today: the look in her eyes telling me she wanted nothing more than to sink against my side and let me hold her, but her body language was stiff and uncomfortable.
If she doesn’t know how I feel, then maybe she’s second-guessing how to act. I don’t want to make the same mistakes I did with Locklyn by waiting too long to tell her. Once we’re through the portal and safely in the creature world, it’s all coming out. If she doesn’t want me, it’s going to hurt like crazy, but I’m still going to protect her with my life. The more time we spend together, the more I think that she’s it for me. There’s no one else and never will be.
My hand twitches with the urge to reach down and take hers. I can tell she’s nervous by how she’s fidgeting, shifting her weight. She’s biting down on her bottom lip, which is distracting me to no end.
I force my gaze from Haven to take in the rest of the group. We’re all here. Haven’s parents are standing next to her, and on the other side of me are Locklyn and Talon. Kade, having stayed true to his word to help Cassian collect the few items he needed—most importantly a blessed dagger—is next to Talon. Cassian stands across from all of us as he prepares to open the portal.
