“What’s happening?” Sky whispered as I stared helplessly at him.
“I’m not really sure,” I mumbled back, pushing on Ego’s forearms. “Ego. Can you maybe let me go sit in my seat?”
He went still as a statue, then hissed out, “Nooo,” like he’d kill someone if they dared to separate us.
“What the actual fuck?” Sky asked, while digging out his phone. I thought maybe he was calling King or one of the witches for help, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. He was recording.
“Sky!” I yelled.
“What?” he asked with a goofy smile. “It’s like he’s high all of a sudden. This is awesome.”
I whipped my head toward Lysandro. “What’s happening?”
Instead of looking as perplexed as I felt, he appeared to know exactly what was going on with Ego. “I believe that the fledgling has found his anchor.”
“His what?” I shrieked. “Ego, let me go.”
He sighed, finally loosening his arms just enough for me to wiggle out of them and half-fall off his lap and onto the floor. But with his vampire speed, he caught me before my butt hit the floor. When he picked me up in a bridal carry, I glared at him. “Put me in the wingback, Ego. Right now.”
He frowned. “But?—”
“Now,” I demanded. He set me down, then stood over me like a sullen child. “Go. Sit.”
He huffed. “Fine.”
As I turned back to Lysandro, I noticed that Sky was still recording his cousin. “Why are you doing that?”
“Because,” he said with a grin, finally turning off his phone. “When he’s back in his right mind, I’m going to torture him with that video.” He cackled. “I’ve never seen him act like that in my life.”
Ego’s brows crinkled, and I saw the beginning of a frown creeping onto his face. This wasn’t good. If Ego didn’t know why he was like that either, it would be another thing that would freak him out.
“Lysandro, what’s an anchor?”
The old vamp pointed a finger at me. “You. You, dear Scotty, are Ego’s anchor.” He hummed. “I really should’ve known.” He shrugged. “But alas, I wasn’t fortunate enough to have found mine during my infancy.”
“Your what? Like when you were a baby?” Sky asked before I could.
Lysandro flicked his hand in a flit. Or flitted his hand in a flick. He really was an expressive old dude. “Sorry, sorry. I meant my first twenty years as a vampire.”
“So your kind are in their infancy for the first twenty years after they’re turned?” Ego asked.
“Our kind, yes,” Lysandro agreed with a nod.
Now, normally, I was vampire and shifter obsessed. I’d looked forward to finding out all the vampiric shit once I knew I had a source, but I didn’t like being called something I’d never even heard of, and how could I be Ego’s anything? Wouldn’t it make more sense if Sky was his anchor? They were related. I mean, he was already a tether. What was one more thing, right?
“And an anchor is?” I asked.
Lysandro sat in the other wingback, crossing one knee over the other, and clasped his hands in his lap. “Well, an anchor helps a newly-turned vampire keep hold of his humanity while he’s learning to control his nature.”
“Which means what exactly?” Sky asked, sounding fascinated when all I felt was petrified.
“An anchor has the ability to keep the fledgling from falling into blood lust or hurting someone—including himself. He can soothe where no one else can.” He grinned impishly. “Without ever having to worry that the fledgling will rip his anchor’s throat out. It’s impossible for a vampire to hurt his anchor in any way.”
“Sounds kind of like a fated mate,” Sky said, gaze darting between me and Ego, likely trying to discern how we felt about this.
My own concerns were subsiding as my fear for Ego grew. He’d gone still as a statue, that way that usually foretold a depressive meltdown or a vampy rage. I knew he’d be mortified to do either of those in front of Skylar. I wasn’t sure how exactly I knew that, but I did.
Lysandro tilted his head back and forth. “It’s kind of like fated mates, yes.”
