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He can sense lies?
r /> “I’m not lying.”
His eyes narrow again, but he takes a step back. “You’re not what I expected.”
Feeling emotionally drained and exhausted, I snort derisively. “Welcome to our fucked up world,” I say, throwing his words back at him.
He vanishes from sight just as I hear Zee’s voice boom through the woods. Oh shit. He sounds pissed.
“Here! I’m over—”
My words end on a squeal when he suddenly appears, and he grabs me at the waist, lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder.
“What the hell?” I ask, trying to lift up but not being able to.
“Until one of the others finds a spell to latch you to my fucking hip, I’m tying you to my bed. I’ll be damned if I ever lose you again.”
Chapter 35
ZEE
Silently, I appear at the old oak behind the barn as Leah sits beside her aunt’s grave. We’ve been here for two weeks, but today we have to go back. Every day she sits in silence and just stares at the tombstone or off into space. Today is the first day she’s actually speaking to her.
“I wanted to be mad at you for never telling me who or what I was, but I can’t. Your reasoning was sound, considering how my mother took her fate. I think deep down you were hoping I’d never turn. If you hadn’t insisted on sheltering me from the truth, Victor might have tried taking me under his wing. I think we both realize how big of a twist that would have put in my life, and it wouldn’t have ended well. I really would have become a monster.”
My heart clenches in my chest as she blows out a breath, and she strokes a flower’s petals before laying it on the grave next to the others she has placed there recently.
“I’m going back. Turns out I’m a fighter after all. But I fight with heart instead of cold indifference. That’s because of you. Your compassion and patience saved my life from a world of coldness. Everything I’ve become is because of you, and I love myself, Aunt Masie. I really do. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a place where I belong.”
My breath freezes in my lungs, and I watch as she kisses the headstone, sitting back down as her eyes gloss over with unshed tears. Turning her was something I never wanted to do, but now… Somehow it seems like it was the only thing to do.
“I’m going to miss you, and I’m going to live with regret. I should have tried calling you, even though you told me not to. I should have done a lot of things differently, and you should have too.”
My phone rings loudly, and Leah startles while I grimace. I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, and I turn away, grabbing my phone to answer… Dice?
“What?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder as Leah watches me instead of speaking with her aunt.
My eyes move back to the old farmhouse Leah grew up in. I’ve learned a hell of a lot about her in the past two weeks. And this shithole town still lives like it’s the sixties.
“Well, hello to you too, sunshine,” Dice drawls. “Just letting you know we’ve burned all the guns and shit. Guns don’t belong in our world. Not even your girl gets to keep one, because that shit is just too dangerous for all of us. All the books have been confiscated, and Chaz has them in his secret library, whatever the hell that is. We’ll figure out how Victor was forging the anointed weapons for Leah, but Kane and Alyssa want to keep the upper hand and keep this information out of the hands of the anointed.”
“I already know this,” I say in an annoyed breath.
“Did you know Leah now owns all those properties?”
“Yes.”
“Hashtag, you’re stealing my motherfucking thunder, Angel.”
“Stop calling me Angel.”
“You’re right. You’re not Angel. Spangel is better. It’s Spike and Angel blended, in case you were wondering.”
I groan as I scrub my face with one hand. “Anything important to say?” I growl.
“Yeah, we’re pulling up.”
I look up just as two SUVs roll into the yard and park inside the barn. Chaz is the first to emerge, and everyone else walks out as he shuts the barn doors on the vehicles.
