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I took her face in my hands and stared into her eyes. “Chelsea. You are not going to mention anything about the bite marks you may see on Calla’s body. You won’t talk to her or anyone about me. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” she said in a soft monotone.
“Now,” I said and turned her around, walking her back into the house, my hand on her arm to maintain physical contact. “Go to bed and sleep until dawn. Leave the door unlocked. You don’t need to worry. Tomorrow night, you’ll go to sleep before midnight. You’ll sleep deeply until dawn. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“Good girl. Now go.”
I watched as she went back inside. She left the door unlocked as I demanded. That way, I could go inside if I wished or needed and the next night, she would go to bed and leave Calla alone so I could spend time with her.
I went inside once she was in bed, her door closed, and checked on Calla. She lay on her side in her bed, the covers pulled up around her, sleeping soundly.
Satisfied that my two mortal charges were safely asleep, I went back to the guest house and spend the rest of the night reading everything I could find in the hopes of catching up with a century of news.
Calla
Hours later, I woke to the sound of my bedroom door creaking open.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” Chelsea said, poking her head into my room. Sunlight streamed across the bedroom and fell warm on my bed. “I’ve been up for an hour, waiting for you to wake up.”
I yawned and stretched under the coverlet, then glanced at the clock radio on the bedside table. It was already nine thirty. I sat up and tried to smooth my hair back, braiding it once again to keep it out of my eyes.
“I had a hard time sleeping,” I said. “I needed to sleep in a bit.”
“Well, get up and come have some coffee. I just made a pot.”
I slipped out of bed and padded to the bathroom, where I took a pee and then splashed my face with water. It was while I was drying off that I saw my wrist and was shocked to remember the bite, the brief pain of it, and how quickly it stopped bleeding. I held it out and ran my fingers over it.
Chelsea popped her head in and watched as I touched the wound, but she said nothing about it.
“Here’s your coffee,” she said, handing me my favorite mug. I took it and frowned, surprised that she said nothing about the bite mark. I couldn’t believe she’d say nothing. She noticed when I had a larger than normal zit on my chin.
I followed her out of the bathroom and down the hall to the kitchen where her own cup sat waiting. I took a stool at the island and watched as she flipped some bacon in a frying pan and pushed a couple of slices of toast down in the toaster.
“Bacon and eggs sound okay with you?”
I nodded, my stomach growling. I really wanted to hold out my wrist and show her the bite mark but I didn’t. I didn’t try to hide it either. In fact, I purposely let my arm fall on the counter so that she couldn’t help but notice.
She never said a word. I was certain she saw it but why wouldn’t she say anything? Then I wondered if Kier had already compelled her not to talk about vampires and anything to do with them.
“Are you okay, Chelsea?” I asked. “Is there anything wrong? Anything you want to talk about?” I peered at her, trying to see her reaction. If a vampire—if Kier—had compelled her, she wouldn’t be able to tell me anyway, but I wanted to give it a try.
She made a face and took a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator. “Why would anything be wrong? I’m fine.”
“You seem a little preoccupied this morning,” I said. “Is there anything you want to talk to me about? Anything at all?”
I waited for her reply but she merely shrugged and cracked an egg into the pan beside the rashers of bacon.
“What would I want to talk to you about?” she said as she threw the eggshells into the trash bin beneath the sink. She turned and looked in my eyes in a very pointed way. “I mean, if I wanted to talk to you about something, I’d just come out and say it, right? There’d be no reason for me not to talk to you. Nothing’s keeping me from talking to you or you to me.”
I nodded. Was she trying to tell me she knew? “Of course. It’s not like there’s anything keeping us from talking about anything we want to talk about.”
“Nothing at all.”
She stood at the island facing me, a smile on her face. Just like the big fake smile plastered on my face.
Okay. This was definitely weirding me out. This was definitely not a conversation two best friends had on a sunny morning while cooking breakfast.
