AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My mind reeled as I processed what he was telling me. Sara was gone, he’d taken her somewhere else this evening while I’d been shopping.
He was right, we had discussed this before—the possibility of finding Sara a safe and secure location where she’d be looked after by trustworthy people. I’d even agreed with him that it was the best decision going forward.
But it was a decision I wanted to be a part of when the time came.
“You should have told me this was happening,” I said as calmly as I could, even though my throat had become painfully tight. “I would have come with you. Where is she right now?”
His attention remained fixed on the road. “It’s best that you don’t know her location.”
I shook my head. “I need to know.”
Finally, Declan flicked a glance at me. His expression held no guilt, no shame, only a steely determination in his single gray eye. “The baby is safe where she is now, that’s all I can tell you. She was both a distraction and a burden, and you know it. To keep her with us another day would have put her in unnecessary danger. We have too many other problems to deal with right now.”
“I get that,” I growled. “I do. But why won’t you tell me where she is? I promised Matthias I’d take care of her. It was his dying wish.”
“I don’t give a damn what he wished for.” He hissed out a breath. “You want to know why I’m not going to tell you where she is? It’s because some vampires have the ability to get in your head, to manipulate your thoughts. While I know you’re fully dedicated to keeping that baby safe, had a vampire like that cornered you, questioned you on Matthias’s daughter’s location, and asked you to hand her over, you would have done it in a heartbeat. And you would have hated yourself for the rest of your life for it.”
I began to argue with him that I wouldn’t have done any such thing, but my words fell away.
I’d already experienced a vampire’s mind control firsthand, only a few short days ago. Matthias himself had gotten into my head and had psychically influenced me into a sense of serenity while in his presence. He’d wanted to test himself by being close to a woman whose blood was laced with the deadly and enticing poison specifically created to end his life. And “test himself” meant sleeping with me while successfully resisting the desire to bite me.
And, I had to admit, at the time I’d felt more than my share of desire for the vampire king, a real “lust at first sight” kind of thing, and I still wasn’t sure that was only because of his vampiric influence over me. Still, I’d told him to stop before he’d gone much further than a passionate kiss and a little heavy petting. And, thankfully, he’d stopped, offended that I’d called him out on his shady seduction attempt. Shockingly, no one else had ever put the brakes on when given the opportunity to share the vampire king’s bed.
I hadn’t mentioned anything about this experience to Declan yet. There were a few other things I hadn’t mentioned to the dhampyr, as well, that had been weighing heavily on me, while I tried to determine the right time and place. But this moment was definitely neither.
“Jill?” Declan prompted when I’d gone deadly silent, my hands fisted in my lap. “You can hate me if you want to, but I stand by my decision.”
“I don’t hate you,” I replied.
“You don’t?” He actually sounded surprised by this.
“No, of course not. You’re right.”
“I am?”
“It kills me to admit it, but, yes, you were right to do this, and you’re right to keep her location a secret, even from me.” I hissed out a breath. “Do you swear to me that she’s safe?”
“On my life,” he replied. “I swear it.”
I’d known the dhampyr for a single week of my twenty-eight years of life, but I’d quickly come to trust him—even this emotionally-dampened version of him—more than anyone else I’d ever met. I hated that I hadn’t known his plans for tonight, but I understood why he’d done it and why he wouldn’t reveal Sara’s location.
“Fine,” I said softly. “But next time, please give me a heads up so it’s not such a surprise, okay?”
He nodded. “Agreed.”
“Now what?” I asked.
Declan was quiet for a moment as the streetlights blurred past us. “I got a message from an old associate of mine. A hunter named Jackson Gale. We trained together back when we were barely out of our teens. He’s here in the city and I’ve arranged to meet him in an hour. He was already aware of the Nightshade program, so I think he might be worth talking to.”
Having blood that could kill a vampire might sound like an excellent built-in defense mechanism—like a porcupine’s quills or a squid’s ink. And, for the most part, it was. But Nightshade was volatile, and my body had tried to reject it every step of the way. I’d endured countless waves of pain, each of which I’d been certain would kill me. They hadn’t, but there were some bumpy moments along the way when I’d literally wished for death. Becoming death incarnate had been a truly humbling experience, and not one I’d wish even on my worst enemy.
I’d been lured with the promise of a blood cleanser by an evil, deceptive woman named Dr. Monica Gray. But the injection had instead been a fusing serum and had bonded my blood cells to the Nightshade, making my blood a permanent and unnaturally shade of dark crimson. No pain since then, but I had it on good authority that it was a temporary solution, and not exactly the happy ending I’d been searching for.
A happy ending would be a cure.
A happy ending would be to see my sister and my nieces again.
A happy ending would be the chance at a normal life, one with a future that didn’t include death and mayhem.
