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“Typical.” He held up a hand to stop my argument. “No judgment and definitely not a personal assessment on your wife. But it’s a story I’ve heard over and over. Girls grow up with this sense that something is off, that they can see or know things others don’t. They just think they’re weird. Then they find out they’re chosen, and it takes them by surprise. They’ve already spent their lives being ‘weird’ and now there’s this mating frenzy they don’t understand. They’re never ready for it.”
“Do they end up choosing—the ones you knew anyway? Did they?” I dared to ask.
Gar shrugged. “Mostly.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“This is the place,” he said, indicating to the ranch-style home we’d stopped in front of. It was still close to town but had been set on a big parcel of land, so it didn’t feel as if it weredowntown. “That Victorian over there is mine—mine, Lola’s and Allie’s.”
Pulling out a key, he unlocked the front door.
“How much is this place?” I asked as we stepped into the airy entryway. There was lots of glass all around. It worried me a little, but it made the nighttime view spectacular.
“Comes with the town. If you want it, it will be yours until you leave.”
He had to be shitting me.
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch.”
“Whose place was this before? Did they get kicked out?
He chuckled. “You city folk sure are suspicious. This was Leanne and Jake’s place before they moved to Chicago. I do the upkeep on it to make sure it stays livable. The glass is all treated with protectant so the sunlight that hits the house won’t bother you. The trees block a lot of it, too.”
We walked through, and I noted the deck, the big kitchen we wouldn’t really need, three bedrooms, luxury bathrooms, a nice family room and a living room. Literally, the kind of starter home Avery and I had dreamed of—sans the kids we’d talked about having one day. I supposed that wouldn’t happen now. Maybe, that was part of Avery’s reluctance.
But this place… This was what I’d been working to get while I’d been killing myself for the past six months.
“We’ll take it.” Avery might kill me for making the decision without her, but I doubted it.
“Great. We’ll have your things delivered here when they arrive.”
“So it’s a monster moving service,” I joked.
He nodded. “Like I said. We don’t let in anyone but the people who are like us or who are chosen. The magic can tell. We have a powerful magical here, thousands of years old. Her powers keep everyone in Allstown protected from outsiders—human hunters and rogue monsters who’ve gone evil.”
“I’m familiar with one of those,” I replied dryly. “That’s how I changed. Attacked and dragged into an alley. I didn’t wake up for days, unlike Avery who was back in less than a twelve hours.”
Gar was silent for a moment. He locked the door as we left then handed me the keys. “Welcome home,” he said. “So the thing is…it depends on how much venom enters the human body. A quick vampire bite could take hours longer than if it was a long bite—as I suspect yours was with Avery.”
If I could flush, I probably would have. “Uh, yeah.”
“On the other hand…” He trailed off and stared into the distance. “I’ve heard of what happened to you. It doesn’t happen often. You were probably drained and left for dead. There’s a vampire who lives up in Washington state who experienced that same thing. He was left for dead after being drained, only somehow in the fight, he ingested some of the attacker’s blood. Some of his own blood somehow remained in him, not sucked out. The combination reanimated him. Turned him. He’s a good guy from what I hear. You don’t have to follow in your attacker’s footsteps. You’re not controlled by them.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s good to know.”
“So anyway, when something like that happens, the victim could be out of it for days. Depending on where they’re left, they could be found and assumed to be dead.”
My brow furrowed. “I think…he meant to change me. He didn’t just leave me there. I was hidden.”
Gar sighed heavily. “Then that means we have a whole other problem to deal with. I’ll have to report it to our international alliance.”
I shook my head. “The things I had no idea existed…”
Jared! Help! Jared…Jared, please! Someone…they have us.
I clasped my temples as Avery’s screams echoed through my head. I stared at Gar. “Something’s happened. Someone grabbed Avery.”
