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“What does that even mean?” I asked.
“I should have wiped your memory last night. You’d have gone home with no knowledge of where you’d been or what you’d done.”
My knees felt weak. Nobody should have that kind of power. I’d heard of spells that could disrupt memory or potions, but they were stories. I’d never seen them in action. “If you did that, I’d be in jail right now.”
“I know, but that wasn’t my intention,” he said. “I swear I had nothing to do with Lola. I didn’t know that’s what you were walking into. But I don’t know why I didn’t wipe your memory. I’ve never let anyone remember seeing my magic.”
“Why didn’t you do it, then?” I asked. “Wipe my memory, I mean. I wouldn’t even know who you were if you’d done it.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
Flutters filled my insides. If he wasn’t such a monster, him letting me keep my memory might be considered kind of sweet. In a fucked up, really damaged kind of way. Aside from the strange magic and all the secrets, there was something endearing about him. It made me uncomfortable.
I was usually an impeccable judge of character. With Elias, I was conflicted. My instincts were pulling me to him, but logically that made no sense. I had no clear idea of his intentions or motives. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“No, I’d never hurt you,” he said.
His words sounded so genuine, intimate even. My heart was racing but it wasn’t from running. None of this made sense. I shouldn’t trust him at all. His actions pointed to someone I should be keeping my distance from, but I couldn’t get my heart and my head to align.
“Please, you have to trust me on this.” He stepped back. “Come back to the hotel. You need some rest.”
I hesitated, unsure of where to go from here. “How do I know you’re not just going to erase my memory and leave me with the other enforcers? Cain was ready to lock me up and throw away the key.”
“You’re innocent. We both know that and I’m not going to stop until I prove that.”
“That’s a nice sentiment,” I said. “But we have forty-eight hours and you ignored the other part of my question.”
“I won’t erase your memory,” he said. “I promise.”
“What’s your promise worth?” I asked. “You’re nothing that you say you are. You’re an agent of the Vampire Queen and you have magic you shouldn’t.”
His expression hardened. “My word is good. You’re going to have to believe me.”
The worst part? I did believe him. The reasoning behind it was missing, but I did.
“We are going to find Lola’s killer,” he said. “I swear it.”
While I wasn’t surewhatElias was, I had yet to meet a supernatural of any race who didn’t follow the same code. We were good for our word. Sure there were exceptions, but the liars never lasted long. Once you proved you couldn’t be trusted, you ended up exiled. That wasn’t something any supernatural could afford in a world where we hid from humans.
“What happens after we find the killer?” I asked.
“We go back to our lives,” he said. “You go back to hunting, I go back to work.”
Why did I hate the idea of us going separate ways? It should have been a comfort to think of life without the fear of the magic I didn’t understand. I told myself it was the stress of losing my best friend and the lump in my throat that came every time I had to consider living without her. When this was over, I’d probably never give Elias a second thought. “Okay.”
