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“What do you think they were talking about?” Aiden asked. He didn’t have to explain who he was talking about. It was the most like we were picking up the thread of a dropped conversation, now that Dylan was asleep, because we’ve all been thinking about it since we left that diner.
If I’d known we’re going to have such a terrifying experience, I’d have ordered something a little more worthy of a potential last meal. A cheeseburger, at least. Maybe some rich, cheesy pasta dish. Not tomato soup.
“I don’t know what they were talking about,” I said. “I don’t know why vamps would be interested in me.”
But that phrase,unearthly beauty,nagged at me.
We’d all heard stories about the vamps growing up. They were like the boogeyman for wolf shifters. The vamps and shifters always seemed to be on the brink of war, but the vampires clung to the shadows even more than we did. They were the ones that were hunted by slayers. Shifters kept to themselves and didn’t harm humans unless they started it.
Of course, humans were always starting shit with nature.
“Do you think that there’s something… wrong… with how beautiful you are?” Rose asked.
The question rankled, but I could tell she was trying to choose her questions as carefully as any sixteen-year-old could.
“I don’t think I’m that beautiful. I’m an ordinary woman.”
Rose snorted.
Aiden tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “You know you’re my sister, so my natural instinct is to say you’re kind of funny looking and always have been. But there is something special about you, Amelia. Men can’t resist you.”
“And that’s made my life so wonderful,” I cut in.
He raised his hands in supplication. “It's not your fault. And I’m sorry that has made it so hard for you. I’m sorry so many of my fellow men are terrible human beings. But I think we have to admit that there is something…”
“Other worldly?” Rose supplied.
“Great. So maybe I was like touched by the fairies like Sleeping Beauty. How do I give it back?”
I thought about Louisa, dead now. If Louisa were alive, I could have asked her if there was some kind of enchantment on me. I didn’t know why or who would have done the enchantment. But it made me wonder.
I wondered if Liam could see through whatever was wrong with me.
I pushed the thought away as soon as it arose, accompanied with the memory of Liam’s intense gaze fixed on me, the way he looked at me as if I was the only person in the universe. Something treacherous and longing lurched inside me.
I couldn’t go back there.
The open world was so big and scary that part of me wished I could grab my brother and sister and run right back to the shelter of the King pack.
But I had run from Stone King.
I couldn’t imagine what he would do to me when he got me back. A shudder ran down my spine, and I corrected myself.Ifhe got me back. I don’t know why I thought about it almost as if it were inevitable.
Maybe it was because I’d never had a very successful escape attempt before.
The thought of Stone’s next witch prying into my brain, or of what else he might do to get me to confess if I’d been involved in Brennan’s death, made me shudder. He killed when he felt he must. I had no doubt that if he felt it was the right thing, he’d rip my throat out.
But he’d probably feel sad about it.
That wouldn’t matter for me.
“I’ll take a shift driving,” Rose said.
Her driving made me uneasy. My sister was not a stellar driver, although she was very new so it was understandable. But we wanted to keep moving, so we slept in shifts that night.
When it was my turn to drive, I drove from 2:00 o’clock in the morning until the sun started to bleach the sky. I couldn’t shake the feeling we were being followed.
After our encounter at the diner, I couldn’t help but feel there were more dangerous things in this world than I had realized.
