“Genunk! Please stop!”
Annalise laughed. “Well, this evens the playing field a bit.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.” Finally, a weapon.
“You don’t need a weapon.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “That didn’t last long.”
“I told you, I’m not hearing your thoughts on purpose. You’re screaming them at me.”
“Well, I’m not doing it on purpose.”
“You could at least have the consideration to sensor your memories.”
“Sensor my memories?” She laughed. “How exactly does anyone do that?”
Grace huffed. “You English are exhausting.”
Adam’s penis.
“Stop it!”
“Then wait for me to talk. It’s bad enough you can hear every gurgle in my body and smell me from miles away. I should at least have the privacy of my thoughts. And I’m not exhausting.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s only partly your fault.”
There had to be some way she could block other people’s thoughts.
“Well, there is, but it’s draining.”
Adam’s ass…
“Annalise! All right. I’ll try. Please stop thinking about my brother.”
“How does your family put up with that?”
“I can’t read—” Her mouth pursed. “It’s not as easy with them. It’s an Amish thing.”
She raised a brow. “Well, stay out of my head. And for the record, I know it’s not an Amish thing. I’m not an idiot.”
“I know you’re not, but since I’m trying not to hear your thoughts, I don’t know everything Adam explained to you about what we are.”
He explained enough—
“I doubt that.”
“Damn it, Grace!”
“Sorry!”
She tried to think of something else. “What are you making?”
“A pillowcase.” She showed the top of her work and Anna was impressed by the details of the stitched flowers sewn without a pattern.
“Wow.”
“Do you sew?”
“Not even a little.”
Grace lifted her gaze and stared at her as if she admitted to kicking puppies. “Not at all?”
Anna shook her head. “No. There’s no need. I buy all my clothes online or from stores.”
“Online?”
“Over the Internet.” Seeing she still didn’t comprehend, Anna added, “With a computer.”
She frowned. “Oh.” As she continued to stitch her brow remained crinkled. “Is that slang?”
“No. It just means that I can sign onto a computer and visit any store without leaving the comfort of my home.” She could see she was only confusing her more. “It’s not as literal as it sounds. Sort of like looking at a catalogue.”
“Oh.”
And she thought the English were exhausting? “What do you do for fun around here?”
“This. Or sometimes the other females will visit to shell peas on the front porch.”
Sounded thrilling. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. I’m waiting for my mate.”
There was that word again. “Do you know who he is?”
“No. Adam was lucky. You were very close. I sense my mate will have to journey very far to find me.”
“Do you want to be married—or mated?”
“Oh, very much.” She smiled, truly showing how beautiful she was. “Being called to one’s mate is the ultimate blessing. My soul’s only half full and the emptiness can ache at times, but I trust God will deliver him to me.”
She frowned. “Why wait for God? Why not go find him before he finds you?”
Her face scrunched. “I can’t leave the farm. I’m bound to wait here until he comes for me. Only then will I go if he chooses not to stay.”
It occurred to Annalise that this strange marital ritual wasn’t necessarily the result of Amish traditions. “What if he’s not Amish?”
Grace drew in a slow breath. “If that is God’s will, then so be it.” Her hand slightly trembled as she pressed the threaded needle through the fabric.
Whatever they were, Adam said there were others. But as far as Annalise knew, only America and Canada had Amish residents.
Despite Grace’s confidence, Anna saw her innocence. This was her home and the thought of anyone or anything taking this young woman away from her family made her incredibly sad.
She reached across the table and closed a hand over Grace’s. “I’m sure, when he finds you, he’ll choose to stay wherever you’re happiest.”
Her mouth sketched a smile. “I hope so.”
Adam’s sister, when not invading her thoughts, was actually a very sweet girl. She looked young, but her eyes told a different story. She only lived at home, because she was waiting for her mate to arrive. Annalise understood that now, whether she believed it or not.
“Can I ask you something, Grace?”
“Of course.”
“It’s sort of personal.”
She placed the needlepoint on the table and folded her hands, giving Annalise her full attention. “What is it?”
The fact that she needed to ask proved she was no longer reading her mind. Though this was the one time she sort of wished the block was down, because her question embarrassed her. “Well, I know you know Adam and I…”
“Yes. I got the picture.”
Annalise flushed. “Right. Well, we weren’t really… Or I wasn’t… I hadn’t planned on that happening last night. We weren’t safe.”
“Safe?” She frowned. “You’re always safe with Adam. He’ll protect you.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
Looking at Adam’s youthful sister, Annalise wondered why she thought Grace could advise her in this area. Did the Amish even practice birth control? They might live like it was the seventeenth century, but Annalise had to protect her millennial ovaries.
“If you’re worried about illness, Adam’s at the peak of his health,” Grace said, and Annalise suspected her comment was the result of intuition more than mind reading.
“It’s not just that…”
“If it’s God’s will, Anna, then it’s God’s will.”
Once again, she was reminded about their differences. She refused to pretend she had no authority in this department. Her body, her choice. Of course, she could have chosen not to have sex and then this wouldn’t be an issue. She didn’t know what else to say, so she dropped it.
Grace scooped up her needlepoint and got back to stitching. “You English sure do complicate matters with defensive emotions. Sometimes, when you strip away all the layers and get to the truth of things, the answers are all that’s left. There’s no arguing with the truth. But there’s always the option of avoiding it.” She briefly glanced in Annalise’s direction then back to her work.
“What are you saying?”
She shrugged. “Seems to me, you want to be with Adam, but you don’t want any consequences for your actions. There are always consequences, but not all are bad.”
“Grace, I don’t want to get pregnant.”
“Then don’t have intercourse.”
“I don’t want to do that either,” she snapped.
Grace chuckled. “Quite a puzzle.”
“This is exactly why I could never stay here.”
Grace looked at her in all seriousness. “But why?”
“Because I need choices. Women have opportunities where I live.”
“We have opportunities here as well. You assume we’re forced into these roles, but I assure you, Annalise, it’s a choice. Here, we’re protected. There’s rarely any violence to speak of, the women are cherished, the men are honorable, and the children are loved. We live a simpler life, but we’re not simple people. Our lives are just as rich as yours, if not more.”
“Trust me, my life is far from rich.” By any sense of the word.
“Then why retur
n to it?”
She shrugged. “Because it’s where I belong.”
“Is it?”
Annalise lowered her gaze. According to Adam and everyone here, this was where she belonged. But she had a home, a life, and a job waiting for her. People were probably looking for her right now.
Although, in this day and age it wasn’t unheard of for friends to simply ghost in and out of friend’s lives. What if Kyle thought she was ghosting him? Dodging his calls?
Taking him out of the equation left only Karen and her friends at school—but those people weren’t really friends. She didn’t even have their contact information programmed into her phone. They communicated through little hearts and thumbs up, on social media. To the world, it might look like she’d just decided to go off the grid for a while and take a break. No one would guess how far off the grid she traveled. At least not for a while.
How long would it take for someone to actually realize she was missing? Did anyone truly care enough to look for her? Did anyone care? Miss her?
Her spine stiffened as something feathered over her, the softest brush against her thoughts. She searched the room, but no one was there. “Did you feel that?”
Grace looked at her. “What?”
She touched the back of her head. “It was the strangest sensation, like… a touch, but inside of me.” Soothing, the way a doctor with good bedside manner might calm a patient with only the press of a hand.
“It was probably Adam. Were you thinking about him? He can sometimes feel people’s thoughts, not like me, but if you were wishing he was here, he might have felt it.”
She had been thinking about her life at home, what she had to go back to. But maybe on a subconscious level, the thought of returning to her lonely life made her miss Adam.
She sucked in a breath. “I felt it again.”
Grace smiled. “Are you thinking about something upsetting? I’d check for myself, but I’m trying to keep my word to block your thoughts.”
“I was thinking about home.”
“About leaving?”
She shrugged. “About…” If her mom was still alive, nothing could keep her here. But her mom was gone, and her father wanted nothing to do with her.
Her spine stiffened and she hissed in a sharp breath. “How is he doing that?”
“It’ll get easier the more time you spend together. Bonded mates have incredible connections and Adam has the added bonus of being an empath. He’s likely just trying to comfort you.”
It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation. Just disorienting. Strange, like a breeze cutting through a room with no windows.
Grace flipped over the needlepoint hoop, revealing a mess of knotted thread. “Do you see this mess? From below it looks like a disaster. Sort of like what we see.” She turned the hoop over, once again displaying her beautiful work. “But from up here, it makes perfect sense. I imagine God has an even more stunning view as he watches over us. But it’s not our job to see what he sees. We only have to trust that a bigger picture’s there. That we’re an important thread tied into his masterpiece.”
It was perhaps the prettiest explanation for faith she’d ever heard. In all of her searching for answers as she dredged through the grief of losing her mom, she never found anything but chaos tangled on top of more chaos. But according to Grace, it all depended on perspective.
“I don’t know what to do,” Annalise confessed. “I don’t fit in here. It makes no sense for me to stay.”
“And where is your place at home? Don’t mistake familiarity for any sort of guarantee. Sometimes the things that challenge us most bring the greatest rewards. Maybe you’re here because it’s time to strip away all the artifice and find out what will truly make you whole.”
The thought of pushing it all away for a while, taking a break to catch her breath and figure out how to stand her thoughts again… It terrified her, but also tempted her. Strangely, when she thought of going home to her mother’s boxes still needing to be unpacked or seeing her last message to her father had been read but ignored, she questioned her sanity. Why would anyone want to go back to that hollow existence where every empty corner seemed more pronounced with every passing day?
To be honest, sitting here with Grace, talking about relationships and not having the distractions of screens and notifications, felt wonderful. “You make a good friend to talk to, Grace.”
“Thank you.” Her head turned with a sharp twist, her attention on the window.
“What is it?”
“Someone’s coming.”
Anna listened, but didn’t hear anything. Then, off in the distance, came the faint clip-clop of hooves.
Grace rushed to the window, her face illuminating with a smile.
“Who is it?”
Grace spun and wrung her hands with excitement. “My sister!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Anna fidgeted as the horse slowed in front of the house and the black carriage carrying Adam’s other sister rocked to a stop. A man wearing a black-brimmed hat tied off the reins and exited the buggy without offering a greeting to Grace or even acknowledging their presence on the porch.
The man extended his hand through the shadowed interior and a slender hand filled his. Her porcelain face caught the light and Annalise immediately categorized her as a woman who had such natural beauty, makeup would only diminish her perfection.
Dark, feathered lashes emphasized the symmetry of her eyes. Her nose was small and straight. Her lips full and pink. While Grace possessed more elfin features, her sister had a more regal beauty. And by the severe part of her dark hair tucked impeccably tight into her bonnet, Annalise wasn’t sure what sort of personality to expect.
The front gate creaked, and the man ushered the woman to the porch, her eyes downcast. Her black apron cinched around her trim waist matched her bonnet. Also, unlike Grace, this woman had the height of a runway model.
“I will pick you up when the meeting is over. We will not be supping here, so do not ask.”
“Yes, Silus.”
The man turned, gave a quick nod to Grace and a sharp, unnerving study of Annalise. No one moved or said a word as he walked away. But as soon as he sprung the horse into action and the buggy was on its way, Grace squealed and yanked her sister into a hug.
“You’re here!”
The woman’s smile seemed guarded. She hugged her sister and laughed softly. Her crystal eyes swept over Annalise as she released her sister. “You must be Annalise.”
Her words flowed like poetry and she held herself with a certain eloquence. Annalise couldn’t stop staring. Everything about this woman was … perfect.
Grace nudged her arm. “Anna, this is our sister, Larissa.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” she finally said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stare.”
“Shall we go inside and unpack the items I brought?”
Only then did Annalise notice the suitcase by her side. Grace carried it into the kitchen. “I see Silus is his usual antisocial self.”
“He was summoned to the Council early this morning. I had asked Cain to deliver these dresses, but I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning, so I convinced Silus to let me visit. And now I have the opportunity to get to know our future sister.”
Future what?
Grace intercepted. “Anna’s still weighing her options,” she said slowly.
Larissa’s eyes widened. “What options? There’s only one.”
Again, Grace gave her a cryptic look. “They still have some details to discuss. Let us leave it to our brother to handle.”
Larissa rolled her eyes. “God forbid anyone else have an opinion about marriage around here.”
“Larissa!” Grace scolded and laughed. “Don’t be bitter about such things. This is a happy time. It will all work out.”
“You’re right.” She caught Annalise’s hand and squeezed. “I apologize if I overstepped.”
“No problem.” She was more curious about why Adam�
�s older sister seemed so bitter toward marriage. But she had a good guess. “Are you married to the man who dropped you off?”
“Married, yes. For now.”
She frowned. It was obviously not a happy marriage. “Are Amish allowed to divorce?”
“Not unless they’re called to their true mate.”
This was why Grace wanted to wait.
“Silus requested Larissa as a wife,” Grace explained.
“Did you want to marry him?”
Larissa laughed. “So long as the Elders approved his request, it didn’t matter what I wanted.”
“What? You were forced into an arranged marriage?”
Larissa kept her attention on the dresses and fabric she brought, unfolding each bolt of plain material and spreading it across the kitchen table. “Forced? No. According to the record books, I obediently obliged what my Elders asked of me.”
Annalise gaped at her explanation and Grace added, “Marriages are simple here. Once he shared Larissa’s bed after the ceremony, she had to move to her new home, which is all the way on the other side of the farm and why we love when she comes for visits.”
They just explained it away, like some archaic claim, some boys-club rite of passage. “But Adam said…” She frowned, thinking of all his promises and talk about soul mates.
“Marriage isn’t the same as bonding. Bonding only happens between called mates. Larissa or Silus can still get called. But Silus is older. He probably got tired of waiting.”
“That’s enough, Grace.”
“Sorry.” She blushed and whispered to Anna, “It’s improper to discuss a married couple’s personal business.”
Larissa straightened her shoulders. “And marriage isn’t uncommon for those waiting to be called. Not everyone shares my sister’s patience. Our parents, for example. They’re married and unbound.”
Unbound?
Larissa tilted her head, a faraway look in her eyes. “Called mates are rare. You’re very lucky to be called to a male as honorable as Adam. Not all males are as gentle and kind as my brother. He would end his own life before allowing any harm to befall you. I don’t know if love, even in its purest form, can create that sort of devotion.”
“That’s enough about that,” Grace said. “Which colors do you like, Anna? You’ll need four, one for wash, one for wear, one for dress, and one for spare.”
Original Sin (The Order of Vampires Book 1) Page 24
