by Sela Croft
“Return?”
“These are words you should be familiar with,” Logan said, shooting me a crooked smile.
“I am familiar with them,” I replied, “but I don’t like them. You’re going to leave me again, aren’t you?”
I didn’t want him to leave. I dreaded being apart from him, especially after all we’d discussed, and the connection we had just established. I didn’t want him to go, not only because I didn’t want to be alone.
But because…I wanted to be with him.
Chapter 15
Callie
“I have to talk to my cousin, and Noah,” Logan said. “I might gain information to help us find your sister.”
“You must go then, but I want to go with you.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head.
He walked around the table and moved toward the kitchen. I suspected that he intended to call Bernadette, and tell her to keep an eye on me.
“I’m not a child, Logan,” I said, then ran after him.
I darted around him. He could have rushed into the kitchen, before I even made it across the dining room. But he was going to give me a chance to speak. Resting my hands on my hips, I stood my ground.
Logan towered over me. I noticed his strength and imposing form. His shoulders were wide and his chest broad. My stomach fluttered, but I looked directly at him.
“You’re going to talk to people that could give you information on how to find my sister. It’s information I’m going to want to hear. So, save yourself the trouble of having to relay it to me and just let me come along.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Everything here is dangerous.”
“You’re safe in my home.”
“That’s what you said before, but it turned out you were wrong. Look what happened last time you left me alone.”
“You chose to go with Noah. I have a feeling you won’t make that decision again.”
“You clearly don’t know me very well,” I said. “I’m not just going to stay put.”
“Even after—”
“My sister is out there, and I have to find her. I’m sick of just sitting around, helpless.”
Logan seemed surprised by my outburst, so I waited for his angered response. But he remained true to his word and replied in a calm manner. “It’s a matter of security for the realm.”
“What threat to the realm could I pose?” I put my hands on my hips. “Besides if all these people are after me, like you say they are, wouldn’t you agree that I’d be safer with you? You always said I was.”
“It does seem as if you get yourself in trouble when I’m not around, more often than when I am.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“And, if something magical happened with you by my side, then I might be able to figure out what force is behind it. I don’t know...” He leaned back on his heels and thought.
I held my breath, waiting for the refusal I knew was coming.
“Fine.”
“Please, Logan. I... Wait, what?”
“Fine,” he said, smiling at me. “You have a point. And besides, if someone had told me to stay put and do nothing when my sister was in danger, I would have been furious.”
I sighed, more than a little relieved. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet. I’m going to order Noah and Dequan to come here. We’re going to work you into all of this slowly. No crazy adventures outside of my home, just yet.”
“I’m okay with that,” I said.
I wasn’t prepared to throw myself head first into danger, but I was determined to find my sister. I didn’t know enough about this strange world. And getting myself killed or kidnapped wouldn’t do anything to help our situation. Logan was right that I needed to work into this slowly, and get more information, before I took any reckless chances.
“I’ll make the contact my brother Florian to arrange a meeting, then meet you in the study.”
“Is this just a plan to get rid of me? Send me to the study, while you sneak out to have a secret vampire meeting?”
Logan chuckled. “If I wanted to go, I’d just go. I wouldn’t need to trick you.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I walked back toward the large study, and my heart skipped a beat. I was going to be meeting with vampires to discuss the future of a realm, slowly being overtaken by terrifying creatures on the dark side.
It was odd how comfortable I’d become in the company of vampires, in the span of a few days.
It had been less than a week, and I’d already accepted vampires as an everyday occurrence, and developed a relationship with their vampire prince.
Logan entered, and I spun around to face him, letting my excitement show. “I told you I’d be back,” he said, then walked toward me.
There was a single spot of red glistening in the corner of his mouth. When out of my sight, he had eaten. No wonder he’d wanted me to go ahead of him to the study. He didn’t want me to see that side of him.
“My cousin will be along—”
A deep masculine voice rippled through the room. “What is she doing here?”
It was Dequan. I spun around. To my surprise, a group of vampires stood directly behind me. With a squeal, I jumped back. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here? How did you even get in here? Were you here the whole time?”
“I see you haven’t divulged all of our secrets to the human,” one of the vampires said.
“Florian can teleport,” Logan said and walked up behind me. “He’s the middle brother in the family.”
“So, this is what we’re doing now? Telling everything to a human?” a female vampire said, then stepped forward.
Her piercing gaze fixed on me like a predator sizing up its prey. Despite her delicate appearance and dainty figure, I felt very intimidated by her. Her red hair hung in loose curls, framing her face and cascading down her shoulders, and accentuated the intensity of her stare.
Logan stepped forward. “This is Callie, the human girl from the outside. Natasha foretold that she may be central to what is going on in our realm and our fight with the Fae. I’m not certain if Natasha knew of her twin sister Rosamon, since she didn’t mention her. But the sister is lost in Shadowland, likely held captive.”
Logan stood at my side, but his presence did little to detour the female vampire from her scrutinizing inspection of me. She was the shapeshifter, there was no doubt in my mind. She moved like a hunter, hyper focused on her target—me. She took another step forward, closing the gap between us.
I shrank back from her, which only seemed to amuse her. A playful smile crossed her lips.
“That’ll be enough of that,” Logan said, then pressed his hand into her shoulder and pushed her back. “You’re frightening her.”
“She should be frightened,” Raulia said. “She is the prey in a world of predators.”
It was as if Raulia could read my mind. Surely, Logan would have warned me if she had that ability. When she laughed and stepped back, my heart thumped.
“Relax, Logan. We won’t hurt your precious human. Although, it’s awfully hard not to. I’ve never been around a human that smelled like that before.”
I didn’t need any more vampires craving my scent.
“What does she smell like?” Logan said.
I was curious about why he asked, and found his question disturbing. But I trusted that Logan wouldn’t bring up the topic unless necessary. He must realize that discussing my scent would make me uncomfortable.
But Raulia could turn into a wolf. Perhaps her ability to smell was heightened, even in her non-wolf form. Maybe she could identify what made me so different.
Raulia’s eyes danced as they slid over me, causing a knot of nerves to form in my stomach. “She smells like magic.”
Chapter 16
Callie
I stumbled back, shocked by her words. Logan’s arm was around my waist, before I could blink. I struggled for words, but none came.
Logan asked the question that was foremost in my mind. “What do you mean by magic?”
“She smells like magic,” Raulia said. “I don’t know how to describe it, precisely. But it’s definitely there.” She leaned in and inhaled deeply, then eyed me, once again. “Are you sure we need her?”
I knew what she was implying; everyone must have known. Suddenly, I was very aware that the only reason she hadn’t devoured me, was because her prince would disapprove.
“You know of her importance,” Logan said.
“Perhaps not as well as we should,” Florian said, with a grin on his face. He glanced at me, then looked at Logan, who still had his arm around my waist. His brother observed us, and the way we interacted.
“We don’t have time for that,” Logan said. He pulled away from me, but waited to be sure that I was following. Together, we walked over to the couch. The other vampires followed and took seats. Each person settled in, the atmosphere taut with tension.
“Cousin,” Logan said, looking at Dequan. “I need more information about your surveillance of Callie and her sister. Given this recent revelation from Raulia, I feel that there is much more we have to discuss.”
Dequan looked at Noah, seated in an arm chair across from me. Noah seemed out of sorts, which only made me more on edge. His deep brown hair was disheveled and his eyes, usually bright and filled with life, were listless.
“Well?” Logan urged one of them to speak.
“Callie and her sister were merely two of the many humans your sister has asked me to keep an eye on,” Dequan said, turning his attention to me.
I gave Dequan a harsh look. “But why me?”
“Natasha rarely divulges the nature of her premonitions to me,” Dequan said. “I am nothing more than a servant doing what he’s told.”
“And we have appreciated your loyal service,” Logan said. “But now it’s become clear that we need to be asking more questions. Clearly, Natasha has known of the twins for a while. Where is my sister?”
“She’s recovering,” Florian said. “She’s asked not to be disturbed.”
“I don’t blame her,” Logan said. “It’s been a hard few days for her. However, I stand by my previous statement. We need to change the way things work around here, if we’re going to get to the bottom of what is going on. Natasha needs to be more forthcoming with her visions, and not take the liberty of skipping details.”
“Shall I pass along the word?” Dequan said.
“No, let her rest. When I have the chance, I’ll speak with her about it, personally.”
“And what will we do until then?” Florian said. “Unless we get more information, we have no way to know what our next steps should be.”
“What do we need to know more about?” I said.
“Everything,” Logan said.
Florian spoke bluntly. “We need to know more about you.”
I leaned back against the couch.
“Is there anything you can think of that might be useful?” Logan said, looking at me. “Anything at all, Callie?”
I shook my head.
“I might have something.” When the attention went to Noah, he shifted in his chair.
I stared at Noah. “What do you mean?”
“I was watching you and Rosamon, for a long time,” he said, looking only at me, although the eyes of everyone in the room were on him. “I noticed a few things that could be useful.”
I couldn’t tell if he was asking my permission or apologizing. The way he looked at me told me that he wouldn’t be discussing these aspects of my life, unless it was absolutely necessary.
Florian pressed him to continue. “What kind of things?”
“For starters, Callie and her sister have a very special bond. It’s not a typical family or sister bond, either. They know each other, can feel what each other feels.”
“That’s common in twins,” I said.
“But this is different.” Noah leaned forward. “You can sense when the other is in trouble, and you pick up each other’s feelings. You know she’s sick, before she even coughs. She knows you’re going to be bullied, even before the scumbag responsible comes into the room.”
“I get bullied a lot, so it’s not a stretch to assume it’s going to happen.”
“Rosamon seemed to know what was going to happen, before it did. It’s not just with that. And you, Callie, you can read people’s minds.”
“Read people’s minds?” Florian said.
“He’s exaggerating,” I said. “Sometimes, I’m good at guessing what people are thinking.”
“Guessing?” Logan asked.
“Yes, guessing.”
I had kept something else about myself from Logan. I felt a ping of guilt. He nodded and turned his attention back toward Noah. He trusted my answer. But the truth was that my ability to tap into people’s thoughts was something I had yet to come to terms with myself. It was a personal thing, and something I only discussed with Rosamon, who had a secret of her own. One that Noah seemed to be offering up, without so much as considering how we would feel about it. We hadn’t realized that he’d had any idea about what we’d experienced. Either he was extremely perceptive, or we were less careful than we thought.
My guess was the former. I began to think differently about every interaction I’d had with Noah. All those times he’d been looking out for us, hanging around our house at night, suddenly became about a lot more than just wanting to protect us.
It didn’t matter that I hadn’t told Logan the truth. Since arriving in Shadowland, I’d drawn nothing but blanks when trying to read the minds of the vampires.
“There are other things,” Noah said. “The church we went to was an abandoned church in the woods… it was just that—an abandoned church. But when the two of you were there, things happened. It’s as if the air around that place came to life.
“You can’t deny it, Callie. What about that night that Rosamon went missing? The first time, I mean. Something, not someone, took her. Something that wouldn’t have been there, if you hadn’t been there too. Together, you bring things to the surface that normally remain hidden.”
“You’re exaggerating,” I said, although I had to admit that he was making a very good argument.
That, coupled with Raulia’s previous observation about the way I smelled, made me question everything I thought I knew about myself, a reflection that I doubted I had time for.
“And then there’s what happened before,” Noah said, glancing at me. “When we were in the mist. Something took over, Callie. You were there, you can’t deny that.”
“But I didn’t cause that.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But you can’t deny that things like that happen a lot to you.”
“It sounds like your accusing me of something,” I said defensively.
“I’m not. But Callie, you have to acknowledge that when we were up there, you were able to control us.”
“What?” Florian and Raulia said, then looked at me.
Logan looked at me. He knew what Noah was referring to and it was clear that he was expecting me to inform the others of the confession I’d made to him.
“It’s not like I was controlling where we were going.”
“This is very interesting,” Dequan said, then stepped toward the couch. “And something that we will need to investigate.”
I wanted to speak up, and to claim that there was nothing to look into. But even I was having trouble refuting that I may be at the heart of all of this. Not just the conflict, but all the things that had happened to me—not only since arriving here, but before.
“Not tonight,” Logan said, then stood up. “Callie is going to rest. Given recent events, she must be exhausted.”
Chapter 17
Dequan
I was merely the cousin, not the royal prince. My status was that of an advisor, not one of authority.
When Logan sent us away from his floating palace, I was relieved yet annoyed. He just wa
nted to be alone with the human, to indulge his delusions that they could continue with their pathetic attempts to bond.
A human and a vampire? It was nonsense. Then again, Logan was one to indulge nonsense.
“Thank you, Florian, that will be all,” I said, once he’d transported Noah and myself back to my tower.
“I will let you know if anything further develops,” Florian said.
“Please do.”
I waited until we were rid of his presence, walking disinterestedly from one corner of the small space to the next. It wasn’t a horrible residence. It had everything I needed, and provided me the vantage point to better tap into my ability to locate vampires in the realm. It also gave me a great deal of privacy, something I couldn’t put a value on.
It wasn’t a floating mansion, though.
“I’m afraid that I divulged too much,” Noah said, breaking into my reflective thoughts.
“About what? The girl?” I turned to face him. He was standing in the center of the room, his tall stature making the space seem suddenly smaller than it had a moment before.
“Yes, the girl. I shouldn’t have said all those things about her…”
“Without first getting her approval?”
Noah shrugged.
“You’re not concerned about discussing sensitive information with Logan; you’re worried about upsetting the human. Why is everyone so worried about upsetting the poor human girl?”
“She’s alone here, Dequan. Her sister is missing, and she’s caught up in the middle of a war between two groups of beings she has no direct connection to.”
I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t a very becoming thing to do, but I couldn’t help it. His statements deserved an eye roll. “Never mind the girl,” I said, waving my hand in the air. “I have another assignment for you.”
It would be beneficial for me to have Noah as far away from Callie as possible. It was obvious that his time spent with her had interfered with his dependability. She had grown on him, like a fungus. No matter how hard I tried, I knew I wouldn’t be able to rid him of her influence. The only way to ensure that he remained out of the way was to send him away.
