27. Rina
TWENTY-SEVEN
rina
The rays of the sun filled the room, warmth streaming in as I opened my eyes. Yawning and stretching my arms, I sat up—taking a moment before I realized where I was.
Ezra’s room. Ezra’s bed. The room was decorated in shades of black and dark red, and the large, ornate bed was covered in black silk sheets—and might have been the most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in.
The only thing missing was the vampire himself.
My vampire.
I couldn’t believe I’d shared his bed last night, or how much of himself he’d given to me.
His history, his life. Things I’d never even imagined.
I couldn’t imagine that little boy, so full of life and energy, being beaten down by the world.
By the very parents who gave him life, only to never cherish him or show him any love.
It broke my heart. Maybe it hit extra hard because I knew exactly how he felt.
While I knew my parents loved me, it hadn’t been enough to make them stay.
I never wanted Ezra to feel that way. Never wanted him to feel unloved or unappreciated ever again. Never wanted him to feel abandoned in the same way I did.
Somehow, in the weeks we’d been together, I’d fallen for him. I knew it with as much certainty that I knew he was my mate. We were bonded, tied together by my blood and something even deeper.
How could I have ever imagined giving this up? Giving him up?
“Ezra?” I called, wondering where he’d gone off to. It was the middle of the day, based on how high the sun was in the sky, and it seemed strange that he was gone, knowing how it affected him.
Not to mention, I was looking forward to actually waking up together for the first time. I’d never slept in a bed with a man before. Never woken up next to them, trading slow kisses in the morning light, letting our hands explore each other’s bodies while we were still half asleep.
That level of casual intimacy had always felt out of reach.
But where was he?
The door opened, and I gathered the sheets to my body, grateful for Ezra’s shirt as Victoria entered the room. “Vic.” I felt relieved to see her, even if I was confused to find her entering his room. “What are you doing in here?”
She frowned. “I came to check on you.”
“Why would you…? Where’s Ezra?”
Vic worried her lip between her teeth. “Didn’t you see his note?”
I shook my head, only now seeing the folded piece of paper on the nightstand, my name in sprawling, cursive letters on the front.
Rina,
I’m sorry I couldn’t be there when you woke up, but I have to go. My mother has summoned me, and gods knows what she’ll do if I don’t show up. Please feel free to sleep in—I’ll send Victoria to check on you when she can.
When I get back, we’ll talk.
Yours,
Ezra
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Ezra told you about his mother, yes?” After I nodded, Victoria continued. “She’s got a reputation for being known as the viper queen. Ruthless, her tongue as sharp as her mind.”
“Yes…”
“He’s ignored her summons for a long time, because she had no real leverage against him. Even us, she can’t touch. We’re her subjects, even if we’re loyal to her son instead of her. But you… If something happened to you…”
“That’s why he didn’t want me to go outside,” I murmured. “Isn’t it?”
Victoria nodded. “Yes. He’s a little paranoid.”
“Then why not take me with him, where he can make sure I’m safe? I am his mate, aren’t I?”
He hadn’t even drank from me last night. He hadn’t bitten me, much to my disappointment. I’d been five seconds away from begging when he’d transported us to his room, the action dizzying for several moments.
“Oh, so you are his mate now?”
I blushed. “I mean…” I still wasn’t wearing his mark, so was I, really?
She sat at the foot of the bed across from me. “What changed?”
Where did I even begin? “We did, I think. I mean, once we finally stopped being stubborn and acting like we didn’t like each other, I realized how much of a good man he is.
And then I just couldn’t stop noticing all the little things about him I…
” loved. I couldn’t bring myself to say it, though. Not out loud. Not yet.
Victoria gave a satisfied nod of her head. “Good.”
“I really care about him,” I said, biting my lip. “As much as I love my home, my coven, I can’t imagine not being here, either. I love this place.”
“He does, too.”
“I know. He told me everything last night.”
“Everything?” She quirked an eyebrow. “Including about his ex?”
I froze. “Ex?”
She cursed. “He didn’t tell you about his ex-fiancee?”
Shaking my head, I tried to ignore this feeling in my gut. The one that told me I’d been wrong. That I’d somehow let pretty words and actions color my feelings. Because I’d been thinking that I’d fallen in love with him, and he hadn’t even told me he’d been about to marry someone before?
“No,” I admitted. “He told me about his parents, but…” My mind was reeling. “When’s he supposed to be back?”
Victoria frowned, looking at her phone. “That’s the thing. He should have been back already. Even when the queen requests his presence, he sends word of when he’ll be home. For him to just go radio silent is… unusual.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You think something happened?”
“I have no evidence to prove it. Just a gut feeling that something is wrong. I told him not to go last night, but he insisted.”
“Something happened.”
She nodded. “There’s a lot of unrest within the different factions of the court. Some vampires believe Ezra should never be allowed to become our king, on account of his past choices.”
I hugged my knees to my chest. “This doesn’t make any sense.” It felt like I was missing something obvious—something right in front of me.
Victoria growled, like a thought had only just occurred to her. “The coven.”
“What?”
“The Raven’s Hollow coven have been trying to align with the vampires for decades. Almost succeeded, but then—”
“Wait. The Raven’s Hollow coven…” I thought about the spell book. “Their grimoire was in the library.”
She winced. “That’s Ezra’s ex.”
A witch. He’d been engaged to another witch? I felt dizzy. “I need a minute.” If his ex’s grimoire was here—the one he’d told me he’d taken for safekeeping, that meant she was probably trying to get it back. “Victoria, where’s the note that he got? The summoning from his mother?”
She tilted her head to the side. “Why?”
“Because I don’t think his mother sent it at all. If there are traces of black magic on it, I have a feeling I know exactly where Ezra has gone. And it wasn’t to the vampire court.”
Her face paled as she rushed out of the room.
I used the time to get dressed, not surprised to find my clothes hanging in his closet this morning—like he’d known I wouldn’t want to leave it again.
Ambrose would probably be happy with the extra space, though I wasn’t really sure how my vampire boyfriend was going to take having a raccoon living with him.
Wait. Was he my boyfriend?
Shrugging to myself, I waved that thought away.
Besides, he knew what he was getting into.
We were all gathered in the sitting room—Ezra’s group of vampires and me. After getting dressed, I’d tucked the silver dagger he’d gotten me into a sheath that sat at my thigh. The blood red dress I wore hugged my curves, and a black velvet cloak made me look every bit the witch I was.
A witch out for the blood of her own.
Blood of whoever dared to take what was mine.
“Here it is,” Victoria said, handing me the note.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I focused on the faint traces of aura and magic left behind. Definitely not a vampire. They felt different from witches—colder, somehow. The magic on this felt sinister, its intentions bleeding out of the paper.
“Where is this coven?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “Because this note definitely didn’t come from Ezra’s mother.” I hadn’t met her, but her magical signature would be similar to Ezra’s. And this didn’t have a single trace of the vampire.
I read the note in its entirety multiple times, and I still couldn’t figure out their intention. Wouldn’t it have been better if the goal was to get her spell book back, that she asked him to bring it?
Maybe it wasn’t about the book at all. Still, I’d tucked it into a satchel slung over my shoulder—and Ambrose had curled around my shoulders, sensing my distress.
He hadn’t left my side all morning. Fine with me. I was more powerful with him, the energies he channelled flowing into me. Somehow, I knew it hadn’t been by accident that I’d found him on the side of the road. That he’d wanted me to find him.
He was mine—and so was Ezra.
My vampire.
My mate.
My… everything.
Julian spread out a map, pointing to the location where the witches lived—some small blip of a town outside of Portland, Maine. I was sure it was just like Pleasant Grove: untraceable, undetectable to humans.
Thank the goddess I wasn’t human.
No, I was an angry witch whose mate had been taken.
A witch who’d been practicing my aura magic subtly over the last few weeks, testing how much I could affect someone’s aura before they noticed an abrupt change of mood.
How much I could affect their decision making and behavior.
It was more than that, though—how I could manipulate people’s energies, and more importantly, my own.
I narrowed my eyes. “We have to go get him.”
They all nodded. “We’re at your side, my lady.”
The title felt strange. Like something that didn’t quite fit yet. Because as much as Ezra was the master of this manor, I wasn’t its mistress. Not yet.
Tracing my fingers over the spot on my neck where he hadn’t marked me, I looked at all of them.
Vampires that weeks ago, I wouldn’t have trusted.
Would have been wary by. Vampires that I now considered friends.
This was a family—the family Ezra had built for himself.
He might have said he didn’t have love growing up, but he had them.
People willing to do whatever it took for him.
“When do we leave?”
Those witches just needed to hope they hadn’t harmed one singular hair on his head.
If they had, they were about to deal with one angry witch.
Because Ezra was mine.