Chapter 24 #2
I saved her life because I knew that’s what Bastian would have wanted, but I still had questions. “What happened to you?” I ask, remembering the bloody bites along her chest.
She sucks on her teeth and ticks her head to the side, her beauty stilling me for a moment.
She pushes her long, curly hair behind her shoulder, her caramel eyes squinting before she finally answers.
“Another vampire got the wrong idea about me.” She inhales deeply, like she’s going to offer more, but then gives me a tortured look.
“I’d rather not talk about it right now. But…it’s been handled.”
“You must require a lot of coffee, keeping with vampire hours and all,” I say, changing the subject as she sips from her mug.
“I’m changing my sleep patterns the best I can,” she answers.
“Besides, I’ve never slept better than when I’m sleeping beside him.
Day or night. He keeps my ghosts away.” A sliver of strength crosses her face then, and I think I may have misjudged her.
She’s tougher than I thought; she’s been through some shit.
“I told you to run because I thought this life wasn’t for a human.”
“How could I run?” she asks, her eyes focusing on mine. “When he’s everything I need and more. How could you ask that of me when you are so in love with his brother?”
I can feel Chantal’s eyes rolling, her disdain for vampires hard to hide, and I really don’t want a deep discussion about vampire love right now.
It happened to me, but how it happened to a powerless human is beyond my comprehension.
The vampires are so hushed about their lifestyle, or at least from what I’ve seen.
“Love makes you do crazy things,” I say, in no mood to battle a woman who has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Or maybe she does, and I’m wrong. Or maybe I just don’t care right now.
“You’re welcome. Let’s leave it at that.” Saving Marlowe’s life was easy enough, and I wonder what is so special about her to soften Cassius. Their dynamic is odd. And I can’t get over Cassius telling me how he promised to never change her.
“You aren’t really supposed to know about us, about our powers. I hope you can keep your mouth closed.” Chantal’s words are biting, coming out ruder than I would have liked, but we, the witches, have been exposed to someone out of our realm, and our situation is already so delicate.
Marlowe bites her bottom lip, placing her mug on the table. “Yes, I’m aware. And I’m very good at keeping secrets. Bastian and Cassius know that.”
My eyes dart over to her, shock rippling between Chantal and me.
“How does Bastian know you’re good at keeping secrets?” I ask.
“I met Bastian first. Eight years ago.”
Something akin to jealousy bangs on my chest, but I try my best to hide the sensation. “Oh, I hadn’t realized you knew each other. Funny, Cassius never mentioned it.” There’s ice in my words as I mentally curse him out. That’s a detail he could have provided.
“Well, Bastian might not remember me,” she says.
It seems she’s not trying to purposely make me jealous, but it doesn’t change the curiosity consuming me out of nowhere.
Had they been together? Was she one of the humans he fed from at Nightwalkers?
Did they have an arrangement? I feel sick about it, swallowing the burst of saliva in my mouth, fully aware I shouldn’t care about anyone in his past. He loves me.
He gave up everything for me, but old habits die hard, and I’ve always been a jealous person.
“I’m sorry,” Chantal says. “But you met Bastian several years ago, and now you’re with his brother?”
Marlowe looks at Chantal, who is not hiding her sudden irritation. “Well, Bastian sent me to Nightwalkers…after…” she starts to get flustered as if she’s not sure what to say, and that only causes my hackles to grow more.
And just as she starts to speak again, the bedroom door opens.
Cassius and Bastian fill the living room, and it’s like we’ve already been separated too long.
I want to jump up just to be near him, but he quickly comes to my side, an expression on his face telling me the time without me wasn’t easy.
He sits next to me, his large hand covering my knee completely.
It’s the simplest touch, but it sends me reeling, the realization that I’ve brought him back hitting me all over again.
And all I want to do is hold him and cry.
He grabs my face in front of everyone and pulls me close to him.
“I missed you,” he says and kisses me, eyes still wet from tears shed with his brother.
“I missed you, too,” I whisper and kiss him again.
Cassius’s eyes are rimmed in red, and then Marlowe has her arms around him, whispering words of comfort as he nods into her shoulder.
When they separate, they look at us, and Cassius sits down.
Chantal, suddenly looking very uncomfortable, stands. “I think I’ve had enough for the day. Good evening, everyone,” she says, quickly excusing herself. I want to ask her to stay but decide to keep quiet.
“I’ve filled him in on everything from my end, at least I think,” Cassius says, pulling his hand over his mouth. “He’s not a vampire, but we can change that at any time.” Cassius looks at Bastian, who then looks at me.
“Is that what you want?” I can’t help but ask. The fact that he’s not a vampire hasn’t completely sunk in, and there’s much left to discuss.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Cassius asks, and I laugh.
“Well, you’ve hated it for the last century, so should you really be asking that question?”
“No decision on that matter needs to be made right now, okay?” Bastian says to Cassius, and his eyes dart over to Marlowe.
“Marlowe, right? It’s been a long time.” He reaches across the coffee table and extends his hand to her, and she takes it. “Aster, I met Marlowe under horrible circumstances.”
“Yes, I was just wondering about that.” I try to hide my annoyance, but Bastian’s mouth curling up tells me I’m not doing a good job.
“Long story short, she caught me feeding on her mother—”
“Step-mother,” Marlowe corrects, her face stern.
“Sorry, it’s been a while,” Bastian says.
“But Marlowe was hiding in her closet while I fed on her step-mother.” He looks at me, his lip twitching, searching my face for a reaction.
I don’t care about who he fed on anymore, so I nod, urging him to continue.
“Franklin, Nicola, and Marlowe’s father were outside, and if Franklin knew I had been caught, he would have wanted Marlowe dead.
So I told her if she could keep what she saw under wraps and swear to never tell a soul, then she could come to Nightwalkers and Cassius would give her anything she wanted. ”
“Bastian,” I scold, thinking that was a terrible thing to tell a young woman.
“Franklin would have killed her!” he explains. “He would have. I remember him being concerned about her father telling others about us, and I wanted to spare her life. It was the only thing I could think of at the time.”
Marlowe sucks her cheeks in, obviously uncomfortable with where the conversation is going. I can see her father is a touchy subject but then Cassius wraps his arm around her steadying her and opens his mouth to change the subject.
“Well, you brought her to me, even though it took her eight years to get here,” Cassius says with a smirk. “Though a heads up would have been nice.”
“He didn’t tell you?” I ask.
“No. So here, Bastian is dead, and she comes to Nightwalkers, asking me to give her a job, saying Bastian told her I would help her eight years ago.”
“Oh, my god.” I look at Marlowe, who is nodding with a pained look on her face.
Cassius takes Marlowe’s hand into his, placing a soft kiss on her palm.
There’s no doubt she’s in love with Cassius and he loves her back, but something tells me this hasn’t been an easy road for her, and my chill softens.
She’s a woman in love. Who am I to begrudge her that?
And she helped Cassius put all of Aven’s furniture together.
I promise then to treat her differently, to treat her better.
“We have so much to discuss, to plan. But we’ll leave for the night and be back tomorrow if that’s okay?
” Cassius looks like he’s asking me, as if I’m in charge.
So I nod, pretending that I am. And then I’m in his arms. Pulled into his cold embrace, the whispers of gratitude repeated like a song. Cassius’s soft side, unlocked.
The brothers embrace for almost a minute, with more emotion, and Marlowe looks at me, tears in her eyes and she mouths thank you, and it pierces me right in the heart, and I can’t help it. I say it back to her. Love has made me a softy.