Chapter 19
I sit on the edge of my bed with the USB drive in one hand with my other hand gently touching my lips, tracing over them as I think about Xavier’s kiss. My head is spinning and my heart is starting to long for him, which is wrong. I shouldn’t.
He’s a vampire. I’m a hunter…and also a witch. Now I have two strikes against me when it comes to being with him. I had no idea the Grand Coven was still so against witch-vampire relationships, though I suppose it makes sense given the tense and violent history between us.
Flopping back on the bed, I spin the USB drive around in my fingers.
The whole day passed by in a whirlwind and this evening was not what I was expecting—at all.
I had a nice time with Xavier. He’s surprisingly thoughtful and witty and it’s making it hard to hold onto the hatred I had for him when we first met.
Add the fact that he’s dropped a shocking amount of info about my life that I had no idea of and…well…I don’t even know. On one hand, he could be lying. There could be nothing on this USB or maybe it’s full of fake documents with made-up facts just to fuck with my head.
Or maybe not.
Either way, I have no way of looking at it because I don’t have a computer or even a phone. Telling myself that it’s a tomorrow issue, I set the little USB on the dresser and pull out a pair of cotton shorts and a white tank top and then go into the bathroom to shower.
“Goodbye, professional makeup,” I tell my reflection before stepping into the water.
Doing my best to remember my training, I repeat a meditation over and over in my head.
Physically, I’ve grounded myself. But mentally, I can’t stop wondering what it would feel like to have Xavier’s body on top of mine, with his cool, smooth skin against me.
He’s tall and muscular and looks gorgeously terrifying when he draws his fangs, reminding the world that he’s the apex predator.
My skin is red from the hot water by the time I get out. I wrap my hair in a towel, brush my teeth, get dressed and go back into my room.
“Creep,” I exclaim when I see Devon standing by the dresser.
“You know it,” he replies. He’s wearing gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. The tattoos on his arms are visible, along with the nasty looking wound from when I accidentally burned him.
“That is starting to look infected.” I make a face. “Sorry.”
“I’ll live.”
“Unless you get sepsis. That shit spreads fast once it’s in your blood, you know.”
“Fine. I’ll call the family physician tomorrow.”
“You have a family doctor?”
“You do too,” he reminds me. “Dr. Patel. He’s been taking care of the humans in this house for the last, well, forever.”
“Is he a vampire doctor?”
“No, he’s human. He’s just been our family doc since I was a kid.”
“Oh.” I pull the towel from my hair and am very aware of the fact that my tank top is thin and I’m cold. Devon’s eyes dart to my nipples, as if he’s unable to help himself.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I brought you this,” he tells me and taps the top of a laptop. “You need it?”
“Yeah. I do.” Tossing the towel over the back of a chair, I hurry over and pick up the laptop and the USB drive.
“What’s this about?” Devon asks.
“Supposedly, it’s files from the Order.” Letting out a breath, I go to the bed. “I’m kinda scared to look at them.”
“Want me to look with you?”
I turn, looking at him for a good moment.
“Yeah,” I say honestly. “That would be nice.” I pull a pink blanket from the foot of the bed and drape it around my shoulders.
Devon and I both sit on the bed, and I open the computer.
It’s brand new, and I skip over setting it up so I can get right to the file.
Holding my breath, I plug in the USB and close my eyes.
“Want me to do the honors?” Devon asks.
“Please,” I say with a heavy sigh. “Maybe I shouldn’t look.”
“Even I want to know what this is about,” he says and playfully elbows me. “You won’t be able to get any sleep if you don’t look.”
“You’re right.” I nod and he slides the computer closer to him.
I clench my jaw as I watch him open the drive.
There are several folders, and he clicks on one.
“Holy shit,” he mumbles when a long list of documents pop up.
Every file is labeled with my name and then a date, and the first one goes back to the seventeenth of March from when I was only seven years old.
“Click on that one,” I tell him, hands trembling just a bit. There’s still a chance this isn’t real. There’s a chance the Order just turned their head and ignored the fact I’m a witch and didn’t keep extensive records on me without my knowledge.
“Is that you?” Devon asks as a picture loads. It’s the first page of this document.
“Yeah.” A chill runs through my spine and I shake my head.
“I remember this place.” Leaning in, I look at the photo closer.
It feels like this day happened forever ago, yet I still remember it pretty well.
I had caught a stomach bug from Larissa and she was much sicker than me.
I threw up twice throughout the night then had a small dry-heaves session but was better within a day.
And for some reason, Vivian insisted I go see a doctor. The actual visit itself wasn’t memorable, but the way Larissa treated me was. She had been lying on the bathroom floor, with it coming out both ends, for nearly forty-eight hours at that point. The girl must have been fucking miserable.
“I’m no doctor,” Devon starts as he scans the first few lines in the medical report. “But you don’t normally get this kind of extensive testing done when you have a stomach bug for less than twenty-four hours.”
“No,” I agree. “I don’t remember getting an EKG.” I close my eyes and think back. “Or even bloodwork.”
“You were only nine, so you might not remember everything.”
“True, but getting an EKG and a scan with contrast isn’t easy to forget,” I add, pointing to more test results on the screen.
“And I was always told to only go to the doctor in case of an emergency. Like I literally had to be dying and no quack of an Order doctor was around to help. I can count the number of times I’ve seen a doctor on one hand. Literally.”
“Then how did they—oh, shit.”
“What?” I ask, looking from the computer screen to Devon.
“Midazolam.”
“What is that?”
“Twilight anesthesia.” He turns and looks at me, brows furrowing. “It causes amnesia.”
A chill runs down my spine and I shake my head. “No,” I say, but I can’t deny what I’m seeing. I flip through page after page and it’s the same thing: I was given the same drug and then had blood taken at least once a year.
“Subject’s test results show a one-hundred percent match to human DNA,” Devon whispers as he reads a line from the document. “Witches are human.”
“We are.” My fingers shake as I scroll down another page. “Why were they taking my blood?”
“They took a lot too,” Devon adds, pointing to a note on the screen. “That’s like a blood donation amount.”
“I don’t remember any of this.” I swallow, throat thick and tight. My entire world is starting to collapse around me as it’s revealed that everything I thought I knew was a lie. “Why would they—” I gasp right before Devon sees what I’m looking at.
“Fuck,” he breathes and puts his hand on my thigh. “Wren…this is fucked up.”
“Yeah,” I say and blink a few times. Maybe I’m dreaming. And I’m sick. It’s a fever dream…that’s actually a nightmare. Because what I’m looking at can’t be true. There’s no way. Only…there is. “It all makes sense.”
“It does?”
“No. But maybe.” I look at Devon. “They told me they saved me. That demon killed my parents and they took me, not knowing I was a witch. I didn’t show signs of having powers until I was like six or something.”
“I’m really sorry, Wren,” he says and I can feel the emotion in his voice.
He knows the pain of betrayal. He knows what it feels like to think your family wants you but they’re only using you.
Because he’s being used by his vampire ‘brothers’ to continue the family line.
Whether they want him to join them in eternity is a whole other question…
and not one I can think about right now. “They knew the whole time.”
“And they didn’t save me. They kidnapped me so they could use me to make super soldiers.”