Page 40 of Midnight Kiss

It didn’t matter if what she was saying was true or not. It hurt. It reminded me of harsh words that had been thrown at me in the past. Humiliation and rejection.

“I don’t believe you.”

“You keep saying that like it matters what you believe.” She laughed. “It’s irrelevant what your weak mind thinks of me or Alexander.” She tapped her chin with a long nail. “But it has been a lot of fun toying with you, given what he’s done in the past couple of decades.”

“Decades?” Alexander wasn’t that old was he? He couldn’t have had a twenty-year relationship with her.

“Enough of this. Go upstairs to your apartment and wait for him. When he comes, ask him why he’s been lying to you. Do you understand?”

I opened my mouth, but the word “yes” wouldn’t come. I didn’t want it to. I didn’t want to avoid Alexander or accuse him of trying to steal my romance novel.

“Do as I say!”

Sweat broke out on my brow, and I lifted a shaking hand and swept it away.

“Now.”

I turned on my heel and walked up the stairs. My apartment door was still ajar, and I stopped in front of it, frowning. Why was it open?

The bats. Of course!

I’d been feeling sick, and I’d gone downstairs and then?—

My mind blanked out. I’d gone downstairs, and I had been afraid to go outside because of the bats. But I’d been feeling sick and then I had— What?

I couldn’t recall.

I turned away from my apartment and considered going down again, but a strong sense of dread nearly overwhelmed me. Instead, I entered my apartment and shut the door. The book waited for me on the coffee table.

My heart pounded the closer I drew toward it, but instead of going over and lifting it into my arms, I entered my bedroom and checked the window. It was intact. No sign of bats anywhere. Was I actually losing my mind here?

I couldn’t be that sick, could I?

But even those thoughts were foggy. A constant nagging plucked at my mind, a need to go back into the living room and lie on the sofa, to hold the book and keep it safe.

I forced myself to ignore it and crawled into my bed instead, trembling and hot. This flu or stomach bug was getting the better of me, but I couldn’t help thinking it was more than that. Something strange had happened tonight that wasn’t to do with imaginary bats.

14

ALEXANDER

Emily answered the door paler than she’d been the day before, and my immediate urge was to sweep her from the apartment and save her from the book. But removing her from it would only slow the rot. There had to be another method of saving her, other than to turn her into a vampire. I couldn’t bring myself to curse her with a fate worse than death.

“Alex,” she said, and her smile changed her face, from sickly to radiant. “I’m so glad you came to visit me.” Emily pressed a shaking hand to her forehead. “But I’m under the weather, I?—”

“Emily,” I said.

Her gaze snapped to my face again, and she touched her lips with the tip of her tongue. Even now, when she was at her worst, I wanted her. Worse, I wanted to protect her.

“Emily,” I said, my gaze scouting toward the kitchen where I had felt the ward with my magic. Ah. There you are. “Do you mind if I borrow a pen?”

“A pen?”

I patted my coat. “I forgot mine at home, and I wanted to write down my number for you.”

“Oh, but I could just put the number in my phone,” Emily said, blinking at me.

“Yes, you could do that. But you could also, please, bring me that pen.” The minute the ward-item crossed the boundary of its protection, the magic would fail, and I would have free access to Emily’s apartment. And the book.