Page 67 of Midnight Kiss
“Yeah,” I said. “And the truth is, the more time you spend around me, the more dangerous it becomes for you.”
“Why?”
“Because things aren’t what they seem,” Mike said. “And Emily is right. You should spend as little time around her as possible.”
“Does this have something to do with Alex?” Morgan asked, glancing from Mike and back to me again.
I swallowed. I didn’t want to answer that question. I didn’t even want to think about him at this point because it was making me beyond anxious.
“I’m not leaving.” Morgan said, folding her arms. “I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on.”
Mike threw his hands up in the air.
“I’m serious, Michael.”
I was too tired to fight her on this right now.
“Fine, then take a seat.” Mike gestured to the armchair. “I’ll fix you a cup of hot chocolate.”
I lifted my phone to my face and unlocked it, blinking at the screen and the hazy time. It was past midnight. Morgan had to have come back from work to find the apartment empty and had come looking for me.
Mike and Morgan bickered while I opened my messages.
Nothing.
I didn’t have a single message from Alex, and the betrayal burned. It stung so bad that tears gathered in my eyes. It was even worse than this sickly illness that had come over me and the certainty that it wouldn’t be long before I was dead.
What did that mean? That I was so in love with this … vampire that I was willing to die for him?
And why had the book cursed me? Why had he wanted the book in the first place?
I cast my mind back, trying to piece together what I’d read and translated, but it didn’t come. It was like I’d forgotten everything that I’d written down?—
“The notebook,” I said suddenly. “Mike, I translated a lot into my notebook.”
“It’s gone, Em,” he said, looking up from where he’d been on his phone in the kitchen. “I already checked.”
I swore under my breath.
“What notebook?” Morgan asked. “What’s going on?”
We both ignored her, and she made a low grunt in her throat. “Y’all are starting to piss me off.”
I stared at my last messages from Alex then typed one out.
“I don’t know if you’ll see this or if you’ve already gotten rid of this phone number, but I have to say something. I know what you are. And I know that you took the book. I know you’ve betrayed me.” As I shakily typed the words out, anger came with them, like I was finally admitting what he’d done. “And I want you to know that I never want to see you again after this. I never want to see you again because of what you’ve done. Michael is going to help me lift the curse. So I don’t need you or the book. You’re a liar.” I hit send and stared at the text messages.
Two gray ticks appeared. They didn’t turn blue.
“—somebody tell me what the hell is going on here,” Morgan was saying.
“We’re not going to tell you anything,” I said, as sternly as I could manage. “We’re not going to tell you anything because it will endanger you.”
“Emily.”
“No,” I said. “That’s enough.” It wasn’t fun to be left in the dark, but this was Morgan’s life we were talking about, and I wasn’t about to endanger her. Knowing that I could protect her this way made what Michael had done make more sense.
“Enough?”