Page 72 of Midnight Kiss

“Save it,” she snapped. “I don’t want to hear it from you. You’ve done everything you could to hide the truth from me. What did you expect, Alexander? That I would be happy with all your lies?”

“No.”

“Then why don’t you save us all time and leave.”

“Emily.”

“You don’t love me,” she said. “Do you? You don’t even care.”

I wanted to tell her the truth badly, but it was utterly pointless. Because Emily and I could never be together.

“I came to warn you,” I said. “You need to stay here until I can find a way to save you. I’m not sure how much time is left or what I can do, but I will find a way. I’ll help you.”

“That’s enough,” Mike said, striding out of the short hallway. “You need to leave. I’ve got Emily’s best interests in mind, and it will be me who figures out how to save her from the curse that you put on her. This was your doing, vampire. Don’t forget it. She certainly won’t, and neither will I.”

“You lied to her as much as I did, hunter.”

“Yeah, but unlike you, I didn’t do it so I could run a book back to my masters at the U.C. I did it to protect her. I did it because I actually cared for her, you sick piece of?—”

I cast out a hand toward him, but it hit the invisible barrier that was his ward. He smirked, even though he had no idea that I could send my vampire magic through it. I sent out a streak of that red magic and surrounded his ward line with it.

“What are you doing?” Michael snapped. “Stop.”

“Ensuring that she is actually safe. Your petty wards won’t protect her. No vampire will be able to cross my magic without bursting into flame.”

“We don’t need your help,” Michael said.

But my gaze flickered past him toward Emily on the sofa. She had already turned her back to me.

“Goodbye, Emily.”

She didn’t say anything.

Pain followed me all the way down the hallway. I turned invisible and kept moving, past closed doors, the scent of that vampire still in the air. I would have to follow it and break its limbs. I would need to find an answer to this impossible question.

What would save Emily? Was there a chance that I could find the answers in the book itself?

Or would that only weaken her further?

I exited into the night and got into my car, hurriedly removing the book from underneath the passenger seat and opening it. I began reading, praying that there would be a clue, a way around the Guardian bond or turning her completely, one that didn’t involve the help of vampire hunters.

I wouldn’t abandon Emily to die. I would leave her only once she was well and free of all vampires.

But that seemed unlikely now, unless there was a way to shut down her Guardian abilities and allure as well.

25

EMILY

I’d thought that lying on the sofa, slowly wasting away was the worst possible thing I could experience, but it turned out that seeing Alex had topped it. He didn’t care. He had stood there in the doorway, staring at me like I was a piece of furniture, not a woman he had touched. Had slept with. Had devoured.

Hot tears gathered beneath my eyelids, but I kept them closed in the darkness.

Hours had passed since he’d been here, and nothing had happened. It seemed like we were safe. For now.

Whatever magic Michael and Alex had done was keeping the peace, but I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last.

Surely, two little barriers wouldn’t be enough to block powerful vampires. Michael had mentioned that he’d warded my apartment and that Alex had gotten past that ward. What if other vampires could do that too?