Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“I can fight—”
“Not the point!” he hollered. “If not for the fact that your coven regularly hunts here, others would have come. Maybe not Nobles, for the sake of your little treaty, but for sure Lesser Bloods!”
“I—” Was I being lectured by a vampire?
And I was just listening? What in the hell was I doing? If it were anyone else, I would have laughed at myself just like I laughed at…at Mr. Lovell.
Crap. Letting go of the juice, I laughed.
“This is comical to you?” he questioned harshly.
When I finally found the courage to turn to him, his face was furious, but I nodded, still smiling. “It is, only because it is so stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking. That’s a lie. I wanted you to come to me again, so anything was rational. I’m laughing because now I understand my boss, Dr. Lovell.”
He stared down at me for a moment before he sat down. “Explain more.”
I smiled, turning my whole body to face him. “Dr. Lovell and his ex-wife, Dr. Andreeva, have been divorced for almost ten years now. They are both at the top of their fields and highly respected art conservators—wait, let me back up. I’m an art conservator and restorationist at The National Gallery of Art—”
“I know.” He nodded.
I wanted to ask him what else he knew but let it go for now. Baby steps. “Anyway, once or twice a year, they find some excuse to meet each other or compete against each other. They do the craziest things. Dr. Lovell doesn’t sleep for days and skips grading his papers so he can focus on beating her. It is obvious to everyone that they simply enjoy seeing and pushing each other. They care about each other. Personally, I think they have become the great minds they are by fighting each other. I always wondered what would happen if they didn’t do all the silly contests, peer reviews, or book launches and just sat down somewhere and talked. Like normal people.”
“And now, by doing this foolishness”—he lifted the bag in disgust—“you understand their method?”
“It’s not a method. It’s foolishness.” I grinned. “It is the foolishness of excitement of the…heart. They can’t help it. They are so excited that they go off running as fast as they can toward what they want.”
“So, your excuse is excitement?” he asked.
Being completely honest, I nodded. “Yes. I’ve wanted to talk to you for years.”
“Years?” he repeated, frowning. “You’ve known I’ve been…”
“Stalking me?”
“Watching,” he corrected, not that there was much of a difference.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I can feel it. I’ve always felt it. Ever since you first saved me. I thought you knew?”
He shook his head slowly. “I did not. Often, I wondered if there could be a possibility that the moments where you looked back or paused were for me. But till this year, I could not tell for sure. I assumed you had forgotten your childhood.”
It was the most he’d ever said to me, and I couldn’t help but feel the hundred different emotions bubbling up inside, shaking me.
“Your heart rate is increasing. Why?” His eyes shifted to my chest.
“It’s the excitement. Ignore it,” I said quickly, trying to brush it off. “Um, you are right. I don’t remember much about my childhood besides training. In fact, the only thing I remember was sneaking out of my house to go play in the forest.”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“You were there from the beginning?”
“It was your birthday.” He said it like that alone was enough.
I nodded, thinking. “Yeah, I think it was—in fact, it was. Simone always liked to play tricks on me because I was so gullible, even at eight. I loved fairies and truly, with all my little heart, believed they existed. We, as witches, existed, so they had to exist. Simone told me that if I went out right before the sun rises and spin three times in a field of flowers, singing a song for the fairies, they would come out to dance. I wanted to see them dance on my birthday, and instead, I ran into a vampire. I can’t remember her face well, but I do remember her long, black hair, which was soaked in blood from the person she was drinking from. Then she saw me, and all I saw were long claws and fangs before you…you killed her.”
“I did not,” he said to my surprise.
“What?”
“I wanted to kill her. Had she lain a hand on you before I got to her, I would have ripped her limb from limb. I was enraged. I kicked her away, then I picked you up and hid you in a tree trunk. I wanted to knock her out of blood lust as she had already inhaled your scent, and she would have chased after you. Breaking her was all I could do, which was the easier part because I did not know what to do with you. I was worried I would scare you even worse. I was covered in blood, and my clothes were tattered due to the struggle. I thought of how to alert your family to your whereabouts. But when it became silent, you peeked your head out, searched around for a few seconds before racing as fast as you could back home. I followed to make sure you made it.”