Filed To Story: Chasing the Rejected Luna's Heart (Clara & Liam) Book PDF Free
He grimaced, but I wasn’t sure if it was the accusation of the title that bothered him. “Technically, I’m a duke.””That doesn’t really change my point.””I’m not stalking you. I am merely…” He trailed off, as if he hadn’t actually bothered to finish the defense in his mind. “Curious.””Curious,” I echoed. “You really must be bored. So tell me, what did your investigation turn up? If you tracked me here, I assume you followed my trail.””I did,” he conceded without a hint of shame. Then again, if I looked like that, I probably wouldn’t have any either. “I know you work at the Coyote Den, and you live in the apartment above it now. And you must have come from the Redstone Pack.””That’s all?” I couldn’t help but sound a little disappointed. “You should stick to being a duke. You’re not a great private eye.”
It was probably not the best idea to mouth off to a powerful and presumably ancient vampire, but he just smirked like he found our banter amusing rather than infuriating. Guess they weren’t as tightly wound as wolves. Actually, after living in the city for a while and encountering a variety of different species, I was pretty sure we had a monopoly on anal retentiveness.”Would you care to fill in the gaps?” he asked. “I could give you a ride home.”
A surge of panic shot through my chest and I looked down the other end of the path. Shit, my bus.”It left a few minutes ago,” he said, as if reading my thoughts. When I turned back to him, the mischief was back in his gaze. “Sorry.”
No, he fucking wasn’t. I clenched my jaw, torn between telling him to go back to wherever he came from and taking him up on it since it was now dark. Before I could decide, the tightness in my chest proved to be more than just the initial startle of realizing I had missed my bus. That wasn’t what had a monopoly on my attention, though. The heat that had been building under my skin all day had grown intolerable at three particular points, both marks on my neck as well as the one hidden beneath my fingerless gloves on my right wrist.
I gripped the railing, trying to bear through the pain since it had grown exponentially over the last few seconds. It was like the dark falling had unleashed something, and it felt almost like something was clawing at me from inside my chest. It was a bizarre sensation that might have been welcome if it happened about a month earlier, but not now that I was completely unprepared.
And it was a little too late, at that.”Lavinia?” Alexander’s voice lilted in concern and he reached for me as I turned away from the railing, instinctively wanting to get away even if the threat at hand was coming from within.
Before I could respond, my knees buckled and he caught me before they could hit the pavement. His voice was distant again, like it was coming from underwater. My head was spinning even worse than it had when I had been thrown into that brick wall. I couldn’t make out anything he was saying, but at the moment, I was more concerned with the agony gripping my chest like a vice. I clawed at my shirt, starting to hyperventilate.”Lavinia!” His voice was sharp this time, cutting through the ringing in my ears. It snapped me out of my daze just enough to make eye contact, and the moment I did, something within their red depths arrested me. Everything stopped. The pain, the panic, time itself. All there was in that moment was burning crimson boring straight into my soul, consuming everything else, including my own frantic thoughts.
For a few moments, I was frozen in his arms, and couldn’t even remember how to breathe let alone why I needed to. His perfect face was set in worry, like some dark angel who’d taken an inexplicable interest in an unworthy charge. My awareness honed in on him, tuning out all else, and when his silken voice spoke a single word of command, I had no choice but to obey.”Sleep,” he said.
And I did.
* * *
I woke up in a strange bed feeling confused and like I had just gotten hit by a semi, but I didn’t feel like I was about to spontaneously combust at any moment, so that was progress. Maybe.
My mind was hazy, and I immediately wondered if I had been drugged or something. It was a struggle to remember how I had gotten here. First, I needed to figure out where exactly here was.
I looked around to get a better understanding of my surroundings. I was in a massive bed with four wooden posts and luxurious fabric draped across the frame. The bed was against the wall of a room so massive, my entire apartment could’ve fit into it a few times over.
I wasn’t tied down or anything, but my limbs were still so stiff and achy, it wasn’t like I could have gone far. Across the room, there were heavy purple-and-red drapes hanging all the way down to the floor. The walls were papered in a gold-and-black damask pattern, and the roaring fireplace across the room was not only the last thing I wanted to see in my current condition, but it was also making me wonder if I had been transported back in time to some Victorian castle or something.
My vision cleared as I scanned the room, and I did a double-take when I realized I wasn’t alone. My surge of panic ebbed away when I saw the small boy sitting in a chair against the wall across from the bed. He couldn’t have been more than eight, ten tops. He wore a placid expression on his ghostly pale face, and the fact that he was wearing black shorts and a button-down shirt with suspenders just lent to more credence to my Victorian time-machine theory.
Great. I had gotten transported back in time to a bedroom haunted by a sickly Victorian boy. I was never going to lament about needing a vacation ever again.
I sat up sharply, and the boy blinked at me, his blank expression never faltering.”Where am I?” I asked, at the risk of looking like I was talking to an empty room if anyone happened to come in and not be able to see said ghost boy.”A room,” the boy answered noncommittally, swinging his feet a few inches off the floor. He was wearing shiny black loafers that reflected light a hell of a lot better than his dark coal eyes.
So it was a smartass ghost. Even better. “Yeah, I gathered that. A room where?””In a house,” he replied.
Well, I walked right into that one. I sat up, deciding from how violently my head spun in response that getting to my feet just yet was probably a bad idea. “Okay, let’s try something else. Who are you?””I’m Milton.”
Yeah, that definitely sounded like a Victorian ghost boy name. “Okay, Milton,” I said, carefully swinging my legs over the bed. I watched to see if he was going to make any move to attack me with his creepy ghost powers or whatever, but he just sat there staring and blinking much too little for comfort. “Why am I here? And who brought me?””My brother,” he answered. “I don’t know why he brought you. He just told me to watch you until he got back.”
His brother. It had to be Alexander. I remembered that much, at least. He had caught me when I collapsed, and while I didn’t remember much about our conversation before that, I did remember the look on his face. I didn’t think someone who was trying to kill me would’ve had that much concern in his eyes.