Page 19 (1/2)

My First Engagelass of ice water, slices of li the ice cubes Gently, he tipped htstand

"Refreshing Thank you"

"You are welcome"

"Why are you Spanish?"

"Excuse lish Protestants I&039;ve never heard of a Spanish Puritan"

"It is true that ere a rarity of our tirated north where they joined the Puritan settlers In truth, h it wasn&039;t spoken of inpunishment The Puritans welcoth Survival was priority one for Monk&039;s congregation, although I can&039;t re Perhaps that is why I spent my time in the woods with you"

Iat the eh our connection, his e in so to the, and the thoughts came across in complete sentences But people didn&039;t think that way naturally and today Rick&039;s head was filled with a mixture of what I would describe as jealousy, possessiveness, hurt, anger, and resentan but suppressing his eive hiet co, the smell of him filled my nostrils, earth, pine, saltwater and honeysuckle I breathed him in

"Did you agree to ain Truly, I would have liked the chance to explain about Logan, but Rick wasn&039;t ready to hear it Not yet

He laced his fingers over his stomach "Of course I did I could no sooner part from you than my own ar I was prepared to disappear from my family forever, to live outof our ie, you met me at our pool, hysterical You told me everyone in your tribe was dead"

"Dead?"

"Drained of their blood Everyone we knew and loved, dead" His voice cracked

"Vampires?"

"We didn&039;t knohat they were at the time Vampires are predators and they followed their prey Just like everyone else that rated to Red Grove, they caed by starvation"

"Why didn&039;t the vampires kill me?"

"I can only speculate, but I believe you were protected by your oddess of the dead, Hecate"

"Yes I can&039;t be sure, and you never told ed, becaregation into accepting your presence, no questions asked"

Instinctively, I reached over and placed a hand on his chest as I tilted on ers and placed them beside me I cleared my throat "Nobody asked where I came from?"

"People asked You told the traveled with a band of pilgri your journey Everyone believed you"

"Sounds plausible"

"Plausible that you would come over one hundredbut the clothes on your back?"

I laughed softly "So, ic had been awakened"

"Yes And you&039;d lost everyone you loved" His fingertips trailed throughho into sleep "Not everyone," I whispered His story had lulled me into that space between sleep and awake, all of h a crack in my eyelids I watched hiht only have heard it thanks to our connection "And you still do"

When I opened ain, I rolled over and looked for Rick He wasn&039;t in the roo a frosty winter&039;s night I must have slept raveyard

Rick If I&039;d ever questioned his love for me, I&039;d been a fool The story he&039;d told otten memory Some part of me kneas truth, as wasas it all was, the war inin love with hih it played a part, but because of the present He gave of hiht I&039;d strayed fro I&039;d heard and seen inmy caretaker, or at a miniht opened up a gaping hole in my chest Since I&039;d become the witch, I&039;d always assu ain Maybe Julius was technically telling the truth about our relationship, but it wasn&039;t the whole truth I realized, now, Rick had a ave him credit for

A moment of panic caused my heart to palpitate Julius wouldn&039;t be happy about Rick&039;sme, Bathory surely had a price onintodid I have before they came for me? For Rick? I needed to tell Rick what I&039;d learned and find out what he knew about the possessed wo as a tea hands in front of rooves that had etched my skin had filled in, thanks to Rick&039;s blood, but the ache in the joint toldand I&039;d probably be as good as new Speaking of blood, I reeked of it The sponge bath Rick had given me only went so far I desperately needed a shower, if not to get the stink off of s at my throat or Bathory&039;s bull whip With both hands, I pushed s over the side

Near the bed, leaning against the wall, I noticed a long, round, purple candle, like the ones you see in church My intuition hummed This had not been here before There was a stao, in the shape of a scarab beetle Was this what Rick had obtained during his absence? Immediately, I had to know more He&039;d traveled far for this Why? I reached for the candle

Apparently, I&039;d overesti because my head swam I tilted forward at the hips and face-planted on the carpet

"Mi cielo!" Rick shooknext to the bed I groaned

"How did you fall out of bed?" He lifted h the ar my face "I wanted to shower I feel like I&039;ve been rolled in vampire saliva and left to dry"

His shoulders drooped, and he squeezed erly, he undressedit into the garbage can near the bed As if I weighed nothing, he liftedme up with one ar the temperature of the water with his wrist