Having glitchy powers isn’t an option right now, not when it nearly got me and Fabian into a very bad situation.
Luna’s answering smile is as pleased as punch. She’s such a romantic softie. Although studying her expression, I notice she’s looking paler than normal. Her skin is practically translucent.
“You all right here if I go and see a vamp about sucking his... blood?” I grin.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll just hang around here with Sleeping Beauty.” She pats my hand. Although that motion clues me into the fact her hands are trembling.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Luna?”
“That vision took it out of me,” she replies with an artful little shrug. “It happens. Maybe I should get Ember’s recipe. It might mean I can get a good night’s sleep.”
The words are casual, almost careless, and I’m sure she doesn’t want me to delve deeper right now, but they still hit me like a slap in the face.
“You have visions while you’re sleeping? The same ones that cause you pain?” My gut twists with guilt. How have I missedthat? We lived in neighboring rooms in an old warehouse until a few months ago. The damn building had paper-thin walls, so I should have known if she was having nightmares.
Unless things have been getting worse and she hasn’t mentioned it.
I feel the familiar pang of guilt that’s my near constant companion. I’ve been stretched too thin and clearly a lot has slipped through the gaps. First Ember and now this.
“Stop.” She puts a hand on my arm. “It’s not like you can do anything about it. It’s worth it, anyway. I love a happy ending.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She nods. “There’s this bulging table cluttered with chairs and place settings. Everyone talking at once and yelling over each other. Fighting over the last potato. Normal life, Silver. Normal family life, all together and making allowances for each other. Compromising so that everyone gets to spend time with each other. Loving each other, however slowly that part might come.”
I guess that sounds nice. “And do you see any of the people around the table? Any handsome witches that are there holding your hand and writing you poems about plants?”
That’s how I reckon someone would woo Luna, at least. Gush over her garden and rub her head when she’s looking tired and I’m pretty sure she’d be content.
“I never See anything of my own life,” she says with another shrug.
Shame. I think we could all do with the confirmation that our lives are going to work out just fine. We just have to find a way through the hard parts first.
I carefully roll away from Roscoe and get to my feet. Time to pay a visit to my favorite vampire.
11
Dante
Midway through another video call with the vampire elders and I’m about ready to throw myself in the sea.
Sod the fact the nearest body of water is over four hundred miles away. I’ll hire a car and drive myself there just to hurl myself in, rather than listen to them twitter on.
Victor Blackthorn is in another tropical shirt and, for some unknowable reason, he’s wearing sunglasses indoors. They’re huge aviators that make him look vaguely bug-like. And there’s no rational explanation for why he’s chosen to wear them, either. I think it must be a fashion statement.
