By his mention of France, my mouth had dropped wide open, and I wasn’t sure I could close it again. My back bounced against the bench as I let my weight fall, focusing on the soothing falling water. “Are they all, regular, human-looking?—?”
“Two arms, two legs kind of people?” he finished for me. “Yeah. All Vampires look like humans…” His features obscured as he thought about it. “Not all of them do. There is a branch of force-fed creatures calledthe crawlers. Trust me, you never want to see one of those. They were created long ago though, when theStrabun Dynastiesstill held all the power, waybeforethey lost the Vampiri War.”
“Evil Vampires?” I asked, putting it in a very simplistic way for sure, after how complicated the Vampire history seemed from what he explained.
An endearing smile lifted his lips, and he patted my hand. “Yes, the evil Vampires.”
“Were those the ones who tried to turn you?” I asked, knowing how he and the guys always made a point to differentiate themselves from theotherswhenever they mentioned Bjørn being turned.
He nodded; his gaze lost somewhere in the past.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to process everything he’d told me, but circled back to what was important now. “You said the Viscountess holds a different kind of power for each one of you. What kind of power does she hold over Dante and D?”
The Fae tried to mask the smirk, narrowing his eyes on me instead. Then became pensive, trying to find a way around my question.
“That is one of the things you swore not to talk about, isn’t it?”
“A vow of magic,” he explained, saying there was more than just his word keeping him from talking about it. “I can tell you this,” he answered instead. “She found each one of us in a moment of our lives when needed hope the most. Like me, they feel like they owe everything to her, so they will never betray her. She brought us all together, dearie. Brought us together foryou.”
Leaning in, he kissed my temple like he had done before, making emotion reach my throat. The kind of love emanating from the Fae as he looked at me shouldn’t be there, but it was so honest and powerful that it not only humbled me… it hurt me. It was the way I’d wished so many times my uncle would look at me.
“Why would she do that?” I whispered, holding back the pain.
“She worries about you.”
“Why?”
“She can see people’s futures, and she saw yours.”
“But why would she helpme? Anastasia has never even met me.”
Facing me fully on the bench, he cupped my cheek caringly. “You are important to a lot of people, Natasha. More than you know.”
“Including D and Dante?”
“Especiallyto D and Dante… Whatever you heard them say to the Viscountess, I can assure you there was no ill intent. I know you are confused right now and mistrustful, but even if it may be hard to believe, their conversation was only a wellness check. They were letting her know about what happened to you, but that you were doing well now. Nothing more, nothing less.”
It was probably the wrong thing to do, but everything inside me wanted to believe him. My wolf, though hurt as I was, trusted Bjørn completely. Hope slowly returned to my heart, the ache waning. “I think Dante said he loved me while I was sleeping,” I confessed. “It wasn’t really in those words but?—?”
“It’s true… We’ve all loved you in one way or another before you even met us. Whatever happens, whatever doubts may cloud your mind or your heart while you await the truth, believe this above everything else. We will never hurt you or turn against you, Natasha. We would readily give our lives for you before?—”
Blood abruptly drained from his face, his hand falling from my cheek as his eyes widened in horror.
“What happened?” I stood after him, heart racing when I saw his form begin to tremble in and out in distress.
“Isis…”
The single word echoed as heblinked, but I caught his arm before he could disappear.
His power jerked me into a swirling tunnel of energy with him. One momentCentral Parkwas there, and then there was nothing but energy. My body no longer existed, yet my mind was alert and present. It felt as though I had disintegrated into a million particles now swirling through the vast space of nothingness.
Feeling returned to me suddenly as my form restructured, and the ground met way too fast. Sounds, smell, and sight all crashed into me in an instant, my hands and knees hittingthe damped earth. The roaring sound of the rushing river encompassed everything while everything around me spun.
“Natasha! Are you okay?” Bjørn’s distressed voice muffled in my ears when he helped me stand.
I nodded, taking deep, steadying breaths.
“Neverdo that again,” he scolded. “You could have been lost in the universe’sélan.”
