AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t,” she agrees, flashing me a coy smirk. “But neither do I—so, it seems we’re at a stalemate.”
“Aye, maybe that’s true.”
She glances behind me toward the corridor. “Go ahead and send in the bad cop to get this interrogation started.”
I blink at her. “What?”
“Sebastian?” she says, like it’s obvious. “I’ve watched enough TV to know the rundown. Send him in now and save us all the time.”
Her voice wavers and her hands shake in fists at her sides. She’s holding up a good front, all things considered, but it’s obvious she’s terrified. It doesn’t help that she seems to feel emotions to a much higher degree than most others.
Perhaps it’s our bond that makes it seem that way. I’m so connected that I feel her emotions as if they were my own. Whatever the reason for it, it isn’t helping her or me right now.
“Or is the infamous Sebastian Fontenot a leader like Egan who sends in his underlings to do the roughing up for him? If that’s the case, shouldn’t the Viking vamp be joining us about now? Rune, was it?”
I’ve been approaching this all wrong. Josie is still bruised from head to toe because of the werewolves’ treatment of her. She’s waiting for the same treatment from the vampires—from me. The thought opens a gnawing pit in my stomach.
Is this really how I want to go into a unity bond?
Rune and Sebastian joke that my gift as an empath is more like a curse, making me overly emotional and unable to come to situations objectively, but I see it as the clear asset that it is.
“We need to start somewhere, Josie. Give me something to work with here. I’ll not hurt ye, or enthrall ye, or do anything else that ye’d take as a violation,” I say, willing her to believe me. “The only thing I’m after right now is a conversation.”
Josephine keeps her gaze locked on my chest instead of my face. “You could be lying. Vampires are master manipulators. Silver-tongued snakes, my grandmother used to say.”
Patience, I remind myself. There is no need to rush things.
“What about this, then?” I turn my back to her and stare at the gray stones instead. I need to show her she can trust me. Hopefully, this will do the trick. “Now, yer free to take the first turn and ask me a question.”
“I didn’t say I would play your game.”
I smile at the wall, imagining Josie crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. She may not want to play, but she will.
“Och, I’m sure ye have some burning questions ye want the answer to. Don’t ye?”
I take her silence as a reluctant yes, and it’s a good thing she can’t see my face, because I’m sure she would take offense at my cocky smile.
Eventually, she speaks. “Was Sebastian telling the truth about my mom being his Unity Witch?”
The question catches me off guard. Is that really the most pressing thing on her mind right now? Or does she already know the answer? Is she testing me to see if she can trust me to keep my promise to tell the truth?
“Aye, it’s true,” I answer, keeping a close watch on Josie’s emotions as she processes.
A wave of sadness washes over her, and when she speaks, her voice is nothing but a whisper. “I can’t believe my grandmother would keep something like that from me.”
“They were one of the firsts to forge a bond, Celine and Sebastian.” It’s more of an answer than I owe as per the rules of our game, but I hate the pang of heartbreak stabbing at me from Josie’s end of whatever link is growing between us. “The fighting between the wolves and the vampires had reached its peak. It left so many dead on both sides there were bodies left in the streets—undeniable proof of our existence. Neither side would back down while the other still stood.”
“And that’s where the witches came in,” Josephine huffs. “They tried to cast a spell of peace and balance to protect the secrecy of the supernatural world, and Mother Gaia twisted their intentions in the biggest screw you ever. I’ve heard the story dozens of times.”
“Yet ye didn’t know the connection between Sebastian and your mother.”
“I know enough.” The intensity of her hatred is palpable—a hatred that has been festering for decades.
Not unlike Sebastian.
My fangs jab into my lip and I realize Josie’s hatred is leeching into me, her emotions affecting me more than I thought.
This isn’t getting us anywhere.
