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Jaylen shakes his head, those soft curls bouncing with the movement. “No, he doesn’t, and it’s going to stay that way, okay? I may not be able to compel you, but I can sure as hell convince you from saying anything.”
“I promise I won’t say anything.” If Miles knew the truth about Jaylen, it would only cause trouble between them, and I don’t want to see that happen.
Jaylen nods and looks over my shoulder. Frowning, I spin to see what he’s looking at when, after a moment, I hear the sound of a car driving down the road before pulling into the driveway. It’s a taxi.
I turn to face Jaylen. “Could you hear the car coming?”
He nods, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Let’s just say there is still a lot for you to learn about me, little angel.”
The sound of high-pitched laughter causes me to turn back to the taxi to see Rylee, Candie, and Jaycee exiting, holding each other up by the waist so as not to fall. I smile, glad they managed to get home safely. They all say goodnight to the driver before walking toward me and Jaylen. They’re so consumed in their giggling that they don’t notice us until the very last second.
Rylee is the first to notice me, her eyes going wide. “You’re home,” she smiles, her eyes moving to look at Jaylen. “And you have a guest.”
I roll my eyes at the knowing look she gives me. God, I hope Jaylen didn’t see it, too. “Jaylen just wanted to make sure I got home safe since I wasn’t feeling well.”
“How kind of him,” Candie giggles, holding onto Jaycee’s shoulders. They both decided to wear dresses tonight which probably wasn’t the smartest decision given the state they’ve ended up in. Jaycee grunts, trying to hold Candie’s weight so they both don’t go toppling over.
“I’m just glad you’re home safe,” Jaycee says, tugging on Candie. “Come on, let’s get inside and go to bed.”
“Jaycee went upstairs at the club with the guy who got us on the list,” Candie says, wiggling her brows at Jaycee, who rolls her eyes.
The girls walk past me, waving goodbye to Jaylen as they go. He simply nods in response, his eyes never leaving mine. As they pass by, I look at Jaycee and notice two small puncture marks on the side of her neck. My eyes widen as a small gasp leaves my lips.
“What the—”
“She’ll be okay,” Jaylen interjects, somehow knowing exactly what I was going to say. “She won’t remember a thing about him being a vampire.”
I turn to look at him. “So, she was compelled to forget he is a vampire, but she remembers everything else?”
He nods, shoving his hands into the pocket of his chinos. “That’s how it works at the Black Rose. Before she was compelled, whoever the guy was would’ve told her what he was and got consent to feed from her. To avoid society finding out about us, all willing human participants are compelled to forget that we’re vampires, and that’s it.”
“And if she didn’t give consent?”
“Then she would’ve been compelled to forget she was even asked the question,” he says with a shrug.
I hum in acknowledgment, mulling over the information in my head. I just hope that whoever this guy is that Jaycee slept with treated her right and didn’t take advantage of her. I’ll have to try and find a time to ask her about it.
“I’ll let you go,” Jaylen says after a moment. “But I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
I watch in stunned silence as he walks past me and disappears down the empty street, blending in with the darkness. There is more I want to say to him or ask, but my brain is overloaded with information that I can’t seem to organize my thoughts coherently enough to get the words out.
But Jaylen is right. I will be seeing him around because now that I know what he is, I’m determined to learn more about him. The only thing is, I can’t let my brother find out.
Jaylen
I watch my little angel’s eyes move across the darkness of the street, unable to see me lurking in the shadows, using nearby parked cars as a shield. After a moment, she sighs and turns to follow her friends inside the house. I can hear the rhythmic thumping of her heart as she disappears behind the closed front door.
It’s now my new favorite sound.
Evie finding out I’m a vampire was not something I thought would happen tonight.
Yes, I like to let her know that I’m watching her. Always watching. Even when she doesn’t know it. But when I walked upstairs with… fuck, I can’t remember her name, I hadn’t anticipated that she would follow me. I can only guess curiosity got the best of her, and I’m not mad about it.
Keeping this secret from Evie and Miles for the past four years has been harder than I thought it would be. Having to hide the deep thirst that often consumes me when I haven’t fed and my heightened senses in public spaces hasn’t been easy. But somehow, I made it work. Miles doesn’t know a thing—that I know of—and I was hoping it would stay that way with Evie, but… my little angel is a curious girl.
She is a smart woman, I know this. When we were kids, she would spend a lot of her time reading whatever book she could get her hands on. Genre wasn’t an issue for her because all she wanted was to further her knowledge—fiction and non-fiction. It’s one of the things I like most about her. Not only is she intelligent, but insanely beautiful with her amazonite eyes and a smile that could light up an entire city if it were to lose power. I find myself having to resist the urge to run my knuckles across her high cheekbones and count every freckle on her cheeks and nose.
It pains me that I have had to keep her at arm’s length because of Miles. I’ve had to repress these feelings over the years because there was never a right time to take the next step. What if I made a move and she rejected me? It would fucking kill me. I don’t think I would ever recover. And I don’t want to go against my best friend’s wishes of dating his sister, but it’s so fucking hard to resist her. There is only so much I can take.
