Page 15 of A Memory Not Mine (Sanguis Amantium #1)

Chapter fourteen

Baird

B aird exhaled deeply and raked a hand through his hair as he paced in a tight circle outside the cottage door, torn between storming back to the inn or fleeing as far from Mira Garvie as he could.

Unsettled didn’t even begin to describe the feeling that had clawed at him since lifting her unconscious body from the gravesite and seeing her face.

He had seen her before—the waking visions that had come to him over the past few weeks.

When the visions began, he thought his mind was playing tricks: a face like the one in the old portrait, but clothed in modern attire, with tanned skin and shoulder-length hair.

As the images persisted, a creeping dread took hold.

He recognized the sensation too well. It wasn’t imagination.

It was influence. Someone—or something—had planted her image in his mind, just as they had years ago, tormenting him until the visions finally stopped.

But now, they were back—and Mira was no longer a figment of his haunted thoughts. She was real. And she was in danger.

He had found her slumped at the grave, not fully conscious but not entirely gone either—caught somewhere between worlds.

She had murmured unintelligibly, reaching out with one hand, her fingers grasping at something invisible.

He’d carried her to his cottage, placed her gently on the couch, and watched as her breathing shifted from ragged to calm, her heart rate slowing.

For a moment, he feared she had fallen under a spell.

But as he watched her sleep, he sensed something different. Something powerful—but not malicious.

He’d knelt beside her then, transfixed. Her face was etched with the same features he’d memorized.

When she awoke, it was as if life had burst into the room—brash, bold, and unfiltered.

She looked him dead in the eye with a spark that both challenged and intrigued him.

In those moments, she was electric—alive in a way he hadn’t allowed himself to be in years.

He stormed inside now, slamming the door behind him. This—she—was the last kind of complication he needed. But deep in his gut, he knew someone was coming for Mira. And whatever she was caught up in, whatever storm was gathering around her, he had already made his decision.

He would protect her.