Page 25 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

“Yeah.”I braced myself for his reaction.It came in the form of a slow, spreading grin that made his eyes crinkle and my shoulders drop in relief.

“That is a good plan,” he said.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.“You think so?”

“A great plan,” he amended, leaving the kitchen area.“And you need to vet them, right?”

“Yeah.”Except I didn’t have time to vet them yet.

“I’ll help.I can contact some of the vampires I know, and you have the staff who can give their opinions too.But first.”He stopped beside the couch, eyes cutting down to me.“You need to eat.You can read through the emails while I grab some food.”

“You really don’t have to—” I broke off when he scowled, and right on cue my stomach growled.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

After Christian left, I headed to my bedroom.Most of my personal belongings were still there.I even took a few minutes to throw on some makeup to hide the circles under my eyes, which seemed to be getting darker by the day.Still, only a few minutes passed before someone knocked on the door.

I shut off the sink and walked back to the living room.“You can just come in—”

I choked off my words when the door opened.It wasn’t Christian standing in the hallway.It was Melissa.

“Hi!”she said, bouncing inside.

Her overt cheerfulness made me tense.“Christian’s not here.”

“I know.”Her eyes were just as bright blue as her brother’s.She didn’t have his hero complex, but shehadsaved my ass more than once.If I ignored her eccentricities and her tendency for strange social experiments, she might eventually become a friend.For now, my life was too crazy to deal with someone who was just a bittoo much.

I didn’t have a good reason to send her away, and Christian would be back soon, so I opened the door wider and motioned her inside.“Is there something I can help you with?”

“Nope.”She sauntered into the kitchen.“I’m here to help you with your djinn problem.I’m great at finding loopholes, and I consider Garion a friend too.”

Each word twisted a knife in my spine.She shouldn’t knowanythingabout the token.She shouldn’t know anything about Garion.“Christian talked to you.”

She tilted her head.“Christian knows?”

Either she was a great actress, which I already knew to be true, or… he hadn’t told her?

“Oh, you told him,” she said.“That makes sense.No, he didn’t tell me.Don’t get mad, but I, um, have a bad habit of eavesdropping.”A hint ofmaybegenuine guilt slid into her expression.

I couldn’t decide whether I should erupt and send her out the door or stay calm and demand she tell me everything she’d overheard since coming to The Rain.And when had she eavesdropped?In the employee corridor where I first confronted Garion?Or later at the cemetery?I remembered that brief pressure to look over my shoulder last night.Had that been her watching?

“It’s cursed,” I said abruptly.“Anyone who uses the token gets hit with all the side effects.They’re bad.”

She blinked.“I wasn’t planning to use it.You hid it, right?”

“Have you told anyone about Garion?”I asked, ignoring her question.

“Just you,” she said.Then she strolled into the kitchen.

“Keep it to yourself, please.”I watched her open a cabinet.“If people learn what he is, it’ll be dangerous.For him and for us.”

She closed the cabinet then looked at me as she opened another.“Us?”

“The Rain, the staff.Christian.Everyone really.The more word gets out, the bigger the chance is someone will try to steal it.”

She shut the second cabinet, then looked at me with wide eyes.“Stealing is wrong.”

Growing up in The Rain, you’d think I’d be used to weird people, but Melissa had multiple personalities.Which one was the most legit?The woman who’d pretended to be human months ago?The person who’d risked punishment from her master to go AWOL and heal her half-drained brother?Christian loved her.He’d changed the trajectory of his life to save her from Crusco and, as much as he could, the paranormal world.He was reliable and trustworthy.Most likely, his sister was as well.