Page 42

Thirty-Eight

HARLOW

Banff is a lovely town with too many tourists packing the main strip that remains blocked off to cars. Carina shows me all the quaint shops and points out the best places to get snacks from, including BeaverTails; something I’ve never actually tried because my hometown—or what I believed was home—didn’t have any locations of the popular restaurant chain. The fact, when I mentioned it, was met with absolute horror before she dragged me along, ordering three cinnamon-sugar-covered ones. “The best flavour,” she described them being after the cashier rang her up.

“Hungry?” I eye the second BeaverTail she keeps after handing mine over.

“Nah, it’s for him.” She gestures to a nearby table where a guy waits, playing on his phone. He’s bent over the table, head leaning on his hand, hair that’s a combination of blond and brown covering his eyes.

He looks up at our approach, and his eyes, a masked vibrant blue, flash purple in recognition as his mouth slips open. “Shit, it’s true. I assumed Carina was fuckin’ with me.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” She scowls, rolling her eyes.

Feeling his scrutiny, I manage a small smile that’s meant to be reassuring. “I’m real.”

He offers his hand in a shake, standing to pull out a chair for me. “It’s surreal to see you, but I’m sure you don’t want to talk about all that now.”

“Hey, I’ll get my own chair, thanks. Dick.” Carina slides the BeaverTail in front of him. “And here, I went out of my way to get you a snack, and how do you repay me? By calling me a liar.”

“I mean…” For that, he earns a flick of magick that neither seems to care about mortals possibly noticing. He ignores his cousin and gets to asking me how it is being back and where I’ve been.

Sitting with them becomes natural. While they’re both lost within my locked-up brain, they feel like home. Like childhood reimagined.

Carina has sarcasm to rival Alec’s, and though Jasper is fairly stoic, he’s nice. My anxieties seem to melt away with every passing minute Carina walked me around town, and now with Jasper, it’s like none of them even existed.

As they argue back and forth about one thing or another, my mind travels back to the house and the vampire hiding from the sun in the basement, and it’s with a heavy pang to my heart, I realize Alec will never get this. He’ll never be able to see Banff during the afternoon, with the sun lighting up the wall of mountains on either side and all the shops open and vibrant with business.

Maybe I could take him around during the nighttime. It won’t be the same with everything closed, but it’s something.

Why am I trying to have a date with my unwanted vampire kidnapper-turned-stalker?

This debate brings another thought to mind. That Alec will forever be limited to the nighttime, while my life in the coven spends much of it beneath Hecate’s sun.

It’s like I’m lost between two paths, unsure which one to walk into the future on.

“Harlow?” Carina snaps her fingers, jerking me from my daze.

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, and sorry to snap, but I called your name a few times.”

Not wanting to admit where my mind was, I say, “Busy admiring the town.”

Jasper glances to his right, towards the mountain most visible and imposing. “It gets old real fast. One day, you’ll long to get away.”

Carina shoves his shoulder, scowling; a face I’m learning is her norm towards her cousin. “Big shot here thinks he’s too good for the coven.”

“Never said that.” Jasper shifts his hand over the table, and a swirl of white smoke flicks Carina in the nose. “But now’s not the time to really talk about that, is it?” He scans the area, and it’s then I notice how the street is a bit less busy, tourists beginning to hole themselves up in their hotel rooms or return to their campsites.

“Ceremony soon?” I guess, crinkling my wrapper to toss away.

Carina gathers the three to take to the garbage nearby. “Nah, not for another five hours or so. We’ll start close to midnight.”

“Speaking of”—Jasper gathers his phone, shoving it into his pocket—“I need to get going. I agreed to meet up with Colton, Jackson, and the others beforehand. Want to come?”

And meet more people? Morgan said she’d introduce me at the ceremony, and I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared to meet anyone prior to that.

Thankfully, Carina senses my anxiety and saves me. “Your asshole friends will drool all over coven royalty, so hell no. Besides, Mom’s kinda hiding her until tonight, doing it all at once.”

“Colton’s been asking about you,” he comments to his cousin, who immediately scrunches her nose.

“Been there once. Actually twice. I’m good. Not again.”

Jasper chuckles. “Suit yourselves. I’ll see you both later.” He tips his head to me in goodbye and walks away, getting sucked up by a family walking nearby.

“Besides,” Carina starts once he’s out of earshot, “it’s nearly dark.”

The sun is a barely there crest. By the time I get back to Morgan’s, it’ll likely be set. The enchantment on the basement will be lifted, freeing Alec, who’ll undoubtedly come for me.

“I can walk you back, if you want. Or we can keep exploring town. We have hours to kill.”

Although I don’t want to be rude and turn down the continuation of her tour, Alec will interrupt regardless. I still don’t understand his moods, and I wouldn’t want Carina to be caught in the crosshairs.

“You mind if I go back?”

“Sure thing.” She stands with me, her mouth opening and shutting twice before she begins walking away. She doesn’t ask whatever she obviously wants to, and curiosity starts gnawing at me.

“What is it?”

“I get you don’t remember me, so I didn’t want to pry. Just wondering how it works, that’s all. A vampire and a witch. Does he…you know?” Her eyes flick towards my neck, which is hidden by my hair.

Checking to ensure no stray humans are close by, I slide my hair away from my neck and remove the enchantment on my wrist so she can see both marks.

“Shit,” she curses, but stares with curiosity over disgust. “Did it hurt?”

“No, it felt…nice.” Pleasurable. Sexy. Blissful. But she’s right. Considering I don’t know her, going into details like this feels a bit much.

It shouldn’t have been.

If life were different, Carina and I would probably be very close. Talking about personal things would be normal. My chest twinges, wishing we were like that. Being homeschooled and kept away from anyone but the neighbours on either side of us, I learned to entertain myself and hide any personal issues. Not that there were many, considering what in my life could have led to drama? I wasn’t given the chance to have typical, human, high school experiences.

“Huh.” Her curiosity breaks out into a smile. “Can’t wait to meet him.”

“You could come with me,” I offer. “He won’t hurt you.”

“That sounds—” She stops when her phone vibrates and glances down at the incoming message with a groan. “Actually, Mom needs a favour. I gotta get materials from the shop.” She thumbs behind her. “You can come, unless you’re still stuck on seeing your vampire boyfriend, which honestly I’d choose over chores.”

I laugh, finding Carina’s easy personality infectious. “Thanks, but I’ll go make sure he’s okay. How should I get to the ceremony later?”

“You have a phone?”

“Somewhere. Left behind when Alec kidnapped me.”

“Okay, be at Mom’s house at 11:30 p.m., and I’ll come get you from there.”

“If you give me directions, I’m sure Alec can find it by scent. A gathering of witches in the forest probably won’t be hard for him to miss.”

Her brows fly into her hairline. “Never thought of that. Kinda cool.” She rattles off decently descriptive directions, gesturing through them. “If you’re not there by 11:45 p.m., we’ll find you. Tracking one of our own in a place this tiny isn’t hard. You good to return to Mom’s alone?”

“I think I got it.” But just in case, I point in the direction I think I need to take, recalling the path Morgan took me on. Carina confirms and we split, her heading deeper into the town while I head towards the residential area.

By the time I turn onto Morgan’s road, the sun has finished setting and a blur streaks toward me, stopping only a foot away. There are numerous reasons I shouldn’t want to see him, but after a day of so much newness, Alec’s familiarity is a welcome sight.

Also…I missed him.

“Good rest?”

“Not at all. Fuckin’ hate daytime. What did you do?”

“Carina showed me the town. It’s really beautiful. So picturesque and quaint. And I met her cousin, Jasper, who’s apparently an old friend.”

His gaze drops down to my right hand, and he grunts. “That explains the stench. He touched you.”

He could tell that? Fuck, his senses continue to surprise me. “He shook my hand.” My words don’t seem to register. He grabs the same hand and lifts it to his mouth, his tongue dragging over my palm. For every reason, it should gross me out, but there’s a sensuality to it as well.

His black eyes flash red for a brief moment before he releases me. “Better. Can’t stand the scent of other males near you, let alone on you.”

In all the time I’ve known Alec, he’s never outwardly looked uncomfortable, but I can’t deny he is now as he stares at the ground and shoves his hands into his pockets.

“You actually mean that.”

“If you want your precious coven to not toss me out, then yeah, I do. It’s hard to ignore the instincts that have suddenly been controlling me.”

Sympathy rolls through me. After centuries of unfeeling, I’m sure having a Bride all of a sudden would be different. Alarming to have your feelings controlled by something uncontrollable.

“I’m sorry.”

His eyes flicker, and his smirk shows the tip of one fang. “I’m not. But have you noticed where you stopped?”

I face the house I stopped by once so far. When I passed it earlier with Carina, I kept my head down and refused to look.

The Sinclair house.

Alec’s cool fingers slide between mine. It’s unlike him to be so touchy, and the sight distracts me enough that I miss when he begins walking, my body pulled behind him as he approaches the start of the path.

“Wait, what are you—Morgan didn’t give me permission.”

He glances over his shoulder, one brow hiked. “It’s your home. You don’t need permission.”

“It hasn’t been mine for a while. Alec, wait!” I jam my feet into the cement, nearly tripping when his immortal strength continues dragging me. “We can’t go in. We don’t have a key.”

On the porch, he taps the black mailbox hung beside the door. “Says Sinclair , does it not? What’s your name again? You have every right to enter, key or otherwise.” He pauses, turning to me. “It’s up to you, Hellion. Ready to face your past?”

“I think Morgan has a plan later…” I trail off when his expression says he doesn’t care.

“Fuck Morgan and anyone else. Harlow, this is your home. Your history. Do you want to go in?”

Do I? This home belongs to strangers. To the version of myself that is a stranger. The house, according to Morgan, is as it was last left, which means a bedroom that knows which toys I enjoyed, while I don’t. A living room that recalls the sounds of family time, while I don’t even recall the people involved. A kitchen with the scent of meals lingering, while it’s food I no longer remember the taste of.

It’s a home once owned by strangers, and while I hope after tonight they won’t be as unknown to me, it doesn’t change that my experiences with them were limited to eight years of life.

Maybe this will help trigger my memory.

Alec strokes his thumb over the back of my hand, his touch gentle. It’s ironic in a sickeningly wrong way that I’m about to enter the Sinclair house with the vampire who murdered most of them, but it feels right. Like he should be nowhere else.

Not sure what that says about me.

I nod, finally answering his question, and Alec reaches for the knob before I can second-guess my decision and twists abruptly, breaking the lock.

“I’ll have it replaced another time,” he murmurs, pushing the door open to the house that last knew ghosts. Two dead witches and a kidnapped child.

Alec steps to the side to allow me to go in first, but I can’t move. My knees are locked, body not cooperating no matter how much my mind is telling me to take a step.

So simple. Move a foot, then the other. A fucking baby can do this.

But a baby wouldn’t be aware of the weight of these steps.

“You’re safe.” His voice, gentle as the wind, cuts through my anxiety. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“I do.”

I do , I remind myself, lifting one foot over the threshold while the other drags behind. Alec follows, tightening his hold on me as he reaches over to flick on a switch.

The entrance opens to a small area, a double-door closet to our left and a mirror hung on the wall to our right. In front of us is a small Y—stairs that go upstairs or the doorway into the rest of the main floor.

I lead the way past the hall closet and towards the attached door, walking by a small built-in office with a U-shaped desk, an old computer dating the kind of tech this place saw.

I continue through the house, inspecting the décor. The paintings, the mirrors, the lights. Every wall is covered in something, giving an insight into the kind of home my parents liked.

It’s the far wall in the living room, across from what was probably a large TV for the time, that numerous portraits are hung. Even from a distance, the three people—two tall and one short—are clear.

I should approach, see the details of the faces. See my parents for the first time.

But I’m stuck. Just like outside, except then I knew I wanted to enter…I don’t know about this.

Harlow? A hand squeeze.

“I, I…I thought I was ready. Tonight, later, I might see them. I can see them now…but it feels like a lot.”

Alec makes the decision I can’t and tugs me the opposite way, returning the way we came and back towards the entrance.