Page 97 of Dark Flame

“I’m glad.” She smiles and disappears into the hallway. A moment later, the front door shuts behind her, and I stand from the table.

Upstairs, the shower still runs, telling me I have a few moments, so I walk towards the basement door, pausing with my hand on the knob. Morgan’s enchantment shimmers, letting me know it’s still active, but when twisting the knob, it turns for me.

Wondering if Alec has sucked out my sanity alongside my blood, I descend the steps into the vampire’s lair.

Thirty-Seven

ALEC

I hearher before I smell her, and I smell her before I see her, and Ifelther even before she touched the door. She saves me from the conversation I’ve been having on the small electronic device I despise so much.

Cedric

Find her?

Me

Yes. With her family’s coven.

Cedric

Are you remaining in Banff?

Me

For the time being.

Cedric

YOU’RE going to stay around the coven?

Me

Yes.

Cedric

Why not give this up? Get her home? Do what you always intended.

Me

I told you why. Why are you acting strange?

Cedric

I hope you understand what you’re doing.

Cedric isn’t so involved in my plans usually, and I wish that was the strangest thing about his behaviour.

After a moment of restraint, Harlow’s standing at the bottom of the wooden staircase, her weak eyes scanning the dim, windowless basement until finding me seated on the ground.

Conversation with Cedric forgotten, I’m quick to my feet and even quicker to her side, the magnetizing sensation sucking me into her realm. “Oh, how the tables have turned.” My chest presses close as I loom over her, craving any inch of her skin she’s willing to give.

“What do you mean?” She rocks towards me, her scent filled with everything I desire.

“Once, it was I who visited you in the cells, and now I’m the one locked up.”

“Don’t see it like that. Morgan’s doing us a favour.”