Page 2 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

He tilts his chin down so he can appraise me from the sharp tip of his nose. “If I wanted you dead, faeling, you’d be dead.”

“True!” Maven stops in the slant of light pouring through the open gate. “He did kill your mother in cold blood after all!”

My stomach twists, being reminded of that fact. But when I glance up at Arion again, there is sorrow on his face that he quickly tries to hide beneath a scowl.

“We have no time to waste!” Maven claps his hands and disappears through the gate, the bright light swallowing him up.

I turn to my brother. “Did you notice he didn’t answer your question?”

He furrows his brow. “I did.”

“If I turn around and run…if I run back to Midnight and to Bran…what will happen?”

Arion considers it, his gaze trained on the doorway. “They will come for you,” he finally says. “And they will turn everything you love into ash.” His voice catches on the word love and then he blinks, as if catching the emotion. His teeth grind together so loudly, it makes my own molars ache.

There is something he’s not telling me.

I know there is always two sides to a story. I could easily blame my current predicament on my mom for hiding who I was, not only from others in Midnight, but from me too. But I know she had a good reason for doing what she did.

So how did Arion find himself here? His mother’s—our mother’s—blood on his hands? How did he become trapped on our side? Did he know I was under his nose the entire time? Or did Mom’s actions hide me so well, not even my own flesh and blood knew who I was?

My head is still reeling from all of this, and I might still be a little drunk. So many questions. So many revelations to digest and sort out into their neat little boxes so I can make sense of them. I’m desperate to reorder my world, but there’s no time for that.

“What is this thing he put around my neck?” I finger the metal. It’s still cool to the touch.

Arion barely looks at it, as if the sight of it pains him. “It’s called a Prisoner’s Quell.”

“That already doesn’t sound good.”

“That’s because it’s not.”

“What does it do?”

“First, it subdues the magic of the wearer. They’re likely trying to steal your voice from you.”

“And second?”

“Second,” he repeats and sighs. “If you go outside of the bounds they’ve deemed acceptable, it will kill you.”

I take a deep breath, then another, but it doesn’t help. My lungs don’t want to expand fully. They’re squeezed tight by panic.

Bran isn’t going to be able to save me from this one. It’s still early morning and he may not even be awake yet. I don’t know how fairy wine affects vampires. I don’t even think that was normal fairy wine.

But more than that…I don’t want him endangering himself. Not until I know what we’re dealing with. This is my problem. Not his. If something were to happen to him because of me and my fae family drama I would never forgive myself.

“Bran will come eventually,” I say, more a statement than a threat.

“I know he will.” Arion glances at the gate again. The door is still cracked open, hazy light shining through. Maven is nowhere in sight. I could almost pretend he was a fever dream. A mirage. “If your vampire boyfriend is wise, he will stay away.”

“He is wise,” I answer. “But not always rational.”

Arion laughs, but it almost sounds sad. “Love and rationality are two different sides of the same coin. One will always be face down.”

I glance up at him again and find the line of his dark brow furrowed, his gaze distant. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He scowls at me. “I’ve told you before, faeling, you are asking for secrets you have not earned.”

“So tell me how to earn them.”