Page 8 of Little Wing (Shades of Fairhaven #1)

“ L uca, stop—”

“Keep your hands off me, Lotus,” Luca growled, swatting my hands away from him. “Shut the fuck up and let me think!”

I watched as my brother paced around the apartment.

Since our “home” in our family’s barn, we had made more frequent moves to apartments, abandoned homes, and factories that were certainly not suitable for humans, but acceptable for us.

Luca had come back to the apartment where I was waiting for him.

I could not step outside, per his command, but I could still hear what people were whispering about.

So much blood. Killer. Cold-blooded. Devastating…

“Luca, what happened?”

“Lotus,” he growled louder, his eyes casting a chilling glare. It was then that I spotted the hint of a crimson stain on the collar of his shirt. My chest tightened but I did not move.

“What have you done?”

When I got home, I rushed to the television and frantically pressed buttons on the remote to turn to the first news network I could find. While I waited for any triggering announcements, I quickly scrolled through the notifications on my phone.

No alerts. No mentions. No red flags.

There was nothing new.

The news anchor droned on about the elections later in the year, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. No breaking news that would have forced my shallow roots out of Fairhaven.

“Nothing,” I whispered. Despite relief washing over me, I still scrolled on my phone, quickly searching for terms that would have very easily pulled up results around my brother’s crime.

Luca Everett. Wells Murder. Luca, Murder, Author .

Still nothing new. Nothing that marked me.

I allowed myself to crumple to the ground.

The anxiety settled like a pit in my stomach, like the dark passenger it was since my escape from my brother’s reach.

My own brother, my twin, the shadow that never failed to drag me under.

I hoped his name would never be uttered in the same sentence as “murderer” again.

Because if his name was spoken, then mine would soon follow. I was demonized simply by association.

In the quiet moments of my existence, I could still hear the shouts and threats when I closed my eyes.

I could still remember the way my body shook when people banged on our door—when vampires banged on the door in search of my brother.

They scented him, yet when they expected him to walk to the door, they found me.

I was forever tied to him. I was his blood; I was his creation, his true familial tie to this world.

“Get out of my head,” I whimpered. Trying to pull myself out of the looping memories, I forced my attention to my phone once again, to address the handful of unanswered text messages from Kait. I suppose with the way I left tonight, she wanted to be sure I made it home okay.

Home. I'll text you later about my availability.

Sounds good. That guy asked about you. Seemed harmless, but just a heads up.

It was because of that man that I was still clutching my chest on the floor of my apartment.

I felt like my world was about to cave in, yet there was no one at my door.

No one was blowing up my phone with anonymous threats.

Maybe Kait was right. Maybe he was harmless, but that didn’t mean that I enjoyed the way that my skin erupted in goosebumps at the feel of his gaze searing into my skin.

Whatever intention he had, I wanted nothing to do with it.

After I settled, I helped myself off the floor and moved to my bedroom where I could finally remove my makeup.

Before changing from my work clothes, I walked to secure the heavy curtains behind the bookshelves that I conveniently kept in front of the windows.

I knew sleep would not come easily to me after the emotions of the last few hours, but I would certainly try once I buried myself under my floral comforter.

I thought of the sunrises I used to wake up early for.

After nearly three hundred years, they were just a distant memory, just as the feel of warm morning sunlight on my skin.

The partly cloudy days in Washington were nice, but they could not compare to the beauty of a sunrise spreading like wildfire on the horizon.

All these years later and I still missed the sensation of it warming me instead of stinging my skin like a bad sunburn.

I could barely remember the feeling of such a pleasure .

But despite the memory lingering now like a foreign sensation, it did help settle my mind enough to allow me to drift into a dreamless sleep.

Rest brought clarity. Although I felt better about the events of the previous night, I couldn’t move past the way another vampire looked at me. Whether it was suspicion or fascination, I couldn’t tell.

Rather than spending more time deciphering the meaning of the fleeting encounter, I spent most of my attention on helping Reina get the store ready for the upcoming midnight release.

I took as many shifts as Reina could give me. It was something to do, and it did seem to calm her down as well.

Reina was tapping her foot rather incessantly as she chewed on her thumbnail. The sound stirred me from my stack of books.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Oh my gods. This is happening. It’s really happening. I mean, it’s like, really happening.”

I stared at her, puzzled at her sudden unease. “We’ve held events here before. It’ll be alright.”

While I did not know that for certain, I learned over the years that Reina often needed that assurance.

Though this time I had reason to express unease.

According to Reina, The Black Cat Scribes ended up on an influencers list for best places to visit for a Sylvie Reverie midnight release party.

Among many different stores, our bookstore was deemed the “best place to celebrate Sylvie Reverie”.

“Lotus, I honestly don’t know how this will go. A small-scale event was what I had in mind when I made that Facebook event. But this?” She looked around our still very cluttered store. “I don’t know how we’ll fit everyone.”

That was true, but I couldn’t let us just sink with our nerves.

“We can figure this out, Reina. Don’t worry. I’ll come around as much as I’m able before the event. We still have some time.”

When I spoke, I watched her anxious frame relax. I listened to her heart rate slow to a steady thump.

“If anyone can pull off an excellent event like this, then it’s certainly you.”

“Not without my partner in crime, I can’t,” Reina smiled, beaming with confidence once more.

Despite my friend’s mild outburst, everything was coming together. New tables were setup to display Sylvie Reverie’s books, including the new book that would be displayed the night of the event. Artwork was already being printed to help immerse readers in the universe that Reverie had created.

I was not familiar with the books, but I had to admit that the artwork alone did make it seem quite enticing.

I could not blame the event for blowing up as it did.

Not only was she a popular fantasy novelist, but also one of the better known and openly-vampiric authors.

Guess she was sort of a big deal in vampire circles.

Yes, the treaty allowed for us to be out and open about our existence, but our presence wasn’t as represented in public spheres beyond reality TV.

A pity… but it did make us respect Reverie more.

Reina unrolled a poster of the main heroine from the novel and approached me, to ask for help hanging it up. “Thanks for coming in again, Lo.”

I nodded, lifting the poster above us to hang against one of the stone columns in the middle of the store. “You know you can always ask me for help. Not like I have anything going on aside from work and the occasional drink.”

“You’re right,” Reina smirked. “I think once this event is over and our regular store traffic resumes, we’ll get back to brainstorming how to get you out of your house more often.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I will hope for more frequent events here.”

“Oh, come on!” she groaned, shoving me playfully. “No hunky vampires you have your eye on?”

I paused before flattening out the poster. My silence earning another poke from my friend.

“No.”

Helping Reina was no trouble for me. If I wasn’t at the bookstore or at Kait’s bar, then I would be at home.

My two most frequented places did not attract more attention to me than was needed, so I preferred not to test my boundaries.

Plus, all these extra hours were keeping my mind clear from thinking about the dark-haired man who stared at me as if I were an anomaly.

He was clearly a vampire trying to figure me out.

His eyes casting out the question of “What are you?”, without the words needing to leave his lips.

That information was not anything he was entitled to, and yet as I fought to clear my mind of him, I couldn’t help thinking of the way his lips curled as I rushed to close out my tab before retreating home.

As the thought of him danced around my mind, I shook my head and reached into the box Reina was rummaging in to pull out the next poster to hang up.

Just a few more days and all this would settle.

Just a few more days…