Page 17 of Love Bleeds

"You know what I mean," Elena argued.

"Elle..." Remy tried again, but our sister only glared at him.

"We need to learn everything that we can about vampires, and by we, I mean Luke too." Her gaze cut back to me. "Don't you think you should learn how to defend yourself if you get attacked again?"

I tried to come up with a snappy response to that, but I had none. My mouth had gone entirely dry. She had a point, but I wasn't ready to admit that.

"At least carry a stake," she prompted.

I grimaced. The stake Dad had given me once upon a time was still in my old room at the family home we'd vacated after the attack. I hadn't been back since that night. Remy had gone once to gather my clothes and other essentials, like my laptop. He hadn't brought my stake, though. "I'll think about it," I made myself say because I knew my sister wasn't going to let me off the hook before I made some concession. "Can I go up now?" I asked through gritted teeth because I wasn'treallyasking for permission. I didn't need it.

Seriously, it was time for my siblings to stop treating me like I was still a child.

Thankfully, nobody said anything when I turned to go.

Upstairs, as I made my way to my room, I noticed that the door to Collin's bedroom stood ajar. The bedroom he shared with his vampire boyfriend. I peered in. The bed was empty and neatly made.

Briefly, I wondered what Talon was doing that Collin didn't want me to know about, then shrugged the thought off.

* * *

My room at the safehouse the witches had provided us with was roughly the same size as my old room, but much emptier. The only thing I'd filled was the closet, and even that only halfway. I didn't own that many clothes.

In a way, I found the emptiness of the room comforting. As I sat on my bed and looked around, there was nothing to catch my eye and spark a painful memory. Like that microscope Dad had given me for my ninth's birthday, or theWarcraftminiatures Damian and I had played with so often.

On the other hand, there was nothing to distract me from my thoughts either. In my old room, I'd had posters on the wall. One of them had showed the earth from space. I liked to imagine myself there. Out in space where the picture had been shot. From that far away, I thought, all my problems would seem impossibly small.

I wondered if there were any vampires in space.

There wouldn't be, would there? Whose blood would they drink?

Rubbing my face, I groaned. These thoughts weren't helping.

I would never forgive the vampires for ruining my mental safe space.

Searching for something else to think about, I stared at the white ceiling.

Don't think about Damian,I told myself, but it was no use. No matter how much I tried to write off what Savannah had told me, I couldn't keep my brain from mulling over the conversation. Could my friend really have been bisexual?

If he had been, how long had he known?

How long had he kept that from me?

Had he really...likedme that way?

I swallowed. A part of my brain wanted to refuse following this train of thought, but my natural curiosity overruled it easily. Just in theory, I told myself, what would that have been like for Damian?

What would it have been like for me if he'd told me?

What would I have done?

I wasn't gay. I never looked at guys that way. Hell, I hardly even looked at girls that way. The only relationship I'd had so far had been a total disaster from the get-go. If Rachel hadn't told me what to do, I'm pretty sure I'd never have figured it out.

The memory made me blush, which was silly because I was alone in my room.

At least, I was alone until a knock came on my door.

It was Collin, who'd apparently felt the need to check on me.