Page 192 of Quicksilver

Vampire.

I glared back at him, refusing to accept it. “I’m nothing like you,” I hissed.

Taladaius nodded, scuffing the toe of his beautiful leather shoe against the edge of the rug. With his hands in his pockets, he said, “Oh, I knowthat, Saeris.”

“What does that mean? Thattone,”I demanded.

“Here.” The vampire with the immaculately coiffed silver hair and the strangely soft eyes nodded toward the large mirror on the wall. “Come and see for yourself.”

I was wary as I walked over to the mirror. Wrapping my arms around myself, I prepared for the unknown. I had no idea if I would recognize the person staring back at me in the glass. But I did. Aside from the faint shadows beneath my eyes, I was wholly entirely myself. Saeris. Same dark hair. Same blue eyes. Same…

I hesitated. Turned my head.

My ears.

The tips of my ears were pointed. They poked up through my mussed hair, as if they had always been this way. I opened my mouth to curse, saw the state of my teeth, and my heart set to racing. Canines. I had very long canines. And they looked sharp.

“I’m…Fae?”I asked Taladaius’s reflection in the mirror.

He smiled politely but shook his head. “As far as we can tell, you’re a half-vampire, half-Fae. Something none of us have ever seen before. As of now, we’re not sure which traits you’ve adopted from the Fae and which you’ve adopted from the vampires. All our healers are sure of is that you’re no longer human.”

No longer human.

Not fully vampire.

Not fully Fae.

My throat did its damnedest to seal itself shut. I tore myself away from the mirror, screwing my eyes closed. I couldn’t think about this now. I needed my mate. “Where's Fisher?”

Taladaius gave a shrug and eyed the ornamental plaster on the ceiling rather evasively. “Oh, I don't know. He's around here somewhere, I suppose.”

“Is he hurt? Is he—”

“Just relax, Saeris. He's fine. He'll be along shortly.”

I wasn't about to trust the word of a vampire. Looking down, I saw that my marks were still there, declaring for all the world that I was Fisher's mate.

I reached out, feeling for him with my mind. Moments later, I was rewarded with a deep sense of concentration. Not mine. Fisher's. He was here. Close by. And he was focusing on something very hard. I didn't sense any pain or alarm from him, which allowed me to breathe a little easier. It seemed as though Taladaius was telling the truth.

“Where are we?” I asked, skirting around the bed, trying to make sure I kept ample room between us. Where was Solace? I wanted my fucking sword.

“Fisher asked me to let him tell you where we are,” Taladaius answered.

“What? But...why?”I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to get a read on him. Taladaius seemed equally relaxed and amused, which told me nothing about why he kept our location a secret. Annoyance flickered in my chest. I crossed the bedroom, clutching the robe tightly around my body, and ripped the curtains open.

Pain exploded behind my eyes. It was barely even light outside, the last of the sun's rays vanishing beyond the horizon, but it felt as if I'd just been smashed in the head with a sledgehammer.“Ahh!”

Careful to stand in the shadows,Taladaius gently removed my hand from the curtain and drew it closed again. “You'll be able to tolerate that better than most soon enough, too. This will all just take some getting used to. What about your memory? What do you remember about Gillethrye, Saeris?”

The name of that place sent a shiver down my back. “I—we were fighting them. Malcolm, Belikon, and Madra. There was a coin. I flipped it…”

“And then?”

“Then...” I stared at him, a strange dread tugging at my lower belly. “He wounded me. I—I killed him. You and Fisher came. And then...”

“And then I bit you,” Taladaius said, nodding. He looked away quickly, as if he were suddenly uncomfortable. “I placed a memory block around what happened next. Transitioning is hard. And, well, it is in a sire's power to suppress those memories, if—”

“Remove it,” I demanded. “Remove the block.”