Page 5 of Taming His Vampire Mate

“No,” I said again, backing away. Except there was nowhere to go. I wasn’t truly here. This wasn’t really happening—it couldn’t be. But that didn’t make it any less vivid.

Then my brother’s image slid away as quickly as it had come. Replaced by dozens more faces I didn’t recognize. People I’d never met.

Were they more ghosts? Was I dead too?

Then the vision landed on another face I knew all too well.

Godric.

Magnus’s right hand. One of the most vicious vampires I’d ever known. As ancient as I was, Godric was older—and far more lethal.

His pale skin was smooth, except for the jagged scar across one cheek. He’d gotten that long before he was turned, though he never said how. His dark hair, once shoulder-length, was now cut short and modern. He wore a black leather jacket and a plain black V-neck. His eyes were dark, bottomless.

He blinked a few times, looking right at me, like he was stunned to find me here.

Impossible.

This was all a waking dream. The by-product of a powerful spell. He was a figment of my subconscious. Or maybe a ghost. Or maybe I was dead, and this was my reckoning.

“Thierry,” he snarled, fury twisting his face. “What have you done?”

“You’re not real,” I told him, relieved to find I could talk.

“Then how am I speaking to you?”

“I have a good imagination,” I said. “And an even better memory.”

Besides the scar, Godric had brought one more thing into his immortal life: his psychic abilities. As a human, his gifts had been weak and unfocused. They were the sort of thing that mightdrive a man halfway mad—spontaneous visions of distant places and times, overtaking everything.

His gifts had driven him into the church. He went to a monastery and spent years trying to pray them away. That’s how Magnus discovered him. Our maker liked to destroy innocence wherever he found it. After being turned, Godric’s abilities became focused and intentional.

Making him more dangerous than almost any vampire I’d ever known. With a bit of concentration, he could see what was happening anywhere in the world. He saw possible futures as well. His gifts had enabled Magnus to commit unspeakable acts.

“You’ve ruined everything, haven’t you? I should have let Magnus end you,” Godric hissed, rage quaking in his voice. His black eyes bored into mine. “It’s a mistake I won’t make twice.”

His words sent a chill through me.

“You will see me soon,” he added. “And then we’ll see who’s real and who’s not.”

Before I could react, the vision popped like a soap bubble. I was back on my hands and knees in the woods, under a silver moon, surrounded by concerned supernatural creatures.

“What happened?” Simone demanded, kneeling beside me. “What did you see?”

“You kept saying ‘no’ over and over,” Poppy said. “Also, who’s Godric?”

I lurched to my feet and staggered out of the flower circle. I felt like I’d been doused in gasoline and set on fire. “I’m fine!”

“He needs space,” Michael said.

I took another step back. Seeing Magnus, Godric, and my brother all in one go made me feel like I had been split open and rubbed raw.

But was it worth it?

“Did it work?” I demanded, blinking hard and scanning the clearing.

No fated mate had materialized in the circle to profess his undying love for me. Which meant that, whatever else had happened, the only thing I knew for certain was the spell had failed.

Again.