Page 51 of The Midnight Order (The Thorngray Vampires Duet #1)

Silver

Jasper is in bed when I sneak through the small crack in the door. Light spills in from the hall, leading me toward the unoccupied side of the bed. The four-poster, lifted frame requires steps beside it. I ascend them, tugging back the covers and sliding beneath.

Jasper never moves. Never speaks.

He’s lost in his head, and it’s why I came in here. I could see his distant, troubled look when he left our meeting. Even with how close I’d been growing to Corvin and Asher and how much I wanted to go back to bed with them, I felt the urge to follow Jasper.

Snuggling into his side, I swipe his brown hair away from the edge of the mask’s top, hating that I haven’t been able to make it fall off already.

“Why are you in here?” he asks hoarsely.

He’s as affected by my presence as I am by his.

“Because you needed company.”

He scoffs. “I’ll live.”

I sigh. The way they toss jokes around about their immortality never seems to be in good fun. It always seems like self-pity.

“I know you’ll live.”

“You’re better off with one of them tonight.” His tone had fallen flat on the word them .

I hate that my world colliding with theirs is causing this animosity to grow in him. Thorns of antipathy are winding their way around his heart, and I’m ready to take up arms against them. To fight my way through them back to him.

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” I whisper, leaning on my elbow to lean closer. My hand splays on his left cheek, half on his skin, half on his mask.

He allows me to turn his face against mine. My nose skims over his lips, rutting up to find them like a babe on a nipple as my breath expels heatedly against his mouth.

“How are you so sure of yourself when you don’t even know who you are?” he asks, and I sputter.

I back up a few inches to peer down into his damning red eyes.

His bedroom has paneled windows with hood molding surrounding them. They come to peek, and he always has their curtains wide open. The moon illuminates his face, allowing me to watch the struggle within him.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re nothing like her.” His hand skims over my arm, goosebumps chasing his touch.

“Will you tell me about her? I know how it ended. How did it begin?”

He smiles as if remembering. “She wandered into town. Much like you did, she was breathtaking. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.”

“Like Lowell with me?”

“Like any of us with you.”

That fills my chest with warmth, swelling it.

“She came into the diner, asking for directions. She was lost. We thought for so long that fate lured her here. That she was our central bond, but if it did, I don’t know what the purpose was. Especially with how it all ended.”

I bite my cheek. “Do you think she came here on purpose?”

He shrugs, reaching up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “Why would she?”

“I don’t know. With how it ended, I wonder if she had an ulterior motive.”

“In our world, nearly everyone does, Silver.”

A shiver races down my spine at my name spilling from his lips.

“She could be vile, so I wasn’t surprised when everything went belly up.”

“Vile, how?”

“She knows Corvin hates to celebrate his immortality. Still, she lured Asher into baking him things for his birthday. Any weak points she found, she’d press her fingers into. It was like she was trying to create a fracture.”

“Why? It makes no sense if she loved all of you.”

“Again, I don’t know. It would make sense if she came here for an ulterior motive, but my mind can’t see why she would.”

Turning on his side, he flips me on my back. A slick grin curls his lips, his dimples drilling deeper as he searches my face for something. “No more talk of other women tonight. You’re the only woman I ever want to talk about again.”

My mouth opens to argue that’s not feasible, not with all the things happening around us that tie to other women, but the piercing look in his eyes makes me compliant. I nod.

“Good. I heard you can be such a good girl when you want to be.”

I gasp. “Who told you that?”

A laugh falls from his mouth, and even he looks surprised. “You did, in a way.”

“I’m sick of all of you eavesdropping on my business.”

“Nothing you do in this manor will ever be personal again, Ms. Tenebris. You’re ours.”

“I like that.”

“Do you?”

Biting my lip, I nod. “I do. I should be worried about my life back home and what my associates could do right now to flounder all I’ve worked for, but that doesn’t seem real anymore.

This world is all that seems tangible. It’s all-consuming.

Before, it felt like a ruse. Something Soliel dropped me into to keep me chasing my tail.

Like I was a mouse in a cage. Belonging to all of you is all I want.

All I want to strive for. It’s like I’m burning, and only the love from the four of you can extinguish the flames. ”

“Pretty words,” he whispers, running his nose along my throat.

I swallow. “I mean them.”

“I know you do, Sweet Silver. Your heart rate never faltered while you spoke. You’re always so honest with us. So perfect.”

“I’m not perfect,” I manage, my voice shaking as he hovers near my mouth, licking his lips.

The black lines of hunger slither through his face as he expels a breath, quelling them. “You are to us.”

“Oh God.” I look down as Jasper’s hand nips under my nightgown, his nails raking into the thigh where Asher fed not long ago.

“Are you sore?” he asks, prodding at the wound that only another vampire could find.

“Deliciously.”

With a dark chuckle, he takes my lips. His kiss is a distraction from every bit of information I’ve been trying to get out of him.

We both know it.

I allow it, however, because I am weak when it comes to them. Weak and wanting.

Together, we’re a force—or we will be. We’ll have to be aware of everything on the horizon.

A vampiric order with a central bond is stronger, more lethal. It’ll make them a force.

Make us a force.

Jasper’s fingers find the hem of my panties, teasing me right as a knock sounds at the door.

The door creaks as it pushes open further.

I hadn’t closed it.

“I know you’re indisposed, and I hate to bother you.” It’s Corvin, standing in the fissure, holding a paper.

“So don’t,” Jasper groans against my throat.

He doesn’t stop, however. His fingers slick through my growing arousal, rubbing back and forth. The pressure is good. So, so good.

My breathing picks up. My vision hazes with need, and I can’t keep my eyes on Corvin as they had been.

Corvin clears his throat. “I found something in the letter Silver’s mother sent to Soliel. Something that was hidden in invisible ink.”

This stops Jasper’s fingers. He turns, tossing a glare at Corvin, his breathing heavy.

His cock presses into my leg and only makes me greedier.

Whimpering, I grind on his hand in a plea for more, which earns me a grin from Corvin and Jasper.

“Well, Ms. Tenebris, it seems we have business to attend before finishing our conversation.”

I drop my head back onto my pillow, tossing Corvin an annoyed glare.

“I’m sorry,” he mouths before exiting into the hall.

“Can’t you just… finish before we go out there?”

Jasper laughs, kissing me quickly before replacing my panties over my sex. “No. I intend to savor you slowly. Plus, waiting will only make you hungrier.”

“That’s my point.” Tossing back the covers, I descend the stairs on my side and find a robe of Jasper’s to slip on.

“The hungrier you are, the better it’s going to feel,” he whispers, cupping my center through the robe as he lingers behind me.

“Will I ever be able to get enough of you? Enough of all of you? I feel like I’m always so…”

“Needy? God, I hope not.”

Jasper leads me into the living room, where we’re once again assembled as the dim light of dawn approaches outside.

I yawn as I drop into his lap in the recliner.

It’s not lost on me how aroused he is. It’s also not lost on me that his demeanor is entirely different from when he was here last.

I like to think I’m the cause of his shift in mood.

His hand opens the powder-blue robe, finding my thigh. His middle finger draws circles on my skin, and my cheeks flush heatedly.

Momentarily, it’s all I can think about.

Lowell’s eyes are fixed on us, his thumb sliding back and forth over his bottom lip as he watches Jasper’s toying.

“I almost missed it,” Corvin says, and I finally snap my attention toward him.

“Missed, what?” Asher asks, prodding his counterpart along.

“There was a message scrawled in invisible ink, but I think time and the circumstances of the letter’s storage weakened its appearance.” Corvin opens his phone, pulling up an image. “I had to use chemicals and a 3-D scanner to recreate it.”

He walks around, showing each of us.

“What is it?” Jasper asks.

“It’s a symbol.”

Lowell huffs as Corvin approaches him, snatching the phone away from him.

The energy in the room shifts. Suddenly, it’s harder to breathe. The air is filled with the fear radiating off Lowell.

“This can’t be… But what would it mean?” Lowell looks up at Corvin.

“I don’t know what the significance means in context to Silver or why it was hidden in the letter.”

Asher sighs. “We get it. You two are so fucking smart. What is it?”

“It’s the symbol for the hybrids,” Lowell snaps. “For The Absconditus. The Hidden.”

“Hybrids?” I whisper, turning on Jasper’s lap.

“They’re a myth.” Jasper squeezes my thigh, this time comfortingly rather than to stoke my arousal.

“They are,” Lowell agrees.

“What’s written about them?” Asher sits forward, steepling his hands as he rests his chin on them.

“Not much.” Corvin pockets his phone.

Every eye in the room dances toward me, and I feel like I’m on display. “What?”

“Could she be?”

I swallow. “What’s a hybrid?”

“A vampire, witch combination. It’s illegal in our world, the vampiric world, to mate with a witch. Though witches seek vampiric mates often, we’re taught to resist temptation and report crossbreeding. To turn a blind eye is death,” Lowell says, standing to his full height.

He comes to a stop near me, standing between Jasper’s feet.

“Why would a witch seek such a union if it’s frowned upon?”

Lowell tips my head back, his thumb caressing my lower lip. “I didn’t say it was frowned upon in their world, little lamb. A Hidden is a powerful being. According to witch lore, one can heal the dying, reanimate the dead, and give immortal life to the mortal.”

“So… if I were one of these Hidden …”

Lowell’s grip on my chin tightens, and I wince. “If you are, it’s why you’ve been hidden away all these centuries. It’s also probably the reason why Soliel kept even your memories from you.”

Jasper stands, taking me with him.

I’m pressed between them now. Lowell grips my throat in his hand.

“It also means you’re a threat.”