Page 23 of The Second Sight (Wanderlust Emporium Presents, Season One)

Chapter

Seventeen

KASI

Heat rushed to my face, burning across my cheeks and down my neck.

Seven announced to his entire coven that we’d had sex.

The intimate details of our relationship were laid bare before these immortal strangers.

I wanted to disappear, to sink through the stone floor and escape their knowing stares.

Yet beneath the embarrassment, another emotion surfaced, a perverse thrill at being so publicly claimed, at belonging to someone powerful enough to declare it without embarrassment or fear.

Murmurs rippled through the gathering, the atmosphere shifting perceptibly. Some vampires exchanged looks of surprise. Others nodded as if a question about my appearance had been answered.

Lily’s reaction was immediate and visceral.

Her green eyes flashed with such intense anger.

For a moment, I thought she might physically attack me.

Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the rage was masked behind a cold, impassive expression.

She straightened, her posture perfect as she inclined her head slightly.

Seven stepped away with Lily, leaving me stranded in the center of a vampire lair like an exotic specimen on display.

The weight of their stares pressed against me from all sides.

I fought the urge to wrap my arms around myself.

It was the way I used to comfort myself after my mother’s departure.

Instead, I straightened my posture and lifted my chin, channeling a confidence I didn’t truly feel.

A female vampire with long red hair stepped closer, inspecting me without bothering to hide her interest. Her eyes were a deep burgundy. Those eyes traveled from my face down to my feet and back again. The intensity of her gaze made my skin crawl.

“Hello.” Her voice was melodic, masking her true nature. She was still a vampire.

“Hi.”

“I’m Charlie.” She took the vacant chair beside me.

“I’m Kasi.” She knew my name since Seven felt the need to put me on blast, but I didn’t know what else to respond.

“You look so much like her,” she murmured. “Remarkable resemblance.”

Who? I went along with it, clueless about the woman she was referring to. “Yeah, I do.”

“What a dangerous game the master is playing.”

“Indeed.” I played along, even more curious.

“History repeating itself. We all know how that ended.” She giggled.

I pretended to know what she was talking about. Who did I look like? What history was she referencing? There was so much I didn’t know.

“Yeah, we do.” I said, amazed at how easy it was to fool this vampire. “She, oh my, I forgot her name.”

“Basirah Kamalee Crackstone.”

A flash of an image crashed into my head.

Two male vampires were hastily removing a large painting from its place of prominence.

Four hands worked with careful efficiency.

Their movement was quick. As they turned to carry it away, I caught a glimpse of the canvas.

It was a portrait of me in clothing from another time.

My face was turned slightly toward the viewer.

My breath caught in my throat. My body overheated.

Though I’d seen only a flash of the painting before it disappeared into a fiery ball of flames, that brief glimpse was enough.

That wasn’t me but a woman who had my face.

My exact face. The clothing was different, something from perhaps the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Her hair was styled differently, but the resemblance was uncanny.

It seemed impossible. Yet I had seen it in my waking vision.

“Yes, Basirah.” I said, fighting through my imagination, to rejoin the conversation.

Basirah Kamalee Crackstone. I had memorized the name immediately.

She had Seven’s last name. Seven had never mentioned anyone named Basirah to me.

I thought back to our conversations, trying to recall if he’d ever hinted at someone from his past, someone I might resemble. Nothing came to mind.

“I never met her. I wasn’t a vampire that long ago, but everyone in this coven knows how special Basirah was to Master. He’s only had one wife in all his years.”

Wife? What the fuck? “Yes, I heard of their special connection.” I lied trying to stay in a conversation I wished to flee from.

“You look just like the paintings. You look like twins. The only differences are subtle. When you entered, we were all staring because of the resemblance, not just because you’re human.”

“I thought so.” I placed a smile on my lips to cover my true feelings. Clearly, this Basirah was significant enough that my resemblance to her caused this level of reaction among the coven.

I glanced toward the door to Seven’s office. He was now standing with Lily in the doorway. They’d moved closer to me and the redhead vampire called Charlie. We both stood as they approached.

“Charlie, what are you doing?” Seven’s eyes were glaring at the redhead vampire.

“Master, I’m just keeping your human company.”

“That’s not your job.”

“I know, but she was alone.” She explained.

“Leave us.” He shooed her away with a glare.

“Yes, Master.” Charlie scurried away from us at lightning speed.

When Charlie was gone, Seven and Lily’s eyes rested on me.

“Did she bother you?”

“No, no, she was fine.”

“Huh, I find her annoying.” Lily chimed in.

“No, she just introduced herself. She was nice.”

“Kasinda, since my brother has chosen to claim you as his mate, I have to claim you as my sister.”

I watched as Lily took the few steps to wrap me in an uncomfortable embrace. The hug was over so fast I didn’t have a chance to reciprocate, if that was what I was going to do. I was speechless.

“That’s enough excitement for today. I’m going to take you back to my room.” Seven said. I couldn’t wait to leave this underground hideout.

Seven took my hand and led me in a different direction from where we came. This time we were standing at the elevator doors, and I was happy I didn’t have to climb up the staircase that led us upstairs.

We stepped into the elevator together. We were away from the eyes and ears of the coven. Seven pulled me to a stop. His hands cupped my face, tilting it up to meet his gaze. His soft eyes were intense.

“You belong to me now,” he whispered, his voice low and intimate. “I will protect you from anything, including my own kind if necessary.”

The possessiveness in his tone sent conflicting emotions coursing through me. There was a primitive thrill in being claimed so completely. I had given myself to a vampire, entered his world. There was no going back to my simple human life after this.

Still, I felt uneasy. I stood frozen beside him, trying to process everything I’d heard. Not only did I apparently look exactly like someone named Basirah. She was not just someone. She was Seven’s wife. I gathered something tragic happened to the woman who had my face, but what?

I didn’t know what to do with this newfound information.

Should I pretend I didn’t know about this, Basirah?

Would it be better to wait for Seven to bring this information to me?

Or should I ask about Basirah directly? And more importantly, were Seven’s feelings for me genuine, or was I merely a ghost of someone he’d lost. Before I could decide, we were exiting the elevator.

Quietly following Seven, he guided me through long hollow corridors until we were back inside his massive bedroom. I broke free of his hand to sit on the edge of his bed, hoping he wouldn’t sense something was wrong.

“I just wanted you to know that there is nothing to fear from my coven. My vampires aren’t allowed up here inside my home to ensure my privacy. There is a separate entrance for them to congregate underground. You can walk around my home freely. Lily is the only person who lives here with me.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to sound normal after the information that was dropped in my lap.

“Are you upset with me?” Seven’s inquiry startled me even though his tone was very soft and neutral.

“No,” I lied, hoping my acting skills would get better the more I practiced.

“Something has changed. I can feel it. Was it too early to claim you and introduce you to my coven?”

“No, ah, no.” I stuttered. Angela Bassett would be so disappointed in me. I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag.

“Then, my love, what has happened? Your lovely face looks worried, and your body appears tense.”

Did he really know me so well that he could sense or see all of this?

“I had a vision while I was awake. It was maybe like a daydream.”

Seven stroked his chin with his hand. “That’s a good thing. A vision without being asleep. What did this vision reveal?”

“I saw me. I was burning in a fire.” I could’ve been a bit more specific, but I felt the heat from the fire as the painting of my look-alike went up in flames.

“I saw my face, but it wasn’t me. It was someone else.

Someone called Basirah.” There, I’d said it.

I said her name. I embellished a tad, but the crux of the retelling was fairly accurate.

A host of emotions registered on Seven’s chiseled face. There were waves of conflict and despair that disappeared as soon as they appeared. He was a much better actor than I was.

“Basirah.” He inhaled. “Was my wife.”

“And she looked like me?” I eagerly asked, wishing I’d let him continue without interruption.

“Yes.”

“What happened to her?”

“She died.” He plainly offered with no explanation.

A burning painting of Basirah was in my vision. The word burning echoed in my head, painting horrible ghostly images in my brain. Was that what had happened to the woman in the portrait? The woman who shared my face? Had she been burned to death? And by whom?

“Yes, she died, in fire?” I asked as gently as possible.

“Yes— she was burned alive by the Bambara Brotherhood leader— Desmond Moreau.”

Finally, he admitted his connection to Desmond.

“There’s more. Tell me? I want to know everything.” I asked.

Seven twisted his lips. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I do!” I rose to my feet before remembering I was yelling at a vampire. My sudden change in emotion seemed to rattle my lover. I had a lover now. I was no longer a virgin, and with that came a bit of courage I didn’t know I possessed.

He shrugged. “I refuse to speak on it.”

“Fine. I can go home now.” My small purse was near the bed. I grabbed it and let my feet quickly carry me to his bedroom door. Before I could leave, Seven sped to the doorway and blocked my exit. “Move.”

A hint of a smile formed on his lips, and it was clear my words meant nothing to him.

“Severin Crackstone.” I didn’t know why I said his full name, but one lone dark eyebrow slightly rose to regard me. I had studied his face so many times but was just now noticing his dark eyebrows didn’t match his platinum blonde hair.

“Kasi, I had a wife a two hundred years before you were born. What does it matter?”

“It matters.” I didn’t know why I tried to push past him.

It was futile, to say the least, and Seven was the poster child for say less.

His arm swung out to stop me from leaving.

His cold fingers wrapped around my arm in a possessive grip that sent shivers racing up my arm.

His touch was gentle despite its firmness.

With little effort, he pulled me flush against his body.

I’d seen him furious before, in the alley behind the nightclub Fountain of Youth.

My heart raced, betraying my reaction to his unwelcome manhandling.

Despite my newfound doubts about his unwillingness to share his past, I felt a certain security in his calm, cool demeanor.

Maybe I was na?ve, but I believed him when he said he would never hurt me physically.

“What about Basirah?” I challenged, the name finally escaping my lips with an envious tone I couldn’t disguise.

Something flashed in Seven’s eyes— pain, perhaps, or guilt. His thumbs stroked my cheekbones, a gentle caress that contrasted with the intensity of his hypnotic gaze.

“A story for another time,” he said softly.

I wanted to believe him, but I was in a new world and needed all the information to make good decisions. “The fucking time is now.”

“Profanity.” He tilted his head to regard me slowly, but I could see him holding back a chuckle.

“Fuck you, vampire!” Jesus, I couldn’t figure out a good insult. I had wiped the N-word out of my vocabulary a long time ago, and that wouldn’t have worked on a vampire as pale as Seven. Fangly bastard or old ass motherfucker probably would’ve hit harder, but I wasn’t good at cussin’.

“Fae bae, what do you want me to say? Thinking of Basirah is quite painful for me.”

Was it, though? In the moment, I wanted to give him a tablespoon of sympathy, but I felt like I was being gaslit and that wasn’t going to happen to me today, or any day. I wasn’t the one or the two. I was young, but I wasn’t born yesterday.

“Seven, wearing the face of a woman who was burned to death, is quite painful for me too.” My own words sent a wave of nausea through me.

I’d given myself to him, trusted him, begun to feel things for him I’d never felt for anyone before.

And now I wondered if he saw me at all, or just a replica of someone long dead. Someone he loved and wanted to replace.

The thought was more painful than I expected. It was like a knife twisting in my chest. It was like the day my mama left me when I needed her the most, the teen years. I looked down at my hands, noticing they were trembling.

“Are you alright?” He asked quietly.

No, I’m not. I’m not cool. I’m not good. I’m not aye, oh, kay. I’m falling in love with a vampire that loves a dead woman that looks like me. I’m not good.

Seven’s arm slid around my waist, drawing me against his side as he turned to spin me in a dizzying circle. He used his body to push me back against the wall. He stood over me, pressing his heavy body against mine.

“Answer me, my love.” His cool breath blew deadly heart-shaped arrows into my earlobe and weakened my limbs.

I didn’t remember the question, and even if I did, I couldn’t answer it.

Seven’s lips came crashing into mine, preventing all efforts at verbal communication.

My stomach did somersaults, and my nipples hardened.

I had a quick vision of Seven’s thick manhood pushing inside me.

Was it a real vision or just my body longing for him?

I was new to fairy powers and new to sex. I didn’t know what I was seeing.

“Tell me what you want me to say.” He asked before dipping his face into my neck. “And I will say it.” He mumbled his last sentence into my collarbone.

I wanted to respond with words, but my body had other plans.