Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Two (Midnight Harbor Book 2) by Nikki St. Crowe

Author:Nikki St. Crowe [St. Crowe, Nikki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackwell House LLC
Published: 2022-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

Episode Twenty-Six

“What is this?”

Bran moves around me and starts grabbing things from the kitchen. Bread. Butter. Slices of cheese.

“Bran. Hello?” I go over to him as he dumps everything in a bag. I wave the deed for his house in his face. “What is this?”

He holds out his hand for me to take. I look from it to his face.

“We’re going to return to my house—” he says.

“My house, apparently.”

“—and I’ll make you a grilled cheese sandwich, pour you a drink, and tell you everything.”

“Where have I heard that before?” I say with a bit more venomous sarcasm than I initially intended.

He doesn’t move. Doesn’t argue. Doesn’t force. Bran Duval knows the art of patience and he knows exactly when to use it.

I huff out a breath and take his hand. He leads me out of the house and across our yards and inside his house. He dumps the ingredients on the kitchen counter, then fills a glass with water from the fridge and hands it to me.

“Go check on Kelly,” he tells me. “While I heat up the pan.”

I leave him in the kitchen and return to my sister upstairs. She’s still sleeping soundly in Bran’s spare bedroom despite the glow of the bedside lamp. There’s just enough room on the bed beside her so I sit down on the edge and give her a soft nudge. “Kels?”

She stirs and her eyes flutter. “Jessie?”

“Hey.”

“Where…ughhh.” Hand to her forehead, she winces and then kneads at the space between her brows. “Wine headache. What time is it?”

“It’s late.”

She sits up and looks around. “Where am I?”

“We’re at Bran’s.”

She frowns. “Our neighbor? Bran Duval?”

“The one and only.”

I can just picture him down in the kitchen being all smug about that.

“Why are we here?”

“It’s a really long story.” I put my hand to her forehead. She’s still hot to the touch. “Here.” I shake out two pills and hand her the glass of water. “You have a fever and we need to bring it down.”

“What? But—”

“Just trust me. Please take the medicine.”

With another wince, she manages to sit upright to down the meds with a swig of water and then collapses back against the pillows. “I’m glad you’re here.” She smiles sleepily up at me as she drifts off again.

“Me too.” I give her hand a squeeze and push the hair from her face. Now that she’s with me and I know she’s safe, I can feel a phantom knot releasing at the center of me. I hadn’t realized until this moment just how important it was to have my sister at my side.

And maybe deep down I always knew she wasn’t exactly safe at Julian’s side.

When I’m sure Kelly is resting again, I make my way back downstairs. Bran is just tossing a butter-coated slice of bread into a hot cast iron pan. The butter sizzles. Despite the fact that he doesn’t eat mortal food, he seems at ease in the kitchen.

I slide onto one of the stools at the counter. “Did you guys have grilled cheese sandwiches back before you were turned?”

“We definitely did not.

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