Ward of the Vampire: Complete Serial by Kallysten

Author:Kallysten
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kallysten
Published: 2015-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

*

With my soul raw and bleeding—you’ll forgive the imagery, but like I said ‘pain’ doesn’t begin to cover it—I didn’t feel like remaining in that room. I didn’t feel like being alone, for that matter. I retrieved the empty coffee mug and returned to the kitchen. It was getting close to noon, so I hoped Stephen would be there. As far as company went, he wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but even trying to convince him that he could call me by my name had to be better than loneliness.

I wasn’t planning on mentioning Morgan, because Stephen had made it very clear whose side he was on, but when I walked into the kitchen and found him there, doing something as mundane as emptying the dishwasher and putting plates away, I heard myself blurt out, “Why does he always do that?”

He barely glanced at me and continued emptying the dishwasher.

“I assume ‘he’ is Mr. Ward?”

“Yes!” I stomped into the room and drew one of the stools from under the island. “Why does he always just leave when he doesn’t like the way a conversation is going?”

Without realizing what I was doing, I punctuated each word with a tap of the porcelain mug onto the counter top, until Stephen, with a light wince, tugged it out of my hand.

“You’d have to ask him,” he said, setting the mug in the empty dishwasher. Turning back to me, he leaned both arms on the island so that he was level with me when he said, “But let me ask you this. Would you rather he compel you to walk away from that conversation? Or compel you to never speak of it again? Or he could take a hint from Miss Irene and stop the discussion in a more physical way. Would you prefer any of those options?”

When he put it like that, it made Morgan’s tendency to flee more palatable, yes, but not by much.

“If I were feeling rude,” I muttered, “I would call you a smartass.”

“And if you did, you wouldn’t be the first,” he replied with no hint of a smile.

As he started to take ingredients from the fridge, I wondered who could have called him that. For some odd reason, I could very well imagine Morgan doing it. It was strange, because I didn’t think I’d heard Morgan use that word, but it seemed like it fit the relationship the two of them had. Not that I had seen them interact much, mind. In this big house, they hardly ever seemed to occupy the same space. Then again, Morgan only appeared to use a few of the rooms in the mansion.

And my thoughts kept bringing me back to him even when I was looking at Stephen. What a surprise.

“I’ve noticed you’re very protective of him,” I said, just to say something.

Stephen glanced up from the other end of the island, where he was breaking eggs into a large metal bowl.

“Do you believe Mr. Ward needs protection?” he asked, and he sounded amused.

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