“Y’sure?” I punchedthe code into the key lock safe fixed to the wall beside the porch.Heather had thankfully told my mother the code during one of theirphone calls. “You seem t’have a lot t’say about my family.”
“Woah. Relax. I’m justtrying to understand.” He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.“I spent pretty much all of my teen years thinking this was allmade up, and now—”
“You’re aVampire.”
“Yeah. That.”
I slid the key intothe first lock, pushing the porch door open. My grip tightened onthe set of keys in my grasp as I stepped inside, pausing in frontof the main door. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. Ifthere would be anything to indicate where Heather was or why shehadn’t checked in for days, but this was the best, no, the onlyplace I could start.
I unlocked the frontdoor, pushing it wide open. The house was dark and silent. Notunusual considering it was the early hours of the morning, but itfelt a lot eerier than a sleeping house should.
I put the key in myright pocket then slid my hand beneath my coat and retrieved thesmall blade holstered to my hip before stepping into thelanding.
“Am I supposed to feelanything?”
I glanced over myshoulder. Nathan stood in the doorway, his toes right on thethreshold. “How d’you mean?”
“I dunno, like aninvisible barrier pushing me away, or something?”
Truth be told, I hadno idea what an uninvited Vampire was supposed to sense standing atthe door of a home. Was there indeed some invisible wall thatstopped them from stepping farther? I’d never asked a Vampire toexplain it to me, and I highly doubted anyone else in the familyhad either.
Not that Nathan neededto know that I had no idea what to expect.
“Do you feel thatsomething is pushing you away?”
He shook his head, hiseyes scanning the doorframe as if he were going to findinstructions or an explanation carved into the wood. “I don’t feela thing.”
“Then I guess thatmeans you will have to just take a step and see what happens?”
“I’m not going t’burstin t’flames or anything, am I?”
“Only one way t’findout.”
His eyes widened, hisexpression almost cartoon-like. “Elle, that isn’t funny.”
The look of horror onhis face was indeed funny. I had to bite my inner check to stopfrom grinning. “I’ve never heard of a Leech exploding crossing athreshold. They either can’t get in due t’being uninvited orthey’ve been invited. There’s no in-between.”
Despite my amusementat the sheer worry claiming his pale face, every muscle in my bodyseemed to freeze just waiting to see what would happen. If hecouldn’t cross the threshold, then that was surely a good sign. Icould only presume that the deed for the house had passed fromAlexis and Dorian to Sofia, and I had no doubt that Sofia wouldhave passed it to Heather. So, if Nathan couldn’t enter, Heatherwas still alive?
He placed his rightbare foot on the dark, wooden floor. His frame went rigid, gazedarting about the hallway as if he expected flames to shoot fromthe walls.
I suddenly felt sickat the thought. Naturally watching someone burn to death would be ahorrible sight, but the thought of Nathan being barbecued before myeyes … The air caught in my throat.
His left footfollowed. His hands balled to fists at his side as he yet againwaited for something to happen.
Nothing.
All was still.
Complete silence.
He gave himself aonce-over. His shoulders slowly relaxed as the tension slipped fromhis features as he took a few more steps inside.
I exhaled. He wasfine. That was good, right?
My heart dropped tothe pit of my stomach. Not good. Not good at all. Did that meanHeather was dead? Or was there a chance that Sofia hadn’t passedthe deed to the house on?
God, I wanted tobelieve it was the latter, because if the deed was in her name andwith her now being deceased … explanation acquired.
“You lookconfused.”
That had to be it.Sofia hadn’t passed the deed on.
“I’m just—”
But Sofia knew thefuture. She knew what was going to happen, which meant she hadplanned everything. Of course she would have turned the deed overto Heather.
I turned my focus backto the kitchen. “Shut the door, will you?”
The room suddenly feltlike it was spinning.
Oh, god, what did itmean that he could step into this house? Had everything we had beentaught just been bullshit? Was my cousin dead? Or did it havesomething to do with the way Nathan had been created? He hadn’tbeen baptized with a Vampire’s blood, or at least his file hadn’tstated he had gone through the traditional stages of being turned.It just talked about procedures and injections. Successful attemptsand a lot of failed ones.
The front door clickedshut. “What are we looking for?”
I took a deep,steadying breath, squeezing my eyes shut in the hopes that thedarkness around me would stop vibrating. I exhaled. “A clue.”
It was pulling atstraws, but maybe, just maybe, Nathan was able to cross thethreshold because he wasn’t a bog-standard lower level Vampire. Hewas different. God, I hoped it was that. It wasn’t such a stretchof the imagination. He hadn’t shown the normal behaviour of anormal Leech. He seemed in control of his thirst. He seemed capableof emotions and normal conversation—well, as normal asconversations had always been with him. He didn’t know hisstrength. He didn’t seem crazy.
He was unique, butthen, that brought a whole lot of other problems up. If Vampireswere experimenting, trying to find ways to create other Vampiresdifferently … Vampires that could enter residential buildingswithout invites, that didn’t go crazy, and could control theirthirst … What did that mean?
“What type ofclue?”
Nathan’s words cutthrough the avalanche of questions crashing in my mind.
“I need to know whereHeather is.”
One thing at a time. Ihad to find Heather first and make sure she was okay. I would giveher Nathan’s file, and then together, we could answer thosedangerous questions.
Stepping inside thekitchen, I reached out, patting the wall, fumbling to find a lightswitch. The idea of lighting this place up seemed foolish, but agirl couldn’t find what she was looking for in the dark. Especiallywhen she had no idea what she was looking for to begin with.
My fingers skimmed theswitch. With a flick, the kitchen
