Reborn Yesterday - Tessa Bailey Page 0,25

jerked a precise two inches to the left to obey him.

A fire lit in her belly. “Don’t command me like that. And keep your voice down. Larissa will hear you.”

“She’s sleeping. Soundly.” While Ginny processed the fact that her stepmother had either been conked again or compelled to sleep by Jonas, he visibly reined himself in. When he spoke again, however, his tone remained brittle, ready to snap. “When I arrived, Roks was unconscious on the floor and you were gone. What happened, Ginny? Are you hurt?”

“No.”

Jonas tilted her face up, scrutinizing every feature. “You’re only half lying.”

“How can you tell?”

“Your pulse. It changes when you’re not truthful or if you get excited. That’s how I knew your favorite line in The Quiet Man.” His chest rose and fell rapidly. “An explanation. Now. Or I’ll have no choice but to make the command.”

“Don’t you dare. Last night, you talked about about the importance of choices. Well you can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth, Jonas. Preaching about choices while stealing my free will.”

He flinched. “This is different. Your silence prevents me from protecting you.”

“Promise to never compel me again and I’ll talk.”

A short standoff ensued. “Done.”

Heat rushed to the backs of her eyelids, panic springing up in her middle like a geyser. This was it. Once she gave up the information she’d been hiding from Jonas, she gave up the only bargaining chip she had to maintain her memories. But if tonight had proven one thing, it was that she couldn’t protect herself against an unseen force that could pick her up in one location and drop her in another. She couldn’t defend against something she couldn’t see, but Jonas might. Her options had run out.

In short order, so would her time with him.

“Two weeks ago, I woke up in the ocean,” she whispered, recalling the chill of the black, bottomless water, the taste of salt on her tongue. “It was pitch dark, but I could see lights in the distance and I swam toward them. It took me…hours, it seemed like. And I have no idea how I got there. Only that I slept so deeply before it happened, almost like I was in a trance. Something or someone lifted me up and took me there.”

Jonas had gone still as a marble statue, his hands going from cool to icy where they held her face.

“A-and tonight, the same thing happened, except…”

“Tell me.”

“When I woke up, I was in the middle lane of the Belt Parkway.”

A choked sound left him.

His hands dropped away from her face.

“This time, I remember…floating. I was floating. I can’t remember that happening the night I ended up in the ocean.”

“Vampire,” he growled.

“A powerful one,” Roksana added, sounding fearful for the first time since Ginny had met her. “What the hell, Jonas?”

Ginny came off the door. “A vampire is the one doing this to me?”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Jonas muttered, fingers plowing through his inky hair. “I could understand if I’d made her a target, but I’ve only known her two days. The first incident was weeks ago.”

Ginny waved her hands. “Can we please start from the beginning? Vampires can make people fly?”

Roksana lowered the towel from her head and Ginny got a look at the gigantic red lump. “You’ve obviously noticed Jonas can compel your actions. He probably wouldn’t be able to levitate you, though.” Gingerly, she prodded the knot on her head and winced. “That’s a skill reserved by older, more seasoned bloodsuckers.”

“But…” Ginny made a grab for the missing pieces. “I thought it was against the rules for a vampire to kill a human.”

“They didn’t kill you,” Jonas said, tone ominous. “They put you in a situation where you’re likely to…” He dragged a hand down his face. “It’s not a direct violation of the rule, but someone is definitely playing fast and loose. Why, though?” He paced for a moment. “I’m the first vampire you’ve had contact with,” Jonas asked Ginny, even though he didn’t exactly phrase it as a question.

“Yes. That I’m aware of.”

He nodded, satisfied with her answer.

“I’m not in love with the fact that you’re a human lie detector.”

“Don’t lie to me and you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“I rarely lie at all.”

“I know. Only by omission—and you’re loath to do even that. Your honesty is one of the reasons I…”

“What?”

He seemed to be judging the wisdom of continuing. “One of the reasons I can’t stand to be away from you,” Jonas said, just above a whisper,