Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I laughed at his confused expression. "Where I grew up, everyone's superstitious. But what we feared the most were the harsh winters and lack of food and losing a loved one to the fever."
"I'm sorry." He squeezed my hand gently.
"No, don't be." I smiled, lost in my memories. "It's a beautiful place, probably the most beautiful place in the whole world, but also one of the most dangerous. In late spring, when the snow recedes, we often found missing animals and sometimes even people thawing in the warm sun. It's a gruesome sight."
"I can only imagine."
"There's so much snow up there, everything's of a perfect white. As a child I often thought I was in Heaven walking on fluffy clouds," I said. He looked at me the whole time while I recalled key moments of my childhood. He was a good listener, giving his inputs at the right time, making me feel relaxed. He was so different from Gael, who was never really interested in my past. "You should visit one day." I added. "Just make sure to put on a few layers of clothes."
He laughed and touched my hand. "Awesome advice. It might come in handy sometime. Since I've always had issues with popularity, what with infusing fear coming with the job description of a demon, I might just consider moving there."
I opened my mouth to ask whether he was serious, but Thrain cocked his head and pointed to the inside of the house. My ears strained to listen. An instant later, Cass stood in the doorway. Her skin was flushed with a glow to it, as was her red hair. She was wearing a summer dress now, white with tiny blue flowers, and a thick, orange sweater on top of it. What looked like combat boots perfected her outfit. The entire assemble looked good on her. In fact, after realizing what she was I couldn't imagine her in strappy sandals or high heels.
"Took you longer than before," Thrain said. Even if it weren't for the tight lines around his mouth, I could feel him stiffen beside me. My curiosity awakened instantly.
"Relax," Cass said, slumping down beside me. "There's plenty of time."
"How is he?"
Cass shrugged. "Obviously, still dead. Why do you keep asking?" She leaned forward to peer at him. He turned away.
"Maybe I was hoping for a miracle," Thrain whispered.
"Here's our miracle." Cass pointed at me. A few awkward seconds passed. For the umpteenth time, I wondered what was going on between them and whether they had some sort of mind-thing keeping their real conversation hidden from prying ears.
Cass raised her brows, grinning. "Scotland, the land of mystery? I thought we agreed on the Swiss Alps."
"It was a spur of the moment decision," Thrain said. Was Cass the one having the last word and he expected a confrontation now? If he did, it never came. Cass got up and wiped a hand over her dress as though to remove any dust.
"Whatever. We're leaving now. Patricia will need time to teach her. The vampires will stay here for…research purposes." She gazed at me, and I knew research purposes involved finding out whatever they could about being a voodoo priestess. It seemed they knew even less than I did. It might just be the right time to reveal that I wasn't the complete beginner they believed me to be. With every breath I took, something seemed to fall into place, like a puzzle, and memories kept flooding my mind. Even though they seemed like distant dreams, I knew they spoke of a past that had once been my life. I needed more time to make sense of those memories, to study them, to find clues that would help me trigger everything there was to know, so I kept my secret to myself.
I touched Cass's elbow and pointed a few feet away. She nodded and let me draw her aside. Harboring any hope that Thrain didn't have the ability or heightened sense of hearing to tune into our conversation was stupid. And yet I wanted to believe it because I had been meaning to talk to her in private ever since I remembered having seen her before.
She raised her brows. "What's wrong?"
"I need to talk to you about something."
"Can it wait?"
I shook my head, slightly hesitating. The truth was it could wait. It had for six months now.
Cass squeezed my hand. "Once we're at Patricia's, okay? This place isn't safe, what with Aidan's exes trying to kill