“Jesus,” Alexis said as she tried to get her breath back. “Are you okay?”

Katie caught her breath. “More than okay. I’ve dreamed about being in your arms since I understood that I liked women.”

Alexis felt such a surge of pure love for Katie. She cupped her cheek and looked deeply into her eyes. “Katie, I…”

Katie stroked her hair. “What?”

Alexis couldn’t say it. An immortal vampire, and she didn’t have the courage to tell her lover that she loved her.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Chapter Fifteen

Byron entered the bedroom to find Amelia sitting on the side of the bed in her nightdress. She seemed to be concentrating deeply and trying with all her might to lift one of her shoes off the floor with her untapped power. She raised it a few inches, and then it wobbled and crashed down.

“Pathetic,” Amelia said. “I’m supposed to be a descendant, someone who has to fight against a darkness that’s coming, and I have no idea how to use magic.”

Byron walked over to the bed and got in. “You will learn. We go back to London tomorrow, and we’ll contact our friends at The Portal—then you’ll be more confident. Besides, do you think I’d let anyone get through me?”

Amelia gave up with her magic and slipped under the covers beside Byron. “That’s the thing that puzzles me. Why would a relatively weak grade-one beginner witch be the one prophesied to fight the darkness that this Anka woman brings? You are the most powerful vampire alive. Why not you?”

Byron pulled Amelia into her arms. “We must trust your ancestors. They can see the whole picture. Can you still hear the voices?”

“Yes, in the background, when I concentrate, but I can’t hear them very clearly again.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing. Or they might drive you insane,” Byron said.

“Sybil said that Bronte, my mum, will be one of those voices, and that I will find a way to hear her one day.”

“I’m sure the strength of a mother’s love will make that happen,” Byron said.

“I wish I could have known her and what she was running from.”

“We’ll keep looking for information, I promise,” Byron said.

Amelia was quiet for a while and then started to pull off her nightdress.

“What are you doing?” Byron asked.

“You need to feed,” Amelia said flatly.

Byron pulled the nightdress back. “Oh no. Not after today. I fed on a blood bag before I came through.”

It was jarring, every time she thought of today. The parents she thought she hated had actually protected her all her life. Their actions towards her and their intentions were so conflicting.

“I phoned Uncle Jaunty to tell him about Mother and Father.”

“What did he say?” Byron asked.