A Shade of Vampire 15: A Fall of Secrets Read Free Page A

the ceremony neared a close, I dried my tears and a different emotion took hold of me. Hope. That from this day forward, The Shade would be a safer place.

Chapter 3: Aiden
    I had been avoiding Adelle all throughout the ceremony, not that it was difficult. She had been avoiding me too. I didn’t catch her once looking my way. Perhaps she felt embarrassed.
    The redheaded witch had been playing on my mind ever since she’d come to see me. I couldn’t deny that I was still deeply attracted to her. But the werewolf had gotten under my skin, touched me in ways that I hadn’t expected. She truly was a breath of fresh air. After Camilla, Kailyn’s frankness and straightforwardness were qualities I needed in a life partner. Kailyn was everything that Camilla wasn’t. And though physically she wasn’t my type, somehow I preferred that she wasn’t. Adelle’s beauty was almost too similar to Camilla’s for comfort. It felt like Kailyn was the clean break I needed in life. In love.
    Although I’d known Adelle for much longer, I couldn’t be sure that her attachment to me was as true as Kailyn’s. Granted, I had certainly taken my time in asking her out, but if she had truly had a crush on me all those years, what had been stopping her from expressing her feelings? I wondered whether it was more the breakdown in our friendship since she’d started going out with Eli than actual love for me that had caused her to react the way she had.
    But whatever was going on in that witch’s head, I was Kailyn’s now.
    After the ceremony, Kailyn and I made our way back to our mountain cabin. Although we could have opted to live in the trees, I’d realized that it would be much more practical to stay in the cabin when Kailyn transformed into a wolf. We walked hand in hand up the cabin steps, in through the front door and dropped down on the sofa in the living room. She wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned her head against my chest. I stroked her wavy blonde hair, resting my lips against her head.
    “Sometimes I wish I could turn you into a werewolf,” she said with a smile.
    “Why’s that?” I asked.
    “Werewolves just have more fun.”
    I chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
    “Though,” she said, “it’s true that vampires have one advantage over us. They live forever.”
    I hadn’t thought until now about the longevity of werewolves. “How long do werewolves live?” I asked.
    “A long time. But not forever.”
    I held her hand and kissed it. “Well, a very long time will have to be good enough for me. Unless we can turn you into a vampire.”
    She smiled. “I’m not even sure that wolves can turn into vampires. Perhaps it’s something that could be done with the assistance of the black witches… But honestly, I’m not sure I could handle being so cold all the time.”
    “You get used to it,” I said grimly.
    “Hey, Aiden!” a familiar voice called from outside the cabin.
    I walked over to the door and opened it. Claudia stood on my doorstep, hands on her hips.
    I raised a brow. “What brings you here, Mrs. Lazaroff?”
    She cast a fleeting glance over my shoulder into the cabin and waved at Kailyn. “Hi, Kailyn,” she said.
    The wolf appeared at my side. She gave Claudia a smile. “Hello.”
    Claudia looked back at me. “Well, as you know, Yuri and I have some… business to do.”
    She paused.
    “And?” I prompted.
    “And it means that not only will he and I turn back into humans, we’re going to leave this island for a while. Like Xavier and Vivienne, Yuri and I didn’t ever have a proper honeymoon. We were stuck on this island as vampires.”
    “When will you turn?”
    “Tomorrow morning. We’ll take the cure and leave right afterward—assuming we recover quickly. So… I wanted to invite you round now, to catch up on a few things and to say goodbye.”
    “Oh, I see.” I looked down at Kailyn. “Would you like to come?”
    Claudia cleared her throat. “Yuri wanted to have a bit of