A Shade of Vampire 27: A Web of Lies Read Free Page A

for a few minutes in the same position, drinking in The Shade’s beauty, before, with a strong thrust of his legs, he leapt with me into the neighboring tree. Then into the next one, and the next one.
    “Bastien,” I said, clinging to him as tightly as I could, “I want to take you to my treehouse.” I actually wanted to give him some proper clothes to wear in place of hospital pajamas. I also wanted to change.
    “Where is it?” he asked, as he took another exhilarating leap.
    “Um…” I gazed around the sea of treetops, not used to having to navigate the island from this height. I indicated the direction of the Residences, not bothering to suggest that we could just travel on foot like normal people because… well, there was nothing normal about Bastien.
    I pointed to my treehouse as soon as it came into view. He sped up and touched down with me in the center of the veranda. He set me down on my feet and examined the treehouse’s exterior curiously.
    “Fine workmanship,” he commented, trailing a hand along the veranda’s wooden railing.
    “All credit goes to our witches,” I explained, pushing open the front door and inviting him inside.
    I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him as he stepped through the doorway. I wanted to witness every detail of his reaction to my home. Holding his hand, I pulled him past the entrance hall and into the living room.
    He glanced with appreciation at the furniture and decor, but his eyes lingered the longest on the various pieces of technology we had. Our television, phones, and other inventions he would never have seen before in his life.
    I took him on a guided tour of the apartment, showing him every room, even the spare rooms, along with the views each held of different parts of the island. I stopped outside my bedroom last. I gripped the handle and pushed it open, allowing him to enter first.
    “This is where you usually sleep?” he asked, approaching my single bed that was pushed up against the window on the opposite side of the room.
    I nodded. I approached beside him and sank down on the mattress, inviting him to do the same. “Well,” I said. “You’ve seen it all now. My home. I’ve lived here since I was a baby.”
    “Where are your parents?” he wondered.
    I realized that I’d forgotten to tell him that the League had returned to the supernatural dimension. I had slipped away to say goodbye to my parents while Bastien had been resting.
    “They’ve gone on another mission,” I explained. “To the ogres’ realm. They want to rid that place of hunters as well, and then move on to search every other territory the hunters might have sunk their claws into.”
    He nodded thoughtfully. “I see… Your parents—all your family—they are good people.”
    “They are,” I agreed. I couldn’t say the same for Bastien’s family, or at least those that I had been acquainted with thus far. But it sounded like his parents and siblings had been a lot nicer than the Northstones—or more specifically Brucella.
    Not a lot of time had passed since he’d lost his family. I guessed he was still recovering from the trauma.
    “Did you ever see Brucella again, after you escaped from the mutants in The Woodlands?” I couldn’t help but ask.
    He nodded grimly, clenching his jaw. “She found me in my boat. She tried to persuade me to jump aboard her ship. I ignored her and fled. In fact, she was the reason I abandoned my boat in the first place.”
    The reason you got so badly injured by a shark. Just another reason to despise that she-wolf.
    “Where do you think she is now?” I asked.
    Bastien shrugged. “Still roaming the oceans looking for me, I suppose.”
    “And when she doesn’t find you? What then?”
    He heaved a sigh. “Brucella will have a decision to make. Keep looking for me until she eventually discovers me again, or find another suitor for her daughter.”
    I ran my tongue over my lower lip. “Do you really think that she would choose the second