Calling for a Miracle [The Order of Vampyres 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (19 page)

“It was for your own good, Larissa.”

“For my own good. My own good. My own good!” Larissa repeated the statement, growing angrier as her words echoed back to her. “My own good?
Get out of my house!
”

If she were not so angry, she would have laughed at the look of shock on his face.

“Larissa—”

“I said leave!” Not knowing how it happened, the door to her home suddenly propelled open.

“I will not. We had a deal. You feed and I give you another day. You have fed—”

“And now you will go. Nowhere in our deal did you say you would remain under my roof for those hours.”

Giving her a look as if she were acting completely irrational, he said, “Did you honestly think I would go?”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re leaving! All of you males are alike. We women are nothing more than puppets, our strings in your hands, bodies for your entertainment.”

“Larissa, that is not what happened here.”

“I am a married woman!”

“You don’t even love your husband!” he bellowed.

He was right. She felt her anger slip away, leaving her only hurt. “He never loved me,” she whispered. “I was a good wife. I did everything he asked without ever even receiving a thank-you or an endearing look.”

“Silus Hostetler is an
aesel,
a jackass. A man of worth would be grateful to have you as his female and spend every day thanking God for blessing his life with such beauty and uncensored sweetness.”

“Well, I guess I’ll never know. I suppose I have you to thank for that. It was, after all, in your hands to object to my marriage when Silus used his relatives to so unfairly sway the council’s vote. Thank you, Bishop, for making me feel as worthless as a sow at an auction. Now get out.”

“If I had known how Silus would be as a husband, I never would have agreed. I assumed you wanted the union. You never voiced any objections.”

“And why would I? I was only doing what my elders said was for ‘my own good.’”

“I’m sorry, Larissa. I did not know what your life had become.”

She clenched her teeth together and breathed deeply through her nose. When she had her emotions contained enough to speak, she gritted, “Yet you have every intention of returning with me to the farm when my twenty-four hours are up.”

“It is your home. You cannot continue to live here among the English. It is not safe.”

“It was until you showed up!”

“You were starving when I arrived!”

“Because I was too afraid you would find me if I left to hunt. Leave me alone and I will feast like a queen.”

“I cannot.”

She shook her head. “Then at least let me spend my last few hours in peace. Lord knows it will be the last time I ever have a moment’s worth.”

“Things will be different when you return. You just have to trust me.”

“I trust no man.”

“You will.”

“I’ll file that promise away with my
calling,
under things I will die waiting for.”

“Do not let yourself become so bitter, sweet Larissa. It is not in your nature.”

“Pardon me if I am not acting my typical biddable self. I assure you when I return to the farm, I will be the epitome of propriety once again so all you powerful males can rest at night, knowing the females of the farm are waiting for your next direction like a herd of contented cattle, too stupid to think for themselves as they’re led to slaughter.”

“What has made you so bitter? You are so young. I do not understand.”

“And you never will because you are not only a male, but also our bishop.”

She felt a tickle along her scalp and a slight sensation probing the surface of her mind. Appalled, she slammed down a lid to her private thoughts and directed all of that telepathic energy back at the bishop. He shouted and grabbed his head, nearly stumbling to the ground.

When he regained his composure, his eyes were fully dilated. “How did you do that?”

“I merely threw your own command back at you. Serves you right. It is rude to dig in other people’s minds.”

“You did not merely throw my command back at me, you intensified it about a thousand percent.”

“I did not.” She had done no such thing. She wasn’t sure exactly what she did other than reject his intrusion much like she had the other night. Her sister was telepathic. She had rejected Gracie’s intrusion hundreds of times and never intensified anything or caused her any pain. Perhaps the bishop did not know his own strength.

“What I sent to you was nothing more than a featherlight touch of your thoughts. What you sent back stabbed through my mind and down my spine. Do not do it again.”

“Fine, but only if you do not come near my mind again.”

He growled. His hair was sticking up on end from where he had gripped his head. She kind of preferred him a little disheveled. “Enough of this. I am tired and now I have a headache. I have been awake since last night and I want to sleep. Would you prefer I stay in your room or on the couch?”

The nerve of him! “I would prefer if you stayed at the hotel down the road.”

“It’s not happening, Larissa. I suggest you accept that now so we can get some rest. No doubt tomorrow will be a long and tedious day.”

“If you stay here, I won’t sleep,” she quietly admitted, hating that she had to expose such a weakness.

He frowned. “That is ridiculous.”

“Please, Bishop King. I promise I will stay put. You can return first thing in the morning. I need my privacy. It is the last chance I will ever get to claim it.”

She saw the moment he conceded. She wasn’t sure what it was she had said or perhaps it was something in the way she asked, but he was going to allow her privacy.

“Very well, Larissa. I shall return in the morning.” He sighed as he moved toward the door. “Do not make me regret this.”

Chapter 11

Jonas entered his home around midnight and an uncomfortable foreboding filled the pit of his stomach. Abilene, Grace, and Cain sat at the kitchen table quietly as if waiting for him.

“What is it?” he asked, reluctant to fully enter the room.

“Why don’t you sit down, Father,” Cain suggested.

“Thank you, but I’d rather stand. Has something happened?”

Abilene looked up at him with glassy eyes. “The children know, Jonas.”

His jaw ticked. “Know what?”

“We know you are being called, Father,” Grace said softly, sympathy pinching her features. Abilene must have told them. Before he could question his wife, Grace quickly said, “Mother did not betray your trust. We figured it out on our own.”

“And you have all waited here for me for what exactly?”

“We want to know who she is,” his daughter informed him.

He laughed, but found no humor in the situation. Shaking his head, he said, “She is of no consequence. Who she is matters not. You will never know her.”

“Father—”

“I am sorry, Grace. I am sorry for all of you. I never chose for this to happen and I have no control over the situation, but I will not simply turn away from my family because God suddenly decrees another female is intended for me. This is my home. You three and Adam and Annalise and Larissa are my family. I do not need nor want another.

“Now, if you will excuse me—”

Cain stood. “Father, you cannot just ignore this.”

“I can and I will!” he suddenly bellowed, shocking them all. Abilene looked down at the table before her and he felt her upset as if it were a living, breathing thing between them. “I do not mean to shout, but this is upsetting your mother. I do not want to discuss it any further.”

He turned to walk out of the room when his wife’s words halted his steps. “Jonas, stop. There is no escaping the pain this situation will bring. I am tired of dancing around what is happening. It is not just happening to you. It is happening to
all
of us. You will either go to this woman eventually or you will die. I look forward to neither outcome, yet both will hurt
me
most. We want to know and you have no right keeping it from us any longer.”

“You do not know what you are asking, Abilene.”

“Oh, I believe I do. I am merely still in shock because I never in my seventy-eight years imagined us here, having this conversation.”

He was so close to escaping. His fingers itched to reach for the door and flee. He looked toward the dark hallway and whispered, “You are young, Abilene, half my age. You are beautiful and kind and any male would be…” He swallowed over the lump in his throat. “Would be blessed to have you.”

“Do not,” she hissed. “Do not stand there and begin deciding my life for me when you plan on giving up on your own.”

“What choice do I have, Abilene?” he asked, truly wishing someone would give him another choice. He was desperate to alter his fate and save his marriage, his family.

“I
will not
watch you die,” she vowed.

“I am sorry.” It seemed all he did anymore was apologize. “I will not involve you in the life of some mortal I never intend to—”

“Clara!” Gracie suddenly announced and all eyes moved from him to his daughter.

They had tricked him. They had distracted him and manipulated his emotions so that he would let down his guard enough for his daughter to slip into his mind unnoticed. “Grace, do not do this. I am your father. At least give me the respect and privacy I deserve. I know you think you are helping, but you are not.”

His daughter looked back at him as if torn between doing what she thought was best and what he had asked of her. “You will not last long this way, Father. Eventually you will grow
feeish.
I do not wish to see you in such a way. When you reach that point, you will be too far gone to find her. What do you think that will do to Mother? Do you think she will stand idly by while the others storm our home and hunt you down? No. She will protect your life with her own and your stubbornness will leave us all orphans in the end.”

“I will leave before it comes to that.”

“And you will go to her eventually once your instincts become stronger than your mind. Only by then you may have already harmed other innocents in the process.”