A World of New (A Shade of Vampire, #26)

My parents hadn’t told me Bastien’s door number. But many of the rooms up here were clearly vacant at present. It didn’t take me long to find the right one. As I arrived outside a door near the middle of the long corridor, low muttering drifted from inside. I held my breath and knocked softly.

“Come in,” a male voice responded.

I entered to find three jinn hovering around a bed: Horatio, Aisha, and one of Aisha’s cousins, Fina.

I darted to the bed, my entire being lighting up as I found myself gazing down at Bastien Blackhall, either asleep or unconscious. The jinn had covered his body with blankets, so the only part of him exposed to me was his upper chest and face. I moved near his head and placed a palm over his forehead. Then I leaned in, planting two gentle kisses over his eyelids.

I could hardly contain my excitement at the thought of him waking up. I would finally have the chance to get things straight with him and allay any doubts he might have that I could have betrayed him. I would be able to hear his deep voice, feel his fingers closing around mine… gaze into his beautiful gray eyes again.

As he lay with eyelids closed, he looked ever so worn and weary. I hadn’t even asked the jinn what was wrong with him yet. I would soon, but for now, the only one thing that mattered in the world to me was that Bastien was here. He had found his way back to me… just like Saira had predicted he would.

He was safe now. Safe in The Shade. Safe with me.





Bastien





A surge of heat spread through my body. My limbs slowly awakened. I did not feel pain, even though I should have. I did not feel dampness beneath me. I was not resting on my stomach. I was lying on my back… in my human form.

My bed was no longer lined by undergrowth, but rich cotton sheets. I opened my eyes slowly. My vision was blurry. I was in some kind of room, a warm room glowing with soothing, orange lighting. There was someone leaning over me. A face. An angel. Am I in heaven?

A soft palm pressed against my cheek and then a pair of lips pressed down against my forehead. I wished I could see who this person was.

My senses returned to me one by one. My vision was still lagging behind. But I could smell again. And it was a sense that flooded back to me far more quickly than my vision. I breathed in a heady mix of ointments, the smell of a burning lamp, and other things that were strange to me. But pervading all of them was a familiar scent, a scent that made my spirit soar as I breathed in.

I knew that scent. It was the scent of home. The scent of longing. It was the scent of Victoria.

Maybe I really had gone to heaven, or was stuck in some fantastical dream of the afterlife.

I reached up to her face, still blurred, and cupped it in my hands. I slid my fingers down her neck, around the curve of the base of her head, and drove my fingers into her silky hair. I pulled downward. And then she was close enough for me to be able to behold her beauty through my patchy vision.

Ocean-blue eyes. A gently rounded nose. Dark, expressive brows. A small, pert chin. And her lips… I couldn’t help but brush a thumb against them. Soft like flower petals.

She breathed my name. I tried to sit up, but she clasped my shoulders and pushed me back down against the pillows.

“You need to rest,” she whispered.

“I don’t want to rest,” I croaked, only half aware that I had spoken aloud, rather than in my head.

I had just found Victoria again, in whatever strange half-existence this was. How could I possibly rest?

She placed her hands over mine and gave me that familiar squeeze.

“It was Detrius all along, Bastien,” Victoria began, gazing down at me through starry eyes.

I found myself trying to figure out what in heavens she was talking about, and what my cousin had to do with anything. Only as she continued did I remember how Victoria and I had gotten wedged apart to begin with. The hunters. The mutants. Brucella yelling that Victoria was a traitor, for me to cast her aside. And then one of Victoria’s relatives swooping her away.

And then the crushing aftermath. The doubt. The confusion. The desolation.

But now Victoria was telling me that it had all been a setup. That none of it was true. It was my cousin who had caused the hunters to arrive at Rock Hall. Not Victoria. Of course, not Victoria! Not my kind, beautiful friend Victoria.

After she finished recounting her tale, I gazed up at her, the corners of my eyes heating. It felt like an iron weight had been lifted from my chest, freeing me. As I felt the urge to sit up again, this time she allowed me to lean against the headboard.

“Our jinn have been working on your leg,” she explained, gesturing to the bottom half of me that was covered with blankets. I had been so consumed by Victoria that I had even forgotten all about it. “And don’t worry. A male nurse put you in clothes,” she added, indicating my crisp blue clothing.

“Where am I?” I asked.