The Haunted Memories (Forgotten Series, #4)

Chapter 11

I woke up slowly, reality creeping in bit by bit. My wolf let out a contented rumble as a large hand stroked through my hair. I felt a feeling of loss deep within my chest as the dream faded. It felt as though I had lost something very important to me. It confused me because I knew the emotion was not mine. I lifted my head off of the lap it was resting on and blinked. Someone stroked the backs of their fingers down my face and I looked up.

"Hi." My voice was thick with sleep and I gave the vampire a tired smile. "How is Zeke?" I moved to actually sit on the couch and rubbed at my eyes. I must have fallen asleep during one of the coven's massive movie marathons.

"Zeke is good. How are you?" He wasted no time in hauling me onto his lap and I stretched with a wide yawn. I ignored the embrace. All the vampires did it. If they were smaller than me then they crawled onto my lap and if they were bigger than me I was pulled onto theirs.

"Tired." I looked around and frowned slightly. "Where did everyone go?" The living room was devoid of any other vampires and it felt a bit too still. I was used to the coven being livelier than this.

Zeke gave me a crooked grin with a wink. "Midnight munchies."

"Ahhhhh." I felt my own lips twitch at that before I looked up at him. "You hungry?" I didn't want to take anything away from anyone with my presence. I was more than willing to share what I had if someone was missing out because of me.

He shook his head slowly. "I had a big feed yesterday." He patted his stomach with a smug grin. I could only imagine what it entailed. More than likely blood bags. Bonded vampires worked on a way different thought pattern than single ones when it came to eating. Single vampires always went for sex and they had a high need for it but bonded vampires shared blood between themselves, relying on their coven members sometimes or plain old blood bags. Cai said they tasted like cardboard but I guess for monogamy they didn't particularly care what the blood tasted like.

"Taking care of Lanie?" Lanie was the first new turned vampire that I had heard of in the coven. Zeke was the lucky male who had snagged her up. Cai and the rest had tried to explain it to me. There was something in some mundanes that allowed them to be turned and it had a type of pheromone that it emitted to let vampires know they had a potential vampire-to-be around. Most of the time the only mundanes turned were those that wanted to be BloodBound to another vampire. Interspecies marriage and all that.

"Yes. She's still adjusting." He nodded his head but he seemed less pinched then the last time we had spoken about her.

"Well where is she?" I looked around and strained my hearing but couldn't hear much of anything.

"Sleeping still. Still on mundane time."

"Let's go get her up!" I had yet to really meet Lanie. It was for a good reason. Recently turned vampires were unpredictable and had a hard time with self-control over their instincts. Having her bond to Zeke would help even her out but the last time I had stopped by she was still too unpredictable for me to meet. That was months ago so I knew she had to be a bit better. Also Zeke wasn't super tense about me being around so I figured that meant she was better with people.

"Sure." At that I jumped off his lap and grabbed his hand to yank him off the couch. I felt more at ease in the coven, less pressured, as if I had several years and responsibilities taken off of my life. He heaved himself off off the couch, pretending my not entirely helping hands were instrumental in getting his huge bulk off of the couch. He stood up to his nearly seven foot height before he grasped my hand and lead me out of the living room.

"She will be okay?" Despite the fact I felt comfortable in the coven I had no illusions I could take on any of the vampires, new or not. I was just glad Zeke was there because I knew him and Cai had gotten into playful fights and Cai had troubles with him sometimes.