A Shade of Vampire 32: A Day of Glory Read Online Free Page B

curtly. “Oh, I know. I saw.”
    My lips felt a tad dry all of a sudden. “I’m sorry.”
    Orlando shook his head, while his eyes wandered to the other side of the room. “Nothing to apologize for.”
    I hated how abrupt he was being. How cold and distant. How shut off.
    But I wasn’t sure what more to say. He clearly didn’t want to be having this conversation. So I merely swallowed, squeezed his hand and said, “I guess I’ll leave you to rest now… I’m so relieved the procedure went okay. You really do look like you’re recovering.”
    “Yeah,” he said faintly.
    I gripped the wheels of my chair and backed myself away from his bed. After casting one last, guilt-ridden look over at Orlando, who was still determinedly avoiding me, I headed to the door and rolled outside. Lawrence was waiting for me on a bench in the hallway.
    He gave me a questioning look as I approached, but he did not ask me anything. He waited for me to offer an answer, which I gave after we had moved back down the hallway and into my room.
    Lawrence sat on the edge of the bed while I stayed in my chair. I took his hand in mine and rested it on my lap while gazing down at it.
    “Some time ago, Orlando kissed me,” I said quietly.
    Lawrence went still, though he swallowed rather audibly.
    “He did it just a few hours before I found you in Aviary.” A few hours before I kissed you.
    I raised Lawrence’s hand and placed a kiss over the back of it, finally meeting his gaze. I didn’t like how uncomfortable he looked. “I love you, Lawrence,” I said softly. “And I told Orlando that you’re my boyfriend. I just… I worry for him.”
    I wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for Orlando. Although Maura had also helped in saving me from the Bloodless down in that sewage tunnel in Bloodless Chicago, it had been Orlando who had convinced her to allow me to come with them. I wouldn’t have lasted another hour if they hadn’t taken me up to that rooftop hideout.
    Lawrence breathed in. “Well… I, uh… I’m not sure what to say.”
    “I don’t expect you to say anything. I just needed to tell you.”
    Lawrence nodded. “I understand.”
    I leaned in to kiss the side of Lawrence’s face, my lips grazing his stubble. He wrapped his arms around me.
    I just hoped that Orlando was going to be okay. Even if he was cured now, and was no longer waiting to die, he struck me as quite the tightly strung sort. Without his sister… and now without me… I couldn’t help but worry for him.

Victoria
    W e could only speculate about what had happened to Yuraya. But Bastien feared that she might have returned to The Woodlands to report us to the Mortclaws.
    I was not sure what we could do. How could we run? The Mortclaws could locate us with their supernatural senses.
    If they were indeed coming after us, they would hunt us down faster than the three of us could make it back to The Woodlands to seek Mona’s help. I tried carrying both Bastien and Cecil at once, but I traveled far slower and it was tiring. I wasn’t a full Mortclaw, after all. I was still primarily human, and my newfound strength only stretched so far.
    It seemed incredibly dangerous to begin our journey across the ocean—for who knew how many miles—when I wasn’t sure I would even have the strength to complete it with their extra weight pulling me down. If we found ourselves stranded, we would be without a boat, and at risk from all kinds of dangerous water beasts.
    It seemed that our only option was to stay put and make our way back to The Woodlands as fast as we could travel by vessel. If we met the Mortclaws on the way, then… so be it.
    Bastien, of course, pushed for me to fly away alone, back to Mona. But I reminded him in a rather terse manner that I was his wife now, and I had chosen to stay.
    I feared that Bastien was at risk from them, even though he was Sendira’s son. Those Mortclaws were so unpredictable. I would not put anything past them.
    And so, with tense