Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) Read Online Free Page B

do I get instead of thanks?
Vomit blame.”
    “Sorry,” I said,
unfastening the seatbelt and sliding off Allie’s lap, because that probably
looked really strange to the other motorists. “Thank you for saving us. But
maybe next time, remember there’s a human in the car. And unlike you, I’m
actually breakable.” I glanced around and added, “Where are you going?”
    “Ted’s house.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Because no one would
ever look for us there.”
    “We can’t go there.
It’ll put him in danger!” I protested.
    “It’s just for an hour
or two. We need to do regroup, make some plans. And given the fact that Teddy
just got in the middle of that whole vampire-werewolf-angel discussion, we’re
going to need to take a minute and compel him again, too.”
    I shook my head. “It’s
bad enough we did that to him once. I think it really messed with his mind.”
    “No it didn’t. It’s
perfectly harmless.”
     “I don’t know about
that. It seemed like it didn’t really take properly the first time, like it
left him really off-kilter.”
    “What do you mean?”
Joey asked.
     “When Ted saw Alastair
downtown earlier this evening, it seemed like he was experiencing déjà vu or
something. And he told me he kept having nightmares that I was in trouble. But
I don’t get it. I was under the impression that compelling was pretty fool-proof.”
    “It is,” Joey said. “Usually.
But what it can’t do is override really strong emotions.”
    “What do emotions have
to do with it?”
     “Let’s say
hypothetically,” Joey said, pulling up to the curb down the block from Ted’s
house and turning to look at me, “that ol’ Teddy is in love with you. Rewriting
his memories can’t touch the underlying emotion. If he fears for the safety of
the woman he loves, then that’s going to seep through, not matter what.”
    “He broke up with me.
He’s not in love with me,” I protested.
    “Whatever. I’m just
trying to find an explanation for why compelling him failed.”
    It was a full fifteen
minutes before the Cadillac pulled up and parked in the street in front of
Ted’s house. Ted activated the garage door opener and the Impala pulled inside,
the door closing behind us. Apparently Ted and Joey had had the foresight to
plan ahead a bit.
    We went through to the
kitchen, and Ted and Carrie met us inside. I’d spent a lot of time in this
house, so it was almost as familiar as my own. I pulled up a chair at the
breakfast bar and Ted sat beside me while Carrie consulted with Alastair and
Joey across the kitchen, scribbling something on the pad Ted’s mom used for
grocery lists.
    I glanced over at my ex
and asked, “So, how are you?”
    “Dazed. Disbelieving.
Doubting my sanity. The three D’s of trying to cope, apparently.” He actually
grinned a little. And then he turned to me and said, “So of that group, one’s a
vampire and one’s a werewolf. But what’s the third, the one you’re dating?”
    “He was part human,
part angel before being turned into a vampire.”
    “Damn,” Ted murmured.
“I knew there had to be an explanation for him, because no one’s that good
looking. But I thought the explanation was going to be boatloads of plastic surgery,
not that he’s a freaky mutant vampire angel thingy.”
    I pivoted my chair and
watched Ted’s profile as he studied the people across the room, then asked him,
“How are you so calm about this? I would have expected you to totally lose it.”
    “I realize I’m not
generally known for my coping skills,” he said. “And that reminds me: I’m so
sorry for bailing on you when Aunt Claire got sick. I know I was a total wuss,
and I’m really ashamed of myself.”
    “Thanks. You actually already
apologized at one point. You just don’t remember.”
    “Well, that’s good at
least,” Ted murmured. After a moment he said, “I can see why you’d think I’d
have to be shielded from all of this. But how’d you do it? Alter my memories,