Free Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) by Emma Mills

his lips,
as he hunched his shoulders into an offensive position.
    ‘ Daniel, remember your place, or
will I need to remind you? Neither you nor I knew for sure what the
effects would be on Jess. How could we? Francesca certainly didn’t
discuss it with me, but I suspect they were banking on it, and as I
am rather more intelligent than they think I am, I considered it as
a possibility. It was a chance worth taking.’
    ‘ How can you say that? Jess was
mine, not yours to experiment upon.’
    ‘ Umm guys…hello? I am here, you
know. And for God’s sake Daniel, I am not yours, okay? You know that pisses me off!’ I
said.
    ‘ You know what I mean,’ Daniel
muttered, not taking his eyes from Sebastian.
    ‘ Yeah, I do know what you mean,
and I’ve had enough of it! I don’t belong to you, just because you
made me. I’m different, deal with it!’
    ‘ Fine, so you want to be
Sebastian’s little lap dog instead?’
    ‘ No, I belong to no-one, not you
and not Sebastian,’ I said, hoping that Sebastian wouldn’t take it
the wrong way and bang me up in one of his cells again. But
Sebastian only laughed, loudly.
    ‘ I think the best we can hope to
get from our little vampire witch here is loyalty born from
respect, and Jess you do still have to respect me, as the others
do, if you stay on in Manchester. You don’t have a free ticket to
do as you please,’ he said.
    ‘ I want the bond reinstated. I
believe it will be mended if Jessie drinks from me once again,’
Daniel interrupted, his eyes bright.
    ‘ And what does Jess say about
this?’ Sebastian answered.
    ‘ What does it matter? I am her
maker, we should have a bond,’ he replied, refusing to look me in
the eye.
    ‘ You have got to be kidding me?
Daniel, what did I say before? I don’t want it reinstated yet. I
want to know my true feelings, our true feelings. Don’t do this,
please,’ I said.
    ‘ Our feelings were fine with the bond intact. You knew
perfectly well who you were. We were good together,’ he
said.
    ‘ You’re scared. You’re scared I’ll
go back to Luke or not choose you, and I guess there’s a chance of
that happening, especially if you keep acting like a jerk, but if
you force this I will leave.
I will go with Franny, to
America, and never come back.’
    ‘ Well, I think there’s your answer
Daniel,’ Sebastian said.
    ‘ Don’t you tell me what my answer
is! You should be on my side and you should be more interested in
her being a part of our clan,’ Daniel stormed, as he leapt from the
chair and stood facing us both, fire raging in his eyes.
    It was a strange feeling, because
I had grown used to the bond between us. I was used to feeling his
anger and hurt when I rejected him, just as I had felt his heart
leap when I finally accepted him, but now I felt nothing. I could
see the anger and hurt, plainly written on his face, yet I had
only my emotions in my head
and I felt free.
    ‘ Daniel you are hungry, and I can
only hope that it is the reason for this highly irregular
behaviour…’ Sebastian said, before I interrupted him.
    ‘ He only fed a few hours ago. He
was out when the ceremony was taking place.’
    ‘ Yes, but Jess, we are not all
like you. You may only need a minimum amount of nourishment, but
from the looks of it you nearly drained Daniel earlier and it will
take more than one meal to satisfy his needs,’ Sebastian
answered.
    ‘ It’s not her fault. I let her
feed a little longer than I should, but that is not the reason I…’
Daniel said, pausing as Eva walked in the room.
    ‘ Sebastian, I think it may be best
if I take Daniel out again, if you agree of course?’ she
said.
    ‘ Of course. You go, Daniel. Eva
will talk to you, but you need to understand the situation we are
in. I know this is not what you planned when you turned Jess, and
you are one of the youngest, yet it seems we have to accept certain
changes…for the time being at least,’ he said with a small
smile.
    Once they had gone,