Free Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) by A.L. Larsen Page A

down the stairs.
    “I ain’t talking to you
either,” the guy said, crossing his arms over his chest. The fact that he
didn’t close the door, though, said differently.
    “Look, do you want
vampires showing up at your house all night, every night? If you just take two
minutes now and talk to me, the visits stop. You’ll never see us again.”
    “This house is warded.
They can’t get in here,” he said. 
    “I could make some
comment about how you have to come out some time, but I didn’t actually come
here to threaten you. I came to talk.”
    “So talk. You have one
minute.”
    “Is Jin here?”
    “Nope.”
    “Do you expect him back
tonight?”
     “He doesn’t live at
home anymore.”
    “Do you know where he
is?” I asked.
    “Yup.”
    “Would you tell me?”
    “Hell no.”
    “Ok, look, let’s start
over. Hi. My name’s Luna. And that tall, dark haired guy that was with me? That
was my boyfriend Alastair. Your brother cast a spell that wiped away all his
memories. He stole his entire past, every memory he had, of his family, of his
life, of who he is – your brother took everything from him.”  
    He frowned a little,
arms still crossed over his chest. “He’s just a damn bloodsucker. Who cares
what happens to him?” He was trying to act tough, but the fact that he still hadn’t
slammed the door in my face was a good sign.
    “ I care. And you
know why? Because he’s a really good person. He even fights other vampires, he keeps
people safe.”
    “He does?”
     “Yeah. Not that he’s
been able to do that since his memories got wiped,” I said. “Do you know how disruptive
your brother’s spell was? Alastair had to be told his own name. That’s
how much was taken from him. What was done to him isn’t right, and I think you
know that.”
    The guy uncrossed his arms
now and fidgeted as he said, “It wasn’t my idea. I just want you to know that.”
    “Were you there when
the memory spell happened?”
    “Yeah. Me and Mikey, we
worked with Jimmy. That’s Jin’s real name, by the way. Thinks he’s all gettin’
in touch with his roots, takin’ a Chinese name and whatever.” He rolled his
eyes.
    “The three of you went
to work for a vampire named Augustine.”
     “That’s right.”
    “Remember that house
you bombarded a few days ago? I was inside it while that was going on. It belongs
to a really good friend of mine, nicest guy you’d ever want to meet,” I said.
    “Damn. I didn’t know
there were any humans inside that house.” He looked upset. “We were told we
were fighting vampires. And yeah, ok, the dude we were working for was a
vampire, but we thought he was one of the good guys. That’s what he made it
sound like.”
    “Yeah, it’s really
tough to know when Augustine’s telling the truth. I’ve fallen for his lies on
more than one occasion.”
    “See? That’s what I
mean.”
    “How’d you get mixed up
with Augustine, anyway?”
    “He came up to Jimmy in
our old neighborhood, said he recognized his potential or whatever. Said he
could teach him how to use his magic, show him how to control this power that
my brother has. And then this Augustine guy, he said me and my brother Mikey
had a little of that power too. Not like Jimmy. But he said if we worked
together, we’d be totally powerful. Like superheroes, you know?”
    “I get it,” I said.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
    “My name’s Tyler. And I
wasn’t looking to hurt people, I swear. I never wanted that. We just wanted some
easy money,” he said. And he added quietly, “We wanted to be superheroes.”
    “You can still fix this,
Tyler, you haven’t done anything irreparable. No one died when you attacked
that house. And Alastair still has a chance of getting his memories back. But
he needs Jimmy to remove the spell, no one else can do it.”
    “Jimmy’s not gonna
cooperate,” he said. “He doesn’t care about anything but himself these days.”
    “Will you please tell
me where he