Free Ageless by Cege Smith Page B

once and I
will always honor her memory. But that was another time and another
place. You are what matters to me now, Violet. But you wanted to
know how I know that you are a Ward descendant?”
    Violet nodded again.
    “You look just like
her.”

CHAPTER NINE
     
    Every time Violet thought she
couldn’t be more surprised, she learned some new information that
knocked her flat again. She knew that it couldn’t be a good thing
to be a living, breathing reminder of a vampire’s long dead
girlfriend.
    “So, what? You think I’m Rose
reincarnated or something?” she asked.
    “You may look like her, but you are
so much more than Rose was,” Jeremiah said. “You are intelligent,
inquisitive, and skeptical. You care deeply about the people that
matter to you. And you are willing to help those in need, even if
it means putting yourself at risk; all admirable qualities. I’m
afraid Rose would have been one of those fainting girls I mentioned
earlier,” he said with a wry smile.
    “Then why did you love her?” Violet
didn’t want to care about his answer, but she did.
    “I was young and she was beautiful.
She was charming and full of life, but what I didn’t find out until
later was that she lived in fear of her father and that meant that
she would do or say anything to get away from him,” Jeremiah said.
“I didn’t find out until after she was gone that my affections
weren’t the only ones she was courting.”
    Violet felt awful for him. There was still a residue
of pain in his voice, and she found her hand reaching out to touch
his arm.
    He looked down at her hand and then
his eyes rose to hers. She felt her breath coming in shallow gulps.
When his head dipped toward hers, she knew that she should stop
whatever was about to happen, but she didn’t want to.
    Then the door to the ballroom
opened up and she heard Jonah’s voice. “Jeremiah, you’d better get
in here.” Violet backed away from Jeremiah, feeling like a cold
splash had just hit her skin. She looked away from him but found
that couldn’t meet Jonah’s eyes either.
    “What is it?” Jeremiah
growled.
    “We’ve got some gatecrashers.”
Jonah’s voice was tense.
    “Who?” Jeremiah’s voice boomed
across the patio.
    “Elysa,” was the clipped
reply.
    “Dammit,” Jeremiah said. He moved
quickly to the doorway. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he said,
motioning at Violet. Then he slipped through the door and into the
crowd of people.
    Jonah stepped out on the patio.
“You all right out here? You disappeared on me.”
    Violet shook her head. She felt hot tears in the
corner of her eyes. It was all too much to take in.
    Jonah crossed to her quickly and
leaned against the railing next to her. “He’s a bit of a handful.
I’m sorry.”
    Violet realized that he was talking
about Jeremiah, and that he thought her reaction was because of
him. “Oh, no. I’m just feeling like a fish out of water. Vampires,
warlocks, immortality. This is all still new to me.”
    “He didn’t push himself on you, did
he?” There was a current of anger just beneath Jonah’s words. He
was staring out at the yard, but Violet could see his jaw working
in the moonlight.
    “No, of course not,” she
said.
    Jonah’s shoulders drooped slightly,
and she wondered if he had been hoping that she would say that
Jeremiah had been too forward. She felt like a cat toy on a string,
and regardless of the attention that both brothers were directing
toward her she didn’t want to be the reason for tension between
them.
    “Who’s Elysa?” she asked, trying to
change the subject.
    “Jeremiah’s ex,” Jonah said with a
grimace.
    “Geez, how many exes does that guy
have?” Violet said, feeling completely out of sorts.
    Jeremiah looked at her strangely.
“Elysa was way more into Jeremiah than he was into her, so when he
broke things off with her, you could say she didn’t take kindly to
it. Lately, though, it’s more the fact that she’s been trying to
oust