Ironic Sacrifice by Brooklyn Ann Page A

and sleep. If only his body would heed the same command. He wanted her again, no. He hadn’t stopped wanting her. Gritting his teeth against the raging desire, he contented himself with breathing in the sweet scent of her hair. Perhaps tomorrow he would take her, when she was better rested. He didn’t know if he could wait any longer. And there was no place more restful than Silas’s home.
    A fond smile curved his lips as he remembered Jayden’s courage when meeting his friends. She had seen Akasha at her worst, yet she did not flee. And best of all, she seemed to take to Silas well. Razvan was surprised at the well of gratitude that filled him for Silas’s willingness to help. He only hoped that McNaught’s efforts would be a success. Jayden’s mind was so fragile, could she ever heal?

Chapter Six
    The next evening, Jayden began her lessons with Silas, but it was exceedingly hard to concentrate. Why didn’t Razvan want me? She ached with disappointment, but couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t get to test him, or because she wanted him to desire her.
    “Jayden, you need to focus,” Silas said again. “Now try to read my thoughts.”
    “Okay, sorry,” she replied. They had been at this ever since Akasha left for work. Razvan, Max, and one of Silas’s subordinate vampires had gone back to Spokane to get Jayden’s car. She was beginning to suspect that Razvan didn’t know how to drive.
    Already Silas had more than lived up to his promise to help her. She now knew what had triggered her visions. Unlike popular stories and myths, psychic powers did not usually manifest at puberty. Instead, they came with one’s wisdom teeth. Silas believed that it was the cranial pressure from the new teeth that triggered the part of the brain responsible for psychic abilities.
    Had that been why her mother had gone insane and ended up committed in a psych hospital when Jayden was five? Jayden had always thought it had been because of the stress of becoming a mother in the tenth grade. Instead, maybe her mother began having visions too.
    She had an insane urge to tell Razvan and see what he thought.
    Silas watched her with an impatient look. “Are you even trying?”
    She sighed. “I just don’t see how reading your thoughts will help me stop seeing other peoples’ secrets.”
    Silas tapped his pen on the table. “Well, if you had been listening to me instead of thinking about Razvan, you would have heard me explaining that if you can sense the barrier on my thoughts, you would get a better sense of how to construct one of your own.”
    “Oh, that makes sense,” Jayden began and then the rest of his words sank in. “Wait, you read my thoughts?” Her eyes darted around the vast dining room, looking for retreat.
    Silas chuckled. “Only the subject, not the details, lass. Unlike you, I have to be touching a person for my powers to work efficiently. Now, try to read my thoughts.”
    Jayden focused on him. Nothing happened.
    “You’re just too good.” She spread her hands wide in surrender. “I can’t sense anything.”
    Silas frowned. “I think it is mostly that I am more practiced and you are still not concentrating enough. Your powers far exceed mine.” She gave him a doubtful look and he sighed. “Fine, place your hand on mine and try again.”
    She looked down at the appendage in question. His hands were large and looked more suited to wielding one of the huge swords that hung on the walls rather than flipping through tax forms. Jayden placed her hand atop his, marveling at the cool rough texture of his skin. She couldn’t help but wonder how he and the tiny Akasha were able to make love. Her fingers didn’t even reach his wrist. She and Razvan, however, pulled it off wonderfully…
    A vision of Silas lying in a field surrounded by corpses in chain mail and plaids slammed into her mind. A hooded figure approached him and blotted out the moon.
    “Ah, ‘tis the specter o’ Death come for me now?”