Chapter 69 Ch. 40.2
Morning light slipped through the curtains when Ivanna opened her eyes. Dylan was still half asleep beside her, his arm heavy across her waist. She smiled and brushed a kiss across his lips.
He stirred and blinked at her. “Morning,” he said, voice rough.
“Morning,” she whispered back. She turned her head toward the clock on the nightstand and froze. “Oh shit. Oh shit.”
She threw the blanket back and jumped out of bed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting up.
“I’m so late for work,” she said, grabbing her clothes from the floor and pulling them on in a rush.
“Hey, calm down,” he said, rubbing his eyes.
“I can’t,” she said, hopping on one foot as she tried to slip on her shoe. “My boss is going to kill me.”
He got up and reached for his jeans. “Let me drive you.”
“You’d do that?” she asked, already buttoning her blouse.
“Yeah,” he said, pulling on a shirt. “You’ll make it faster.”
She stopped for a second and looked at him, a quick smile flashing across her face. “Thank you. I love you.”
He kissed her forehead. “Let’s go.”
They left in a hurry. When they reached her office, she leaned over, kissed him again, and jumped out of the car. He stayed in the driver’s seat for a long moment, watching her run inside. A quiet worry pressed at him. What if she remembered something she shouldn’t?
Inside, Ivanna barely had time to catch her breath before her boss appeared at her desk.
“You’re late,” he said, his tone sharp. “Again.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Traffic—”
“Save it,” he cut in. “This can’t keep happening, Ivanna. I need you here on time.”
She lowered her eyes, nodding while her heart still raced from the morning rush.
She settled at her desk, set her bag down and opened her laptop. The screen lit up as she sipped from the paper cup of coffee she had grabbed downstairs and started clicking through her emails, but her mind kept drifting.
After a while she opened Chrome, meaning to check a few leads. Her eyes caught the small list of sites in her history.
“Vampires?” she said under her breath and let out a short laugh. “Why the hell was I searching about vampires?”
She clicked the first link anyway. An article filled the page with old stories about creatures that drank human blood, always from the neck or sometimes the wrist. She leaned closer, skimming line after line.
She opened another tab from the history. This one talked about compulsion, how a vampire could look into someone’s eyes and bend their thoughts, convince them to act or forget, to do anything asked.
She rested her chin on her hand. Could any of this be real?
Her fingers tightened on the trackpad. She wondered if that was even possible. Was it all just stories, or was there something people weren’t saying? Was it possible that someone could actually force a person to forget?
She exhaled and shook her head. “Ridiculous."
Then suddenly, she wondered if the woman at Riverbend Inn had… No. That was crazy. But still, was it possible that the mark on the woman’s neck wasn’t just a hickey? Could something else have drained her of blood?
Ivanna leaned back in her chair. “Is that why I was searching vampires?” she whispered.
She tried to remember what had led her here, but the thought slipped away like water through her fingers. A blank spot sat in her mind where the reason should be.
“This is ridiculous,” she said softly. She opened her notes app. “I need to write this down. I should probably actually start therapy or something, figure out why I keep forgetting things.”
She began a to-do list, but as the notes app loaded, a saved line caught her eye.
Ethan x Riverbend.
Her breath hitched. She tapped it open and read the few words she had typed before.
“Oh my God,” she said, her voice a sharp whisper. “Oh my God.”
She stared at the screen, heart thudding, the office noise fading until all she could see was that short note and everything it might mean. From the note, it was very certain that she had made a connection between Ethan Moreau, the rumours behind his speed, and then the Riverbend situation.
And for some weird reason, she kept forgetting it.
Her mind flickered to Dylan. She checked the date that the note was saved. She had had dinner with him that night, but her mind went blank on what they did at dinner.
She always told him about work, so could she have told him? Was he the one that compelled her? Was he a vampire too?
Then yesterday, she wrote an article and felt like she forgot something. She didn't remember the details of what she forgot or if she even remembered what she forgot, but she remembered that Dylan's had picked her up, and she had told him about her day.
She always told him every detail.
Then there was him, trying to see through her notes.
Was it possible that yesterday she saw this same thing on her phone and told him that got some weird reason she forgot, and he compelled her to forget again?
Did he take the keyholder from her that night?
Why was he protecting Ethan? Or was he just protecting the identity of vampires.
Her hands began to shake over the keyboard. The idea of Dylan hiding something like this, something that big, pressed against every part of her.
Should she tell her editor? If she was wrong, she would sound unhinged. If she was right, she could be putting herself in danger.
She closed the laptop. The rest of the day passed in a blur.
When she clocked out, her phone buzzed.
I’ll pick you up in fifteen so we can grab dinner at our usual spot. Need to sort something at the club first.
It was Dylan. He had driven her to work this morning so she didn't have her car with her.
She stood outside the building until his car pulled up. When she slid into the passenger seat, she kept her eyes forward, her voice tight when she said hello.
Dylan glanced at her as he drove. “You okay?”
She didn’t answer.
He gripped the wheel a little harder. Something was off. Ivanna rarely stayed quiet this long. Had he missed something? Did she remember?
He replayed the last few nights in his head, every word, every look. Nothing obvious had slipped.
“Ivanna,” he said finally as they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. “what’s wrong?”
She said nothing but got out of the car, not waiting for him to open it like usual.
"Ivanna," he said again, stepping out too and holding her hand firmly. "Talk to me. Did I do something? Did something happen at work?"
"When were you going to stop lying to me?” she asked coldly.