A Vampire's Life Book 5

Chapter 20

Jonah's study was a room that I had been in a lot since we had moved into the house, I had never really bothered to investigate it but had accepted it as it was and thought nothing more. He had never said anything about me being in the room, never worried when the maids cleaned it. It was like it was an ordinary room. So when I discovered that one of the bookshelves was in fact a swing door, I was suitably shocked. I had stared at the crack in the doorway for at least five minutes, wondering if I dared venture into the unknown. Jonah was off being ruler of the universe somewhere around the compound, I knew I could have hours alone with whatever laid ahead. But did I want to know? Was it a secret? Would I find something I wouldn't like? What if I found something that could potentially ruin our relationship? Did I truly dare walk over that little threshold? Of course I dared.

I pulled the bookshelf door back, the room beyond was dark. Running my hand over the wall I found the light switch, what it revealed was the most bizarre room I had ever seen. It was plain, not even painted, there was no windows, there was no flooring. Even the light in the room was just a bare bulb. All the room had in it was one small wood table and two chairs. Tentatively I walked over to the table, seeing it had something rectangle sitting in the centre. I looked down upon the cards, knowing exactly what this was, what its purpose was. This was his reading room; the cards were his phoenix cards. By the looks of the room I knew what the deal was. He had set it up because his mother would have insisted on it but he hadn't bothered with anything because he never used the cards. I had never seen him use the cards ever. In all the years that we had known each other, I hadn't ever seen them. I knew he had them but that was it. Picking them up, I counted them, there were twenty-three cards which was odd, there should be one more. I frowned as I looked around the room, wondering where the last card was. Was this why he never used the room, because he lost a card? Gently I placed them back as a pile and left the room, thinking about it. It was unlike Jonah to be so flippant with anything, regardless of what he thought about it. He would not have lost the card; it would be here somewhere.

I flopped back into the chair, flicking the edge of the arm rest as I stared at his desk. Clearly the card had meaning, for him to separate it like this, then something was different about it. My mother had told me about the reading that Miranda had done for her when it was discovered she was the second vampire from the prophecy. She had a past, present and future reading done. If Jonah had done this, was it one of these he was hiding? Was he hiding it or was he keeping it close? I sighed as I picked up the photo frame that sat beside the monitor. It was of us from a very long time ago, when we were teenagers and had been swimming. I smiled as I looked at the photo, even back then his love for me was obvious. Of course there was several of our siblings in the photos, his baby sisters covered in ice cream, my brothers fighting. The photo was old and had slipped inside the frame. Opening it up to fix it, I found the missing phoenix card. There it was taped to the back of the photo, the tape had browned and had lost its stickiness. The card was of a man and a woman, they represented Jonah and I. His arms were wrapped around me tight like he was protecting me, we stood on bloodied earth. He had written underneath it, like it was his life motto always protect her, never let her go.

As I wiped the tears away, I heard Jonah call out from the entry. I quickly fixed the photo back into the frame and righted myself as he walked past the study.

"Hey there gorgeous." he grinned "What have you been up to?"

"Not much."

I squealed as he lifted me over his shoulder and walked out of the study, heading for the stairs. As I stared at the ground from my terrible position, I understood why he was so worried for me. That card was a future card, he feared my death. Suddenly I didn't want to put myself in danger, suddenly I regretted every single time I had jumped the wall. Suddenly I wanted the cotton wool.

*************

I looked down at Jonah on his back, grinning like a mad man at me. His arms were stretched up under the pillows, the muscles in his arms flexed and so stunning. I ran my fingers over his chest and down the line that cut his abs, the soft definition that was perfect to me.

"Why did you stop the loving woman?"

I shrugged with a grin, biting my bottom lip. He sat up leaning back on his hands looking at me with his best mid sex serious face.

"Do you want something different?"

I shook my head watching my fingers as they continued to trail over his body.

"I like this."

"Me too." he grinned "I get to wrap my arms around you and hug you, kiss you, sink my fangs in."

He flashed those little fangs at me making me grin harder. "Love me baby."

His grasp dug deep into my hips, kissing me as I gripped his shoulders. Just as I began to move his phone rang, I looked at him with a slight scowl then to the phone that was vibrating on the night stand. With one very big sigh he laid back and grabbed his phone.

"It's Wil, let me deal with this and then we can get back to it."

I nodded and climbed off his lap, sitting on the bed and waiting patiently. Wil was the head guard and for him to call Jonah it meant that something was up.

"When?" he snapped "Yes, yes I'll be there in five minutes."

Jonah huffed as he tossed the phone to the bed, turning around to me.

"Ivy I have to go. Rogues are attacking again."

Giving him a sympathetic smile I accepted that early afternoon fun time was over. Jonah wasn't impressed, I could see the frustration on his face.

"Later, I promise." he leaned over and kissed me.

"I am going to hold you to that."

"Good, now get dressed. I'll send Muriel up."

"What! I don't need babysitting Jonah!"

He ignored me as he walked his gloriously naked body away from the bed, taking the cast off clothes with him. I pulled the sheet around me, following him to the robe.

"You don't trust me, do you?"

"Please Ivy don't do this to me, I just want to know you are safe. I have enough to deal with out there, I can't be worrying about you jumping the walls."

"This is my place too Jonah, you constantly seem to forget that. This is a partnership; this is our place. We direct this place together, not just you. You don't have to deal with this on your own."

I moved closer to him, tugging at his jacket.

"Please don't exclude me because you have a fear of me dying."

"I can't." his head hung slightly "I'm sorry but I can't."

He turned and left the robe, stopping at the main doors.

"Don't leave the house Ivy."

"No. You can't stop me, maybe you should trust me, maybe you should include me then there won't be all this drama."

"Ivy just stop!" he snapped.

The anger on his face was something I had never seen; I had pushed him too far.

"Do not leave this house or I will put a tracker in your body and trust me, you will never find it."

Jonah turned on his heels and stormed out of the room leaving me rather shocked.