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not
everything is what it seems, and you were left in that alley alone before you were attacked. Remember that, Paige, and
think long and hard on it.”
    She knew what he was trying to tell her, but
she couldn’t process it right now. She couldn’t bring herself to
believe the man she’d come to trust so much over the past year,
really would use her as bait. Couldn’t believe these last years of
her life may have revolved around a group who had as much regard
for her life as most vampires did. She had a few more important
things to worry about right now, she realized. She could think
about all of that when she wasn’t surrounded by a group of
bloodsuckers.
    Were they actually telling her the truth
right now? Vampires were monsters, but if they were telling the
truth then that meant Ian and his family had actually saved her
life and intended to return her to it. Was that possible for a
vampire to do?
    “Ian, it might be best if we remove all
memory of the attack from her mind,” Stefan suggested.
    Ian shook his head and folded his arms over
his chest. “No. She can go back, but I won’t allow her to be tossed
to the wolves. She has to have that memory, otherwise we’re sending
her back to die, and I would have put everyone at risk for nothing.
I won’t let that happen, and I won’t have her life be worth nothing
more than being used as vampire bait.”
    Everyone in the room stared at Ian before
turning to look at her. The thought of what was to come no longer
had her heart doing the can-can in her chest. Rather it was the
impassioned tone of his voice and his words. She didn’t know what
was up and what was down anymore, but she did know he meant what
he’d said.
    Stefan rested his hands on top of hers,
drawing her attention back to him. “Look at me.” His eyes burned
into hers. “You were mugged behind the bar. You were alone, you
don’t know how you got that way, but you do remember your friend
abandoning you there. A kind stranger saved you from your
attacker.”
    The soothing tone of his voice relaxed her,
despite her reservations about what he planned to do to her. She
could feel something niggling at the back of her mind, but just as
she’d been promised, she didn’t feel his power seeping inside to
twist her memories to something they were never meant to be. She
kept her face slack as he continued to speak.
    “He took you to a friend’s house near the
campus. They helped to clean you up and brought you where you
needed to be when you were feeling better. The name of the man who
rescued you is Mike.” There was a ripple in the hallway, one of the
blonds behind Ian muttered something, but she couldn’t make it out.
“You don’t remember much about his face because you hit your head.
You don’t remember anything about his friends. All you know is he
and his friends kept you safe. You never saw a vampire last night.
You will pick up with your life where you left off before the
attack.”
    Paige’s mind spun as she tried to process
what he said. He really was giving her memories that would explain
away what had happened last night, that would land her safely back
in her small hotel room near the college. He wasn’t even going to
take away her knowledge of vampires. They were going to leave her
to live her life. They really were unlike anything she’d ever
encountered before. She almost felt bad for pretending to agree
with Stefan, almost.
    Stefan took hold of her chin. She managed to
keep herself from flinching at the sudden contact with him. Ian
took a step forward, his forehead furrowed; his azure eyes were
troubled as they ran over her. Was she doing something wrong? Could
he tell it wasn’t working?
    Drawing on her training, she envisioned a
serene lake, rippling against the shore as she tried to keep her
breathing and pulse rate steady. She’d been taught how to play
along, instructed to keep herself as calm as possible, but she’d
never been confronted with the reality of having to do