All he was thinking about right now was how much pain and effort McCarteney, fine, Stella had to endure to naturally stay out of people's minds. God he was glad uncle Matthew wasn't reading his mind right now, which brought Den back to what had started this whole manipulator topic.
"Why were you laughing?" Den asked, turning a little pink at the ears and not looking at his uncle. Why on earth did he feel like he was back in high school trying to talk to his first ever crush? God that was an embarrassing memory.
Mr. Cecil shrugged as a smile touched his lips. "It was funny how we were standing in front of your parents throwing out thinly veiled threats, and your mind was somehow stuck on how to adress Stella."
Den jutted out his chin and decided not to dignify that with a response. He was glad they reached their destination in the next couple of minutes.
The two vampires stopped in front of a huge building which looked like a church from a very old horror movie, as Stella would have liked to describe it and ran a hand through their hairs to make sure they were fine.
Den chuckled upon thinking how bristled McCarteney always got after running with him. With his hair falling easily back into place and hers looking like she had just wrestled a grizzly bear.
"What are you smiling about?" Mr. Cecil asked, raising an eyebrow. Den shook his head as the two headed in, glad that uncle had decided to stop reading his mind after all.
"You are absolutely sure that this girl has not been turned?" Den looked up upon hearing the question for the upteemth time. He clenched his jaw to prevent himself from grounding his teeth, or worse, from growling, which was sure to be heard by each and every vampire present in the hall. And you just didn't growl at the vampires from the council, it was a pretty much one way trip to hell if you did.
"Yes we are absolutely sure sire. Her heartbeat is still human, as Darius had already told you." Mr. Cecil came to Den's rescue, definitely reading his violent thoughts.
Den realised with a start that if his uncle could do it, then obviously the manipulators of the council could read his mind. He was just a fighter after all.
And surely enough, every manipulator in the room had narrowed their eyes at his thoughts.
Den did his best to clear his head of all the natural thoughts and feelings he had towards this particular group of people as someone else spoke, "Well then this is most uncommon, to put it mildly. We shall need to see this human for ourselves then."
Den's head snapped at the raised altar upon hearing this. They wanted to meet Stella? His eyes wandered around the whole church as he did his best to keep all thoughts out of his mind. The steps right in front of him led to a huge raised altar, on which sat seven very old looking vampires.
The one who had spoken right now sat on the second from the left and Den knew him to be the youngest member of the council, Landon Wreath.