“Then he, uhm, he and Elijah showed me some stuff that I don’t really want to talk about with you, and that was that.” She tilts her head to the side and gives me a forced smile.
“Some things.”
“You said you didn’t want to have that conversation with me, Ezra.”
Liz reaches out and pats my chest reassuringly. “If there’s someone you want to tell about what you are, then just tell them. If they don’t believe you, then they’re not worth your time. It’s just like any other thing in life. You either trust the people you’re with or you don’t.”
“Telling someone I’m dead is a lot different than telling someone I like pineapple on pizza.”
“Ew. You do?”
I roll my eyes and pull the door open. “Thanks for the talk, Liz. Be safe.”
She smirks and turns on her heel, then takes off up the stairs after Diah and Elijah. I lock the door behind me and head toward the street. I don’t know why I’m going to Coven. Declan is going to be there, and I shouldn’t be chasing after him, but I don’t know how to not.
It’s been a week since I saw him and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how hot his skin was, how strong his heart is, and more importantly, the way I feel when he looks at me. I haven’t felt that way in longer than I can remember. Maybe not since before I was turned, and I wonder what it would feel like for him to look at me that way forever.
It’s a silly dream because, once Declan knows about me, I’m not going to have a forever. I’m going to get a goodbye and the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement as he hauls ass away from me. Even if he doesn’t believe me when I tell him what I am, he’ll think I’m crazy and that will be enough to push him away.
I hate that it’s so hard for me to be who I am. To do what I’m supposed to do. William and Birdie didn’t ask me if I wanted to be a vampire. They just took me to bed and said let’s be like this forever, and then they made me come and bled me out. I didn’t think they’d really meantforeverforever. I thought it was a heat of the moment thing, but I understand now—vampires are nothing if not literal.
Coven is a block away and the deep thrum of the music vibrates into the air. I can feel it in my bones and my skin prickles with anticipation. Declan is there already. I could pick his smell out in a crowd of thousands if I concentrated hard enough. Tonight it’s only a hundred or so, and he smells like Christmas, with that smoke wrapped all around like a ribbon for me to untie.
I want to take Declan someplace quiet, where the only sound is the rush of his blood and I want to taste him in more ways than one. I just hope he’ll let me.
I didn’t mean for this to happen
“I knew you’d come.”
I let Declan think he’s snuck up on me. His fingertips dance along the small of my back and I turn to face him. He’s painfully close, and I can tell he’s just come in from having a smoke. “I couldn’t stay away.”
He smiles and hooks his fingers into the waistband of my jeans.
“We should get out of here. Go somewhere quieter.”
I nod, and he drags me back through the crowd of people and into the alley where he sucked me off the weekend before. He hasn’t come tonight, today…I inhale the smell of him. All week. He hasn’t come since it was in my hand.
“Where do you live?” I ask him, knowing it’s dangerous to venture too far away from home this late in the night.
“Other end of town.” He jerks his head in the opposite direction of my house. “I have a little studio down by the tracks.”
I scoff. “I thought you said I lived on the wrong side of the tracks.”
He looks over my shoulder in the direction of the estate before flicking his eyes back to mine. “You do. Let’s go.”
I follow him to his car, a late model sedan of some kind, and he drives us about ten minutes away, before pulling into a parking spot under an unsecure looking awning.
“Home, sweet home.” He unbuckles and gets out of the car, stretching and revealing a pale strip of skin just above the band of his underwear. I follow him up the stairs to a beat-up door with the number3on it. He opens it and I shuffle my feet on his doormat.
“You coming in?” he asks, holding his arm out.
I look into his place. It is small. A studio I think, and I can see his bed tucked into the corner beside a sliding glass door and a small balcony.
“You want me to?”
“Come in, Ezra,” Declan says, his voice a little rougher than normal.
I step inside and push his door closed behind me.
