Though I wasn’t sure what to think of lingerie as a gift after the first date, not that sleeping on the first date was my usual habit. I tugged the ribbon free. The wrapping alone looked expensive enough to cause financial anxiety; I was already determined I had to give this back, and I hadn’t even seen it. I lifted the lid while holding my breath, curiosity sizzling through my veins. Inside, white tissue paper cupped something soft, delicate, and unmistakably lacy.
Yup, this was lingerie, I knew it! Jade-colored, deep and rich and elegant. I barked out a surprised laugh. “Of course. Of course he did. Man shreds my bra like it’s tissue paper and replaces it with… this.” It was beautiful, expensive, and I could tell at a glance that it was the right size. Everything about it screamed, I picked this while imagining you wearing it.“I can’t,” I whispered. “This is too much.”
You should at least try it on,Belfry said.He’ll want to know if he at least guessed correctly about the fit.I shot Belfry a look, incredulous. Did he, now? I wasn’t sure what to think of a man who knew how to find the right bra that easily. Most men I knew got utterly lost in the underwear department. Frankly, picking the right bra was hard for me too, those things sucked.
My eyes went to the flutters of silk and tissue paper, and I simply couldn’t resist. Fine. One look, maybe I’d try it on. It would probably feel like a medieval torture device to wear anyway; all the pretty bras usually did. I’d feel justified in rejecting a gift this expensive after that, although the pretty lace was already tempting me to keep it. What could it hurt, I wondered?
I lifted the jade lace and silk from the box with reverent hands; it was incredibly soft but not as fragile as it looked. Something thinand flat slid from the bottom of the box, landing on the sheets with a soft thump; a jewelry box. “Oh no.” My voice cracked when I saw it. “No, no, no…” For a brief moment, I struggled to parse what I’d seen, but the box was flat and square; not a ring, a bracelet.
Against all better judgment, I opened it. The bracelet inside was gold, delicate, and impossibly fine. Tiny jade stones glimmered like cat eyes, mysterious and wise. I’d never even touched something this pretty before, let alone imagined owning it. “I can’t take this,” I breathed. It was one thing to receive a gift of expensive lace after that night of lovemaking, but this? It felt like a declaration of love or worse, ownership.
Why not?Belfry asked, he sounded genuinely confused, his little bat brain struggling to grasp why I’d even contemplate such a thing.This is pocket change for Luther. And what’s his is yours now anyway, since you’re mated.He added that so casually, but it sounded suspiciously like marriage. Was he crazy?
“M-mated?” I sputtered. “Sleeping together does not equal eternal vows, Belfry.” I gazed helplessly at the tangled sheets that still smelled like sex and him. My body betrayed me then with a flash of heat as it recalled the intense orgasms, the breathless kisses, and the tender surrender.
Actually, it does,Belfry said firmly. He’d climbed onto the edge of the open lingerie box, awkwardly clinging with wings and claws. Then he tumbled into the tissue paper with a hiss, swimming through it with flaps of his wings to reach the other side. The clumsy struggle briefly distracted me from the mounting panic in my chest. I reached out to pick him up from the tissue and put him on the sheets next to my knee.
“No, it…” I began to protest again, certain I had to be dealing with a bat-to-human cultural misunderstanding. Actually, I couldn’t recall if bats mated for life, but that would explain this weird assumption on his end. I drew in a relieved breath, yeah, that was it. This was just a bracelet, an over-the-top, extravagant gift coming from an over-the-top, extravagant man. That was all.
The bat pointed a wing toward my ribs, still covered by the sheet I had pinned beneath my arms over my chest. I looked, confused, and saw nothing but the nap of the fabric, the luxurious pale cream color. No, that wasn’t all. Something glowed faintly through the fabric, and as if burned, I dropped the sheet and squawked in shock. “What the…”
Faint lines of glowing silver curled across my skin, elegant, swirling, like stardust lines in motion. It was a tattoo in glowing, living ink: ethereal and unreal—magic, the way Belfry’s ability to talk was, and Luther’s supposed vampirism. It was beautiful, and it was like looking at someone else’s skin; it wasn’t me. “What… what is that?” I whispered, my hand brushing along the soft swirls and starlight sparkles, testing that they were real. They did not brush off; this wasn’t paint or ink.
Your soulmate mark, because you are now mated,Belfry said gently.True soulmates are very rare, you are lucky. Congratulations, Jade.He placed his wing on my knee, a gentle offer of reassurance, his eyes bright and earnest as he looked at me.
My vision wobbled. “Oh,” I managed, weakly. “I think I’m going to faint.”
Chapter 21
Jade
I took my time in the bathroom, partly because I needed a minute to absorb the fact that Luther was apparently my… mate. Partly because I was wearing the green silk lingerie, the one he’d left for me, and I was trying very, very hard not to admit how much I liked it. It fit perfectly—too perfectly—like it had been commissioned with a measuring tape and sorcery. It was comfortable, too, damn it, offensively so.
“Fine,” I muttered to my reflection, tugging the matching underwear a little higher on my hip. “I’ll count it as a replacement for the bra he murdered. I’ll accept that much.” But as I slipped back into yesterday’s jeans and shirt, my gaze kept flicking, traitorously, to the shimmering, moonlit pattern curling along my ribs. The soulmate mark,mysoulmate mark. Nope, I was not thinking about that, not until after I had some caffeine.
The bracelet box sat accusingly on the counter, lid shut tight. I still refused to put the thing on, but I couldn’t seem to leave it behind, either. I carried it with me when I left the bathroom, cradling it like fragile evidence in a murder case. Belfry hovered near the ceiling, tiny wings flapping. You look lovely, he said brightly. Perhaps he was kindly choosing to ignore the utterly harried look I knew I was wearing.
Mates, marriage, true love, it didn’t come gift-wrapped in a vampire package. This couldn’t be happening. I felt like I was back on that ledge, wondering whether I was having a mental breakdown. The only solution at a time like this was a fact-finding mission, so I turned to Belfry. “Explain,” I said, pointing at my ribs. “All of it. Now.”
The bat flitted ahead of me to the kitchen nook, finding an upside-down perch dangling from an overhead rack of pots and pans.Oh! The mating thing? Easy,he began, like it was nothing, like we were just making small talk. My hands went to my sides, to my ribs, and to the edges of the jade lace I could feel against my skin.Supernaturals like Luther recognize their soulmate instantly. And when both people, you know, do what you two did, it seals the bond. Mated for life.
“For life?” I echoed, my voice rising sharply in pitch again. I’d nearly fainted earlier, before I’d made my escape to the bathroom. Now it felt close to happening again. “Life-life? Eternal vows? That sort of thing?” I stood blinking, gaping in the shadowed kitchen at a dangling bat wearing a dapper red vest and a gold chain around his neck. My life was bizarre, utterly crazy. I needed to call Maggie again; she’d get a kick out of this, except… she wouldn’t believe me. Perhaps I needed to talk to Gwen instead. She lived here; surely she knew?
Belfry tapped a wing against a pan, creating a gentle chiming noise that was surprisingly soothing. It made me yank my eyes up to him and stare at him expectantly.Exactly!Belfry beamed.Only, it never actually happens. Almost never. But it did! For you! You’re the sixth!
“Sixth! Sixth what, exactly? Sixth girlfriend he’s pulled this on? Sixth eternal bride? Sixth…” I sputtered, struggling to find words for the mounting outrage that filled me. I had thought he really was trying to make me feel special, but no, this was just acreepy trick. Betrayed by his bat companion. My fingers curled tight around the box with the bracelet.
His tiny face went horrified, and I drew in a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down.NO! Six couples in town! Luther does not have a harem!He had no clue how incredibly relieved I was to hear that statement. Phew, okay, no other brides waiting around. That still left me with the problem of supposedly having attached myself, eternally, to a vampire without my knowledge. My memory vaguely stirred with a thing he’d said, something I thought was just the heat of passion: There is no going back from this. I didn’t realize he meant that literally.
He’s like, eternally lonely, all the time,Belfry said, unaware of the sudden revelation I had about last night.No, you and he are the sixth couple, and that’s a really big deal. Jackson and Gwen are soulmates too, obviously.
I blinked hard and tried to put that in perspective. It actually made sense. They were so in love with each other that it felt like they’d been together forever, and at the same time, they were still stuck in that honeymoon phase. “Gwen did call Jackson her mate by accident,” I recalled aloud. It had been such a weird mistake to make that I’d pondered it for quite some time.
Not an accident,Belfry chirped helpfully.Just a slip.Okay, but… I was pretty sure that Gwen was human, like me. Did that mean Jackson was a vampire, too? I tried to picture the blond-haired, straight-laced sheriff as such and simply couldn’t. Luther was so elegant and sophisticated, while Jackson had something feral slumbering beneath the civil façade.
I sat heavily on the edge of the nearest chair. My brain tried to organize the last twenty-four hours: vampire, talking bat, soulmate marks, expensive gifts, eternal bonds… and passion so intense I still felt the throb of it between my thighs. “Okay,” I said faintly. “I need… food. Something edible. Something normal.”
Within minutes, I was rummaging through Luther’s kitchen cabinets while Belfry offered extremely unhelpful commentary about which cereal paired best with immortal angst. I kept trying to pry out of him where Luther had actually gone, but Belfry remained suspiciously tight-lipped. He’ll be back, was all he’d say, far too cheerfully. It was beginning to get on my nerves. The bat was not the best at explaining anything, I needed someone more solid to explain all this to me.
