“Wait!” I say quickly, not wanting him to go into the safe just yet. I know without a doubt once he opens it, he’ll know I snooped. “Let me wake up first, maybe we could watch a movie.”
“Alright,” he says, grabbing a remote from his nightstand and a massive projector comes out of the ceiling.
“You mean I could have been watching my shows on a projector this whole time?”Gus complains.
I ignore him as Warin looks down at his clothes.
“Just a moment,” he says.
Again, with his vampire speed, one minute he’s in a suit and the next he’s shirtless and in sweatpants, and crawling into bed with me to watch a movie.
I glance over at him and clear my throat. He just smiles, and I can feel my cheeks heat.
Sure, we’ve slept in the same bed, but this feels different. It feels so easily domestic in a way that shouldn’t be possible.
“What should we watch?” he asks, handing me the remote.
“Twilight?” I jokingly ask and he glares at me.
“Really?” he questions, his brows furrowed, like he’d really watch it if I wanted to. I can’t help but to laugh, and his face transforms into something softer as he looks at me.
His gaze goes down to my lips and it’s so similar to what happened the other night. I feel my walls crumbling, logic about our situation falling away.
As badly as I want to kiss him right now, I know I can’t, not until he tells me the truth.
There’s something more here, and I just can’t put my finger on it.
Instead of leaning forward and kissing him, I plop back down on the pillows, flicking through the remote and finding a neutral show for us to watch.
Gus plays Animal Crossing on the Switch and the whole time we watch the movie, it’s like my body is on fire. I keep getting closer and closer to him.
At some point, my side touches his, and neither of us says a word, watching the movie in silence. I want to reach out, interlace our fingers together to see what it would feel like, but when I look over at Warin, I realize he’s fast asleep.
I shouldn’t do it, but he doesn’t move as I grip his cool hand in mine. My finger throbs and I make a promise to myself to figure out the truth.
Why does this vampire have such a visceral effect on me, and why do I love it so much?
Chapter 21
Exhaustion fills me as I finally make it back into my room after another fruitless night of searching for the Slayer. It’s truly like he disappeared out of thin air.
If I was fully fed I wouldn’t feel this tired, but without sustenance I feel sluggish. Regardless, I have a plan for the day and I refuse to have my witch sad and displeased in my room another day.
I send a text to Samantha and Achille confirming that everything is organized for our day trip.
The council doesn’t need to know what we do in the daytime and I may just ask another spell of my witch. I want to make her happy, and I know right now, the thing that would make her the happiest is getting out of the house.
She sleeps soundly as I enter the bedroom, and I don’t disturb her as I go to my closet and open the safe.
The mechanism whirls, and when I slide the door open, I tilt my head. One of the spines of the grimoires is misaligned.
It seems Ember did more snooping than I realized. That means she knows, or at least suspects, that this obsession with her has lasted far longer than she ever imagined. She didn’tconfront me, either, even when we were exchanging secrets, or when I stayed up with her all day.
I’ve been sensing that maybe this magic between us isn’t as one sided as it originally seemed. A vampire can dream.
With the grimoire I need in hand, I dress in one of my most expensive suits, grabbing gloves, glasses, a hat, and my largest umbrella on hand. All of them are the best money can buy.
I take the liberty of setting out a pink sundress for Ember and I sit on the bed, waiting for her to wake from her sleep.
