Her lips are slightly parted as she sleeps, her raccoon next to her, a hand gripped in her hair, as he uses her breast for a pillow. I never thought I’d be more jealous of vermin.
She doesn’t have her guard up. Even when she wants to let go around me, she doesn’t fully let herself.
She said that she wants my honesty, that she wants to know the real me. I haven’t been a particularly honest man in a very long time, but I suppose for Ember to potentially like me, for her to want to stay with me and not run away once there’s no longer imminent danger, it’s what I’ll have to do.
The thought that there won’t always be some danger is ridiculous. Ember is mortal, though her lifespan is longer than humans, it doesn’t seem long enough. I will give her the tools to make herself more powerful. I’ll protect her with my last breath—well, not breath I can’t breathe—with my last moments on this earth I vow them to Ember’s safety.
Now, to become a man she would entrust with her wellbeing.
I push a piece of her strawberry hair off her face, a smile taking over her face as she sleeps. I’m greedy with my touch, as I glide my fingertip over her freckle-covered cheekbones.
“I am yours, even if you never let me have you. You are everything to me,” I whisper, and she doesn’t stir.
However, her raccoon’s beady eyes are staring right into my soul. I stare right back until Ember mumbles and blinks her eyes open.
My ego inflates tenfold when she doesn’t startle at my presence on the bed.
“How does brunch sound?” I ask cheerfully and Ember drags a hand down her face.
“It’s daytime and you don’t eat food.”
“I see no issue with either of those things.”
She squints at me. “You can go out in the sun?”
I hand her my sunglasses. “The best money can buy.”
She puts them on her face and moves her head around. “How can you even see with these on?”
“Vampire vision. The suit and umbrella are also made with anti-UV material.”
“Like your windows?”
I tilt my head. “Who told you about the windows?”
She grimaces. “Conner.”
I make a noise in the back of my throat. I haven’t forgotten he needs to be murdered. It’s definitely a setback in being a better man, but Ember doesn’t need to know everything.
“Imported from Japan. There’s a vampire there that’s rumored to be from the Yamato period. Who knows how true that is, but he invented the material, so he could see the outdoors during the day and he makes a fortune selling his inventions to other vampires.”
She rubs the material between her fingers. It’s thicker than a usual suit, and would probably send a human in Louisiana right into heat stroke.
“Isn’t it still dangerous?”
“Yes, but worth it. Now put on your pretty dress and I need you to cast a little spell so my unwelcome houseguests don’t question our whereabouts.”
I pull out the black leather grimoire and flip to the page for sleep paralysis in vampires. Granted if any of them are awake, this will be difficult.
“It’s very odd that you keep giving me spells to hurt you,” she says.
“Yet the only thing you’ve hurt me with are items from my own bookshelf.”
She winces at the reminder and takes the grimoire into the bathroom to get changed.
The raccoon lies on my bed, arms crossed, staring at me like I owe him money.
“Can I help you with something? Perhaps I should have some popcorn brought up?”
