“Uh…I’ve never tasted our blood. I mean, besides mine, sucking on a paper cut.”
“And did you everwantto slake with the blood of a vampire? Cool straight out of the vein? Totally different taste?”
The very idea was gross. “Of course not.”
“Okay, and how about the prey drive? Have you ever, in your entire life, looked at one of our kind and wanted to hunt and take?”
He’d never put it together, but the answer was easy, obvious now that Peter asked the question, got Tai out of his own scared head. “You know I haven’t.”
“Yes, I do. I also personally know two couples just like you and Claire—one a bloodfiend, one not. Bloodbound for decades now. I wish this topic had come up sooner, so I could put your mind at ease, but I didn’t realize how you might be thinking of it. Should’ve brought it up myself, huh.”
Tai dropped to his knees as yet another wave of overwhelm crashed down on him. Too many to count tonight. “It would kill me, Peter. If I lost control and hurt her, it would kill me.”
“Of course it would, because she’s yours, and you’re hers. But you’re not going to lose control.”
“Oh.” He’d lost the rest of his words.
“You don’t need to be afraid, Tai. You can set that fear down and never pick it up again.”
“Oh.”
And just like that, he was crying. Tears came too easily lately, ever since he’d wept his soul inside out at the overlook. The possibility that he could be bound to Claire, their souls beating together for as long as they lived… The relief from the shamethat they couldn’t be bound because of him… But there was more too. There was a raw wound inside him, long scarred and calloused, tonight torn open and throbbing.
“Tai?”
He swiped the tears from his cheeks, got up and retrieved the blankets, bundled up again. “Sorry. It’s a lot.”
“She hurt you.”
“She has trust issues for a reason.”
“I don’t doubt it, but she still hurt you. Both things can be true, you know. Are you interested in a wise relic’s relationship advice?”
Tai laughed through the last of his tears. “I’d love some.”
“Talk through that hurt before you go forward. Don’t brush it off because you’ve got the solution. Also? Don’t place your bite before you’re ready. If you’re doing it only because of her fear, you’re not ready, and neither is Claire.”
“Well…shoot, Peter. You’re basically the wise old mentor from every epic movie.”
Peter gave a theatrical hiss that melted into laughter. “Take that back before the universe hears you.”
“What? Why?”
“Those guys always get killed off.”
Twenty-Seven
From the time she pulled out of the guest lot at Tai’s penthouse until the sun came up a few hours later, Claire didn’t breathe.
She tried to be angry with him, the way she used to be. Gather enough ire around herself, and it could be her armor, protection against the threat of her heart cracking down the middle. But she knew Tai too well, loved him too much. He wasn’t detached, arrogant, deceptive. He was the opposite of all those things, and for him to say he couldn’t ever be bloodbound to her… He believed it. He was denying both of them, not only Claire. And he was hurt by it too. The pain in his eyes while they fought had been the worst thing she’d ever seen, because she was causing it. She knew in the midst of her panic that she was wounding him as well as herself.
But she couldn’t do anything about it. Couldn’t change that he was saying no. That his no was final this time. She curled up in the middle of her bed, on top of the covers.
“He won’t do this one thing,” she whispered. “What if we’re together ten years and he leaves me? What if he leaves me? I just need him not to leave me, I just need this one thing.”
Her phone was buzzing. She ignored it for a while, then slowly pushed up on her bed and scooped up her phone from her purse, which she’d dropped on the floor hours ago. Her club dress was rumpled now. She tapped her phone screen to get to the text.
Philippa:Meet Lavender.
