Hasanything changed?
The kissing. That’s new. The wanting to kiss.
The looking at Baz and thinking about the way his hair falls in a lazy wave over his forehead…
Yeah, nope. I’ve thought about that before.
Baz is a vampire; that’s not news.
Baz is apparently the world’s most reluctant, least blood-sucking vampire—which is a bit of a surprise.
And also apparently the best-looking.(Now that I’ve seen a few.)
I want to kiss a bloke.Thatisa change, but not one I’m prepared to think about right now.
… Again.I want to kiss him again.
***
We park the car in an old barn that’s been converted into a garage, then go into the house through the kitchen door. Quietly. So we don’t wake anyone. “Are you hungry?” Baz asks.
“Yeah.”
He pokes around in the refrigerator. Just your typical teenage vampire, getting a midnight snack.
He shoves a casserole dish into my arms, then grabs some forks. “Milk?” he asks. “Coke?”
“Milk,” I say. I’m grinning, I can’t stop grinning. He puts the carton on top of the casserole, grabs some cloth napkins from the drawer, then heads back up to his room. It’s a struggle to keep up.
I wish I knew what he was thinking…
BAZ
I don’t know what I’m thinking.
SIMON
When we get up to his room, Baz turns on a lamp—the shade is dark red, so it doesn’t give out much light—and sits on the floor at the end of his bed, even though the room is full of comfortable things to sit on.
I sit down next to him, and he takes the casserole dish from me and casts a quick,“You’re getting warmer!”—then opens the lid. It’s shepherd’s pie.
“Do youneedto eat?” I ask. “Or do you just like it?”
“I need it,” he says, scooping up a bite, avoiding my eyes, “just not as much as other people do.”
“How do you know that you’re not immortal?”
He hands me a fork. “No more questions.”
We finish the shepherd’s pie, eating out of the bowl on Baz’s lap. He chews with his hand over his mouth. I try to remember whether I’ve ever seen him eat before… I finish the milk. He doesn’t want any.
When we’re done, he sets the dishes outside his door, then starts a fire in the fireplace with his wand.
I crawl over to sit next to him. “You’re a pyro,” I say.
He shrugs, staring into the fire.
“You’re not thinking about burning the house down, are you?”
