Desi brought his hand up as if he was going to slap him but then stopped himself. The man was cowering under Desi’s frame. My vampire boyfriend sighed and dropped his hand. He looked at me, his eyes suddenly tired.
“I love you, but I really need this wrapped up. I was serious about taking you dancing.”
My heart melted as he reached for my hand and squeezed.
“Finish this.” Desi pulled his knife back out and offered it to me. I reached for it with slightly shaky hands. He locked eyes with me. They were hard and demanding. We stared at each other for a long moment before he blinked and quickly left the room. The man in the chair screamed as the door opened and shut,but it was useless. Between the music and the distance from the hall to this office, he wouldn’t be heard.
“Why did he leave? Is he going to get more people? Who told you about me? You can’t just kill me!” He screamed in my face.
“Was he telling the truth? Are you abusing her? The bride?” My mind went back to the ceremony. The human couple was so young and looked so happy. She didn’t look like a victim. Tears began to well in my eyes,and my chin quivered. How could he do something so vile to someone like that?
“Is that blood? You guys cry blood? Jesus Christ, that’s fucking horrible.”
I grittedmy teeth and wiped away the small line of blood that had managed to fall from my eyes. I glared at him. He flinched, and I saw his Adam’s apple dip.
“Have you never met a vampire before?” I tilted my head curiously at him.
He snorted. “Why would I be stupid enough to intermingle with your kind?”
I blinked. “My kind?”
“Monsters,” he spat.
Well,isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?
I ran my tongue across my fangs and extended my hand to him. I was done trying to argue with myself over right and wrong. “Draw the final card to determine your future.”
There was a long moment where no one moved. I held firm. Desi’s hardened eyes and words of confidence flashed over and over in my mind.
I tapped my heel,and it made him jump. He grabbed a card and handed it to me. I took it, looked at it, and laughed.
“What? What does that mean?”
I flicked the card around with my fingers to show him.
The Fool
“It means you’re gonna learn today.”
With the speed that comes from being a vampire, an immortal with no fucks to give and the strength to do whatever I wanted, I flicked open the knife. I reached out, slicing his neck from shoulder to shoulder. His eyes went wide with shock as blood began spitting from his neck. He coughed,and I blanched as his blood flung across my face, hitting my icy cheeks.
I turned my head and stood up straight. He continued to struggle for a moment before going limp. A moment later, the door opened,and Desi returned. He brushed off his dress jacket and looked up at me. I blinked rapidly, and he raised his eyebrows and grinned.
“Is it weird that I find you incredibly attractive—covered in blood?”
I looked back at the dead man slumped over in the chair. I kicked him,and he fell over with a thump. Desi started slowly and carefully toward me, stepping over the random blood spots. He was grinning at me, his fangs bared and his eyes wide.
Each step he took,I matched, movingbackward. I bumped into the desk,and in a flash,he was pushing his body, hard and ready, against mine. He brought his hand up to tilt my chin toward him.
I leaned toward him, and before our lips met,I smiled and whispered to him.
“I think it’d be weird if you didn’t.”
2
“When we first met, I thought you were incredible. Now, you’re fucking glorious.” Desi pushed the skirt of my dress up. The layers of Chantilly lace bunched up at my hips as he urged me to spread my legs. He continued assaulting my bare skin, some of it covered in the human’s blood, with kisses. He licked my collarbone and drug his tongue up my neck. I shivered and leaned into it.
I closed my eyes and reveled in the teasing he was so good at. He used his hands, mouth, and words to show me exactly what he wanted.
