No vampire shall ever reveal his true nature to a mortal and let the mortal live.It’s the first thing you learn when you take your oath to the Parliament of the Undead. That whole ceremony was so long and boring. I hadn’t paid attention when I took my oath, thinking only of my budding romance with Vlad.
Alba had paid the ultimate price. And I’d let it happen again—only this timeIhad done the killing directly, even if accidentally.
What had I done?
“Heaven!” I said louder, shaking her.
No response.
“No. No. Please, no,” I pleaded, a prayer to a god who had forsaken me. “Heaven, please wake up,” I whispered, desperate for her eyes to open or for her ashen lips to speak.
But then, my senses prickled. I smelled fresh blood. A faint trickle was oozing from her fang wounds. Her heart was still pumping. She was still alive.
“Thank God!” My skin sizzled briefly like a steak on a hot grill at the mention of His name. I groped around for my phone.
Mostly dead is slightly alivewas all I could think. Billy Crystal had done witchcraft on Cary Elwes to bring him back inThe Princess Bride, but that wasn’t an option for me. I also couldn’t call the paramedics. They would call the police, and I would go to jail. Heaven might be okay, but I’d be one hundred percent dead by sunup. And from the looks of her, she was too far gone for 911 anyway.
Vlad. Every fiber of my being wanted to call him. Vlad would be there for me. I knew that like I knew that the sun always rises.
And just like the sun, it was better for me to stay far, far away.
Sure, we texted almost every day, but it was always about little things. I left out all the parts where I wasn’t following the rules that every vampire was expected to live by, and he left out official vampire business. He knew on some level that I was struggling to get by, but he didn’t know just how bad it was.
I pushed down my worries and called him.
“I knew you’d change your mind about the MasterClass,” he said. In the background I could hear some History Channel bullshit. He was always arguing about how they were getting historical events wrong. Watching a history documentary with him was like watchingGrey’s Anatomywith a doctor.
“Or are you calling to wish your maker a happy Halloween? It’s Halloween, you know.”
When I didn’t answer his teasing with a clever retort, his tone went dark. “What is it?”
I looked at Heaven. She still wasn’t moving. I braced myself and said it all in a rush. “I don’t know what happened. I was drinking from my neighbor and I fell asleep. I think I almost completely drained her.”
“You killed her?”
“She probably only has a few minutes to live. How do I turn her?”
“I thought you were off humans. I’m glad to see you’ve changed your mind.”
“Vlad.”
“It’s unfortunate that you went too far, but I’m glad you’re feeding properly. You know you can’t get proper nutrients from stale blood. You’re starving yourself like some kind of American actress.”
Heaven’s false eyelashes lay like butterflies on her full cheeks. I didn’t have time for Vlad’s lectures.
I huffed out a frustrated breath. “This was an accident. Just tell me how to turn someone.”
The screen of the phone lit up.Would you accept a facetime from vlad the insufferable?
We hadn’t FaceTimed in forever. It was like Julia Roberts’s no-kissing-on-the-mouth rule inPretty Woman.We didn’t do IRL visits or video calls. I didn’t want to fall in love all over again. I couldn’t afford to.
Glancing over at Heaven, I hitAccept.
There he was, the same as ever. His dark brown hair curled at the edges,framing a beautiful face that never aged. His green eyes were fringed with long lashes that I’d always been jealous of. Full lips, a strong jaw, just enough stubble to make it look casual. I shut my eyes.He’s a good friend but a bad boyfriend. Whatever you do, don’t fall for him, Tiffenie.
He said, voice like butter, “Tiffenie. You look even more beautiful than the day I met you.”
“Enough flirting. Just help me.”
