I frown.Is that…is that bad, you think?
I think it’s just another mind game. He’s got motives that run well beyond the ones in plain sight. But you don’t need to worry. I’ll be fine. In fact, this is helpful—might even aid in my plans.
Okay. I’m just…eating breakfast. My stomach is anxious, but I figured I’d better eat.
Yes. Please. I need you strong and healthy today. But this is almost over. I promise. And then you can ignore breakfast as long as you like.
I smile.I don’t think I’ll mind eating if you’re the one feeding me.
And I will, Romy. My purpose from here until eternity is to lavish you with care and affection and respect and love and pretty much anything you ever want or need me to do. And fuck me, sweetheart, I’m thankful for the privilege.
I blush.Okay, sweet talker. Focus on the meeting with your uncle and flirt with me later.
You got it. I’ll try not to think about how fucking delicious your pussy tasted last night too much.
Cal!
His laughter fills my head.Don’t worry, Romy. Go about your day with as little anxiety as you can. I’ll take care of everything.
Goodness, talk about a green-flag man. Well,vampire-man.
Cal, whatever the opposite of weaponized incompetence is, I’m pretty sure you have it.
Eat, love. Goodbye for now. I’ll reach out when I can, but if you need me, you know I’m here.
Okay. Bye.Nerves dance in my stomach over words that shouldn’t come this easily. Still, I say them. I want to. And Romy Spencer is not a coward.I love you.
Oh, you have no idea how much I fucking love you, Romy. But you will. It’s my goal that, for the rest of our fucking lives, you will.
Cal
“Calloway,” my uncle greets, opening the door with what’s becoming a signature smirk as soon as my communication with Romy comes to a close.
Honestly, it’s giving a certain feeling of timing that’s beyond coincidental, but it doesn’t matter. I need this meeting just as much as he does. I need the time, information—I need my uncle keeping me around until tonight.
“Come in.” He gestures with his hand. “Or would you rather continue lingering out here in the hall for a while longer?”
Ignoring the prod, I step inside the office and wave off the lingering cigar smoke. The source is still between his fingers, and as he closes the door behind me and offers me a seat in the leather high-back chair across from his, he takes another puff.
“Would you like to smoke?” he asks.
“No, thank you.” I shake my head, taking the offered seat, crossing my heel across my knee, and steepling my fingers together instead. “I’m not much for cigars at nine a.m.”
He chuckles, reclaiming the seat across from me that’s closest to the fireplace. There’s a bar set with amber liquid on a cart along the wall, a book, open and overturned on the table beside him to keep his place, and pictures from all over the world of him and his consorts.
He looks at home here—in this office, and now that I think of it, all over the grounds—more so than any of the other vampires, and it makes me wonder if this place isn’t just owned by the Council, but him.
“I find cigars enjoyable at all hours, myself,” he muses. “After all, what is morning to a vampire? The sun never sets on our day.”
I shrug, conceding the point. It’s fucking bullshit small talk, and frankly, it’s taking everything in me to sit through it. But logically, he’s right. Humans follow the sun like a clock, but to us, all the hours are the same.
I make the first move, claiming the upper hand right out of the gate and addressing some long-weighing questions from my mind. “Speaking of vampires, Uncle, I find the group here interesting for many, many reasons. One of which is the way not one of them besides you seems pleased or accepting of my presence. Why is that? The Council itself has barely paid me any mind, and your brothers would much rather see me dead.”
He smiles, pleased with himself and his answer as he delivers it. “They didn’t want you here. Frankly, they don’t. But I’ve earned my place, and my judgment is trusted.”
“Okay, then,” I hedge. “Why doyouwant me here?”
“Before your arrival?” he clarifies. “I wanted you here because it’s what’s right. They don’t have to like you for you to be of thefourth order of blood, Calloway. You deserve proper placement. The species deserves the continuation of the fourth line.”
