Wishing you a pleasant All Souls,
Monsieur L. Landry
My heartbeat pounded behind my left eye. The small slip of parchment tucked into the letter bore the address of what I assumed was one of the many gambling dens littering the outer city. I’d been sending my family almost my entire paycheck as soon as it got to my hands. Thousands ofoyistaa month now that Eamon paid for full nights even when he did not call on me—something we’d argued about a number of times. With the rent now split three ways between myself, Lilith, and Noah, I’d been sure the debts would be paid off easily.
No doubt I’d be receiving another letter from my mother expressing her concern for my brother’s health and the “doctors’ bills” that needed paying.
Lilith wandered into the bedroom, a small silver box in one hand and parchment in the other. Her brows were pinched, lips working as she read. I rubbed my eyes and tucked away the scroll before she could see.
“What is it?”
She passed me the letter. Callum’s handwriting was beautiful, as it was with every note he sent. My cheeks heated at the intimacy and desperation clinging to each word. A small pang rippled through my heart—once Eamon had been this wanting for me, and I had doused any flame he’d held with my fear.
I handed her back the correspondence. “His desperation is…tangible. What did he send you?”
Lilith traced the ink with the tip of one finger, her expression distant while she sat on her bed. When she didn’t respond I sat up and leaned forward. “Lilith?”
She lifted her head, brows ticked up. “Hm?”
I gestured toward the black box in her lap. “What did he send you, love?”
It was hard to believe sometimes that it had only been a year since we’d lost Jules. In many ways it felt like a lifetime—like Lilith had moved into the apartment centuries ago. After the pyre had been nothing but embers and I’d returned to the apartment from my walk through the city with Eamon, she’d arrived on our doorstep, sobbing unintelligibly. Noah had carried her into the house and it had taken us a full hour to get her calm enough to tell us what happened.
The vampire Jules and Solange had sold the townhome to had evicted Lilith. She’d been given only minutes to gather her belongings before she was shoved through the front door while the downstairs tenants watched from the window. Noahhad held me back from storming over there, reminding me it was daylight and the vampire would have found his rest. Though it had been almost a year since that night, it didn’t stop me from daydreaming about finding the male and setting him aflame.
The only consolation we had was that Eamon swore he was working on a solution—a solution I was almost positive lay in the hands of the male currently courting Lilith.
She opened the box, drew out a small silver phial full of deep red liquid and stoppered with wax. “Merciful fucking goddess…”
My mouth dropped open, another pang hollowing out my chest. “Is that…”
Lilith nodded. “His blood.”
The phial disappeared in her grip, knuckles bleached white with the tension. Her shoulders hiked to her ears while she squeezed her eyes shut as if she could blot out the world. But I could only stare at the place where it was hidden, the offering Callum had made to her.
“I cannot do this,” she rasped.
With a jolt, I jumped forward to shake her shoulders. “What? Why not?”
“Because we don’t know what will happen if I drink his blood, Adrienne! And who knows who this immortal is? Do I want to give him this unlimited access to me? To my body?”
My hands slipped back into my lap.Unlimited access…If I could do it all again, I would have given Eamon unlimited access to me. I would have pushed my fears aside and hoped he would guard my heart. But those first few months after Jules died, we all were shells of ourselves learning how to live in this new life. Lilith threw herself right into running Risqeu and I felt it was my job to be right there beside her, wiping her tears and picking her up when she crumbled. And in that time, the fear festered like an infected wound, scarringaround my heart until there was nowhere Eamon could reach.
I did not know how to make my way back to him. Every night I wondered if it would be our last, if the fascination he held for me would finally wane or if he would find another blood mate. Countless times I’d considered telling him about my family, about my mother and her mates who had abandoned her. But the shame I carried for my family ran so deep I often never even admitted it to myself.
Lilith’s fingers skated across my arm. “What is it?”
My chest ached with my next breath. “If you drink…you will feel what he feels. His heartbeat. His desire. His longing. And he will feel yours.”
She squeezed my hand. “Oh, Adrienne.”
My lips rolled together and I shook my head. “I have not done it, Lilith…though he has offered many times. Enough that I fear that he will not offer again.”
I could barely get out the last words—I whispered them in fear the goddess might hear and make it truth. My eyes stung and I sniffed while Lilith shifted closer until our knees touched. “You do not know that, Addie.”
But I did know it. I could feel it in my heart, see the pain he tried to hide in every smile, in every gesture. “He will soon grow tired of me, I know it.” The laugh I gave was forced and odd-sounding in my ears. “But that is my woe and not yours. If you drink, you will feel what he feels.”
I squeezed her hands, unable to stomach the pity in her gaze, and rose to the wardrobe we shared so I could dress for the evening. Already I had planned to return home for All Souls to check on my brother, but now it seemed I would be doing more than just visiting with Louis.
