Page 114 of The Witch They Fear

"Ok," Nellie says, finally. Quietly. Nodding."Ok. Then we just—we just get it neutralized. Quietly. No paperwork. Margo can do it. Margo, you can do it, right?"

Margo: "I can. I have not. But I can."

"Ok. That's the plan. This week."

"Ok," I say.

I look at my hands. The throbbing in my healing neck is louder than it was a minute ago and I swear my heart is pounding out of my chest.

"And the more scary alternative for why you’re drawn to Kage," Nellie says, gently, returning us to what I was really afraid of. "The one you were going to say before we had a small vamp blood-bond crisis? What was it?"

I close my eyes.

"That it isn't the blood. That he—just gets me somehow. Sees me? And I him. And I really don't know what to do with that either."

The room lets it sit.

"Okay…" Nellie says, gentler. "Emric?

I shrug. "He's just nice."

Four pairs of eyes on me.

"He's kind. He's funny. He’s sweet."

The girls nod in unison. The shift is so visible it's almost funny—the we have been bracing for the worst posture dropping out of all four of them at once, replaced by the oh, thank god, a normal one expression.

Tess: "Yeah."

Margo: "Yeah."

Shandy: "He's a good one."

"Checks out," Tess says. "He's a Vane."

"But you haven't scheduled the beignet date," Nellie asks, watching me.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if I sit across from him in a coffee shop in the French Quarter and we have a normal conversation about normal things, I don't know how to be that person yet. I don't know how to want a normal thing and actually have it. I'm here for one year. I have a deadline. He's so kind to me and I can't afford him."

Silence.

Nellie tucks her shoulder against mine. The throw blanket has slid off my knees and I haven't bothered to pull it back up.

"Where," she says, very gently, "does Leopold Vassard fit on this list?”

I shoot her the nastiest what the actual fuck are you talking about look. "Be so for real, Nellie."

She's grinning into the throw blanket—the kind of grin she has perfected for moments when she knows she's being a menace.

"I had to ask."

"Be. So. For. Real."

"He looked at you with such intent last night at the unveiling."