Page 66 of The Human’s Heart

He stared for a beat, then snorted and shook his head. “You sure are, sweetheart.”

“I get to be a part of the cool kids’ club now. Ha.”

He laughed at that, and even Toby chuckled.

The three of us walked out of the basement room to the staircase, and Zay’s uncle led the way up the stairs. Their basement door opened into the kitchen, and I was happy to see all the curtains drawn even though I logically knew the sun was down.

It made me feel a tiny bit safer.

“Hey, Hugo,” Thayer said from across the room, snagging my attention. “How are you feeling?”

I glanced at him, taking him in with my new eyes… and ears and nose and… everything. He smelled different than Zay and Toby. He smelled like sunshiny earth or something, and I automatically knew that smell was part witch and part his affinity. He also had a metallic scent about him that was most definitely the vampire in me scenting blood.

But more than that, I could see so much more detail than I’d realized downstairs in that dark room. Sure, I’d been able to see perfectly fine down there, which now that I thought about it was weird. But in the light up here, I could see every fleck of color in his yellow eyes from all the way across the room. Even his hair looked… more spectacular with many different shades of red running through it. It looked like he’d gotten some highlights or something, but I knew he hadn’t. That was all natural. I could just see better now. Or maybe more in depth? Or… something. I didn’t know, but it was really awesome.

I blinked and shook myself out. “Hey. Um, yeah, I’m feeling okay.”

He sent me a smile, and I relaxed. Maybe I could smell his blood and hear it pumping through his veins, but I didn’t want to drink from him. Not even a little bit.

Maybe because I was full? Or maybe because my incubus was about a thousand times more tempting than anyone else in the entire world.

Out of everyone, Zaos was the one I wanted to bite and suck and lick on and—

I cut that train of thought off and shook my head.

No, I didn’t want to freaking eat Zaos. Obviously.

I mean, I totally wanted to feed from him.

But I knew I couldn’t. At least not yet. I’d have to drink my sire’s blood for a few weeks before even attempting someone else’s.

And I wasn’t sure Zay would even want that.

“Oh trust me, baby,” Zay said in my head. “I definitely want that. I can’t wait for you to drink from me.”

I shivered at the thought, then smacked his chest to make him stop trying to turn me on right in front of his uncles.

The last thing I needed was adding an inconvenient boner to this situation.

He let out a small chuckle and kissed my temple, leaving his lips there for an extra beat before he asked the room, “Where’s Kian?”

A voice called out, “I’m upstairs! We didn’t want to overwhelm Hugo!”

“You can come down now,” I called back. “I’m fine.”

It was probably only ten seconds before the tiger shifter was standing in front of me. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh before I gave him a hug. He hugged back without hesitation and whispered, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks. Me too. I’m glad you’re here.”

We let go, and my viramore hugged his brother, whispering something to him. I didn’t listen even though I could hear every word clearly as if Zay was speaking into my ear instead. Wild.

My viramore released his brother and pulled me into his side, saying, “What if we play a card game or something? Or watch TV?”

Thay said, “We can do whatever you guys want. What are you up for, Hugo?”

As excited as I’d been to get out of that room, I was already starting to wane, so I asked, “Can we watch a movie for a bit?”

“Of course.”