Page 36 of You’re So Vein

“We can be discreet!” I say.

“I’ve yet to see it,” Arabella murmurs.

“I’ll make some discreet inquiries with my clients.” Beth beams. “Luminita has asked for a new selection of serums and masks based on scents from her time as a Habsburg princess. She’s hosting a vamp girls’ sleepover at Brimstone, although she’s worried Eleanor is going to turn it into a recruitment drive for her illegal siring support group. If you ask me, all siring should be illegal.”

“Beth.” Winnie folds her arms. “That’s a bit harsh.”

“It’s not. Vampires shouldn’t be making other vampires willy-nilly without oversight. I can’t be the only one who thinks so. You fell in love with Alaric, but you don’t want to be like him!”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Winnie says. “That’s what Alaric is fighting for – my right to be in love with him and to choose whether I remain human. There is oversight, but it could definitely do with reform. Everyone seems to agree, except on what that reform should look like.”

“But how much can humans really choose when the vampire world is kept hidden?” Beth says. “Even though the Nevermore Coven all know vampires exist, and they want us to find this husker, we still know next to nothing about them.”

“Don’t look at me,” Arabella glares at each of us in turn. “I am not an open book. I am a locked tome sealed with an ancient curse and bound in the skin of all who’ve come to me seeking answers.”

“I actually learned a bit about the process of siring,” I say. “The vampires build a relationship with an adult human first, who must be able to consent. All parties stand in front of a committee of elders at their court and argue their case. And then the committee votes. Each court has different rituals to welcome the new vampire. It all sounds quite beautiful, actually.”

“Alaric didn’t tell me anything about making a speech!” Winnie wrings her hands. “I hate speeches. Where did you learn all that?”

Eight pairs of eyes round on me.

“From Augustin,” I mumble.

Beth’s pale blue eyes narrow. “You’ve been talking to Augustin about vampire stuff?”

“I didn’t have much choice. We, er, got locked in the stationery cupboard at the council meeting, and he told me about being an orphan in Victorian London and joining an occult society run by vampires. We had to do something to pass the time.”

“You could have made out with him.” Winnie grins.

“Gross. She’s not doing that!” Beth makes a face. My cheeks go red as I think about Augustin’s very kissable lips hovering an inch from mine, and the way his touch made my skin light up.

I mean, gross, no. I’m not thinking about my archrival’s lips. That would be weird and wrong.

“Why are you so against Augustin?” Winnie asks.

“Yeah, he’s actually quite a good councillor,” says Celeste. “Apart from the whole shop hours thing and nearly closing the Gazette.”

“Are you kidding?” Beth places her hands on her hips. “Of course I’m against him. Komal is my friend, and she hates him, so I hate him. Plus, there’s the little matter of his refusing to grant my planning consent to rebuild my pole studio. He acts like he’s such a stickler for the rules, and okay, fine, technically my studio was never permitted properly, but permits aren’t very aligned with my vision, and Augustin is one to talk! He took that bribe from Gideon to expedite the Sanctus Estate permit, so how’s that any better? I’m an orphan, too, and you don’t see me breaking my own moral code when it’s convenient!”

“You’re an orphan?” I ask, ignoring Beth’s outburst because I had no idea she didn’t have a permit for the pole studio. “I thought you said your parents lived in an ashram in southern India?”

“I thought you said they were in a commune in Belgium,” Celeste says.

“I was embarrassed, okay!” Beth wrings her hands. “The truth is, everyone in the Nevermore Coven has such a wonderful life. Look at Mina’s three husbands, or Arabella’s general fabulousness, or Komal living with her amazing family. I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. You guys are the only family I have. I’d do anything for you.”

“Oh, Beth.” I throw my arms around her. “We’d do anything for you, too.”

I flash back to the first time I met Beth. I’d been home for three weeks, living in the cancer bubble, doing everything I could around the house so Mamma could drive Papa to his treatments; making a colour-coded chart for medicines and appointments; helping Preeti paint the walls at her new clinic. I’d only just managed to escape my family for the night and was heading across the green to Dora and Isis’s shop with a bottle of wine under my arm when I was hit in the face by a yoga mat.

“Sorry!”

I whirled around to discover my assailant was a harried-looking woman with blonde hair pulled back in a bouncing ponytail, balancing a tower of rolled-up yoga mats and various implements of torture. “Keys,” she barked out in a musical voice. “In my pocket. I don’t suppose you could get them for me.”

Nothing bonds two women faster than one of them touching the other’s butt. I slid the keys out of Beth’s tight spandex leggings and unlocked the shop. She dumped her armload of torture implements on the floor and sighed. “Thank you for saving my business from falling into the mud! I’m Beth. I’m new in town. I’m opening a yoga studio and health food shop. I’m an Aquarius Rising, and my favourite things are foraging for mushrooms, romance novels and true crime podcasts. What’s your name?”

Just like that, we became instant friends. I invited her to join us for wine, and we spent all evening talking about serial killers and crystals and the right scone to clotted cream ratio, and the rest is history. Beth slipped into our group of friends as if she’d always been there. She and I are particularly close since our shops are right next to each other.

“If you’d do anything for me,” she whispers now, squeezing me tight. “Can you get me an exemption so I can rebuild my pole studio?”