Page 63 of You’re So Vein

“You will fail,” Kael booms. “You will fail and I will take pleasure in flaying your skin from your bones—”

Komal throws back her head and gulps down the drink.

Of course she does. Because Komal will do anything for the people she loves—

The scent hits me then. Copper and clove and Dante’s indulgent flourish of dark cherry. It coats the air. Coats her lips.

I stifle a groan.

Watching her drink blood should feel wrong. It should be an abomination.

But it isn’t.

Brave, bold, impossible Komal Ahuja gulps down that blood like she enjoys it.

I don’t know what to do with that.

That’s a lie. My body absolutely knows what to do. I shift to hide the uncomfortable tightness in my trousers. Gideon watches me with a knowing smile, but none of the others seem to have noticed.

She’s never found my vampirism repulsive. Perhaps she’s had time to get used to the idea, as she was already friends with Arabella, Alaric and Gideon. She’s never flinched from the sight of my fangs. She’s never recoiled from me except when I mocked her whimsical festival ideas.

And last night, when I told her I loved her.

If my vampirism doesn’t disgust her, then I must disgust her. My very existence. The idea of being loved by me. And somehow, that’s far worse.

As she drinks, her eyes widen.

For one terrible moment, I think she’s been poisoned. I surge forward, my promise forgotten the moment I sense danger. Then she slows deliberately, her gulps turning to sips. Her gaze shifts not to me, but to Dante.

I watch him now. Notice the way he sits with his fingers steepled, his expression serene. The faintest curl of satisfaction touches his too-pretty mouth.

I know exactly what he’s done. He taught me the spell a century ago. A simple enchantment and a drop of blood placed into a liquid, and the caster can pass a private message to whoever drinks the glass. A secret swallowed whole.

The Midnight Murmur.

Once upon a time, Dante and I used it to communicate across the crowded court.

Komal swallows again. Whatever Dante is telling her, she’s listening.

Is it about me?

Is Dante di Sangro determined to torment me anew?

I shouldn’t care. There is no secret – save one – that I wouldn’t give Komal willingly. Now the Conclave have turned their attention to her, I cannot step in. A vampire would never step in to defend a human… unless that vampire was madly in love with one, like Alaric. And I can’t love a human. I can’t give them any reason to look closer at me, to ask questions about my choices, about my past.

I’ve already failed one woman I loved.

I will not drag another into ruin.

Not even if my heart refuses to obey instructions. Not even when watching her drink makes me dream of something that can never be – sliding my fangs into her neck, holding her close, granting her the Kiss, experiencing the most precious moment between two vampires. Making her mine, forever. Giving Hannah the family she deserves.

Especially not when the slide of that intoxicating liquid down Komal’s beautiful throat fogs my mind and heats my body with the most wanton and illicit desires, so that I must force a tendril to wrap itself around my wrist and squeeze and pinch until the pain overrides the lust.

Loving her in silence is safer for everyone. And maybe, one day, I’ll finally convince my foolish heart not to care.

21Komal

AS I DRINK THE BLOOD, Dante’s voice rings out inside my skull.