Page 99 of You’re So Vein

Hannah.

My cold blood heats with rage and fear. She’s here in the castle with him. I hurl myself to my feet. I need to make sure she’s safe.

“Are you going to kill him?” Komal raises an eyebrow. “Can I watch?”

“No, you cannot watch.” I wring my head in my hands as the full severity of the situation slams into me. “And I can’t kill him. If I kill a member of the Conclave, they’ll kill me, and Hannah won’t have anyone to protect her.”

Komal’s warm hand falls on my shoulder.

“I know this doesn’t mean much,” she says. “But if something were ever to happen to you, I’d take care of Hannah.”

Her words freeze me in place.

I’ve always had a sharpened barb ready to do battle with Komal, but I’m not prepared to be so… unarmed.

“You don’t mean that,” I whisper. “You don’t know what you’re offering.”

“I do.” She nods, steady and sure. “No matter what happens between us, Hannah has me now. I always keep my promises, Durant.”

Something in my chest pulls tight. I don’t know where to look. Her shimmering topaz eyes are too kind, too much. My hands flex uselessly at my sides, and my fangs itch from desires that terrify me.

“No one’s ever… that is…” I fight to collect myself. “We’ve always been on our own.”

I close my eyes, but when I open them, she’s still there, looking at me like this isn’t a burden, but an honour. How does she not know that I’m unravelling before her?

“Thank you,” I say, and even that feels too small. My throat works as I swallow. “I’m not going anywhere, but if Kael managed to… if anything happened to me, knowing she’d have you, I…”

The thought hits too deep.

Komal tilts her head to the side. She’s still clutching her hot chocolate. “Are you okay, Durant?”

“That’s the kindest thing anyone’s ever offered me,” I say finally, the words thick behind my fangs.

Without meaning to, I find myself drawing closer to her, pulled by her warmth and that upbeat certainty she carries so effortlessly.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks, her voice husky, her long, dark eyelashes tangling together.

Because you love her.

Because you make me feel hope, and I thought I’d forgotten how.

Because your heart is beautiful.

Because I want to make you mine, and for a vampire, that is a dangerous thing to want.

“You make it very hard,” I murmur, smiling wryly, “for a lonely man to stay lonely.”

I bend my head, my fangs itching, my heart full, desperate to kiss her, but she leans back in her chair. She lifts her cup to her lips, as if placing a barrier between us. I smell her desire for me, but her eyes are blown out like they were in the stationery cupboard.

I think I’m beginning to understand. She wants this as much as me, but I frighten her. I can understand that. I’m the one with fangs.

I can be patient. Komal is worth the wait.

“We’ve won over Irene,” she says after a long sip. She swallows and swallows, trying to divert our collision course. “That’s not nothing.”

“Perhaps, but you still haven’t beaten her challenge. She first must find something in one of her books to justify the law change. I don’t know if such a thing exists, especially not when men like Kael have been writing our history for centuries.”

“I doubt Kael can spell his own name.” Komal tosses her head, her ponytail flying. “If all Dhampir are as wonderful as Hannah, then someone will have written about them. And Irene will find it.”