Page 84 of The Vampire's Lament
Once spent, she pulled back, wiping at her amber eyes. “Sorry about that, sugar. I don’t know what came over me.”
“This is always a safe space for you, my friend.”
She poked me gently on the chin. “Thank you. I should be the one letting you cry on my shoulder.”
“Not right now. But I appreciate it.”
Her brows pinched together. “When are you going to tell me more about the elf?”
Interesting change of subject. “More?”
“Yep. I’m a nosy friend.”
My eyes darted to the single bed, my body longing for him to join me on this one.
“Not now,” I retorted.
She knew my cadences well enough to leave something alone. When I was ready, maybe I would vent my feelings, dissect everything, and untangle my desires.
“Well, have a good sleep,” she said. “I’ll pick at this another day.”
Medusa shifted into the emerald python, slithering into the hatch that led to the main indoor palace gardens.
Stripping naked, I slid under my duvet, the mechanism of the bed whirring to life at my command. It lowered me into darkness, and much to my body’s relief, I soon fell asleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
PARIS
Idreamed of Pearl.
No shock there.
It wasn’t anything dramatic, just the two of us eating sweetcream sandwiches in the sunshine in the garden of Suzanne’s sanctuary—the woman who’d sheltered us after so much time on the run.
A different life, a better life in a lot of ways. Because any period with my sister still alive was better than now.
The presentsucked, leaving me drifting through life alone. Man, I hated to say it, but I’d been alone ever since she died. No one could fill the void, not even Hal before he turned out to be a prick.
I had no one.
I had nothing.
Only a vampire king.
How fucked up was that?
Poor Hal, though. Whatever he’d done, he’d really drawn the short straw here. Maybe he deserved it, but conversely, I deserved a whole barrel of suffering for the shit I’d done.
Right?
I awoke to greet a blaze of sunlight. It burned my peepers, forcing them to take a moment to adjust.
Normally, I’d be happy to see the spring sunshine. But my head pounded, and my mouth was a furry landscape of yuck. I needed water, coffee, and a mistrock cig immediately.
Carefully, I got off the bed. Too much movement made my headache worse, and the sunlight really wasn’t helping.
How the tempered glass kept the vamp-killing solar energy at bay, I didn’t know. My eyes were watering to fuck here.
