Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
“Oh, goodness!” Mabel gets up, coming over to me with vampire speed. I hold my ground, not even so much as flinching. “We’re going to have a witch in the family? Will her children be witches, too? Can they come to my tea parties?"
Carefully, she picks up a lock of my hair and smells it.
“No one ever comes to my tea parties,” she says and her voice drops. “I spin and spin and I spin and still no one ever comes and then I’m in the doldrums.” Her voice is haunting, both smooth and soothing yet with an undeniable sadness.
“I can come to your tea party,” I tell her and she lets go of my hair.
“Really?”
“Really. When is the next one?”
“High noon tomorrow!” She claps her hands together. “But in the ballroom, not the garden. That silly garden is full of nasty sunlight at noon. I cannot go out there. No, Mabel cannot.”
There’s something not quite right about her, and I hate that I feel like she’s innocent in some way. She’s a vampire, and she could easily kill me.
But I can easily kill her, too. I can easily kill anyone in this room. The odds are against me, with it being four against one, but I’ve gotten out of worse scenarios.
I, uh, just can’t remember when.
“Who am I marrying?” I ask but then two waiters come in, bringing plates of food for Devon and me. It smells delicious, and there’s no meat in sight.
“I told them you’re a vegetarian,” Devon says quietly.
“Oh, uh, thanks.” I look down at my plate. It’s some sort of Asian fusion food and my stomach grumbles. I haven’t had anything to eat other than the smoothie I got on the way home from shopping with Nina.
“Humans need protein,” the unnamed male vampire states, but it’s almost like he’s asking a question. How long has this dude been dead?
“You can get protein from things other than meat,” I say and Devon shoots me a look. I’m guessing the previous human incubators were seen and not heard. Hah. That is not going to fly with me. “But about this wedding…the fuck?”
Mabel sucks in a breath. “Are we allowed to say naughty words at the table again? Mother never allowed it, but sometimes, I would tell my brother he was a skirt-chaser when Mother was in the kitchen. It’s true, though.”
“You will be signing the papers to become my wife tonight,” Xavier tells me, seemingly unbothered. “Vampire-human marriage recently became legal here in North Carolina and the VC is breathing down my fucking neck about keeping up appearances.” His fist comes down heavy on the table, making Mabel jump. She scurries back to her seat and takes Zeke’s hand. He soothes her like a scared puppy and I wonder if she had these oddities before she got turned into a vampire.
Physical maladies go away when someone is turned into a vampire. Diseases can’t really affect you if you’re dead, I supposed. But mental health…that I don’t know about. An anxious human would probably make an anxious vampire.
I close my eyes in a long blink, remembering a conversation I overheard not too long ago. We were at another hunter-owned bar, but one with more non-Order members. They were talking about the very real ramifications of the Vampire Council—or the VC as it’s commonly called. The VC pushes for vampires to assimilate and conform to societal norms. The hunters were pissed about how it was working. The more “human” vampires appear, the more accepting the general population is.
And vampires marrying or just cohabitating with humans has been a big thing. Because if you can fall in love and live with each other, it makes it hard to paint all vampires as scary monsters we should want to stake.
The same feeling of anxiety starts to creep over me. “So I’m—we’re—we’re not—” I look at Devon, who just has a blank look on his face. I am so fucking glad I can’t be held spellbound.
“You are to conceive and carry my offspring,” Xavier tells me. He pushes his broad shoulders back and my god, that man could break me in half without even trying. The anger on his face isn’t directed at me, but it makes him even more intimidating and annoyingly attractive. His strong jaw is covered in stubble, and I find myself wondering how often vampires have to shave instead of thinking about what he’s actually telling me.
I’m going to marry him. Be his legal wife. Take his last name and be toted around as his. And then his biological human brother is going to knock me up.
What. The. Fuck.
“Wait,” I say, rapidly shaking my head. “Tonight?”
“Yes, tonight,” he sighs. “The magistrate is coming over and then you will be fitted for a ring.”
Mable leans in, bumping her antique teacup full of blood over. Zeke moves with vampire speed and catches it before it spills. “Do you like diamonds? I’m more of a sapphire girl myself, but this little number’s the berries!” She shows me her left hand, wiggling her fingers. The light catches on a large diamond center stone, surrounded by little blue sapphires.