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The television hummed softly with the end credits of a movie that neither of us had paid any attention to. Vi, for the sake of a well-deserved nap, and me, too focused on enjoying her company.

To its credit, the movie—something about vampires, filmed before we stepped out into the light—did manage to get some of the details right.

Vi had been so horrified that I hadn't seen it while we were aimlessly scrolling for something to watch that it’d quickly become our choice, with the human demanding that I needed to beeducated.

It was a foolish notion, given I’d been living with vampirism for more years than she’d been alive. Even so, there was something to be said for a cult classic.

Especially the soundtrack.

And Elsie would probably like to glitter in the sunlight. Unfortunately, in reality, sunlight meant a wicked migraine and a sunburn that was a real bitch to get rid of. Far less entertaining.

I traced patterns along her back, little moons and stars that trailed over her shoulder and spine. Vi had been out since the first scene, her breaths deep and even as she relaxed in my arms with shower-damp hair. We’d barely made it back to the sofa before she passed out, too exhausted to keep her eyes open or support her own boneless body.

Her surprise at what I considered basic aftercare flared a hot brand of anger in my chest. Was she not cared for before? Did her previous partners not take the time to worship the woman who gave herself so freely?

The very idea stoked the monster under my skin to life. It filled me with the urge to break, to tear.

Todestroy.

Or was it that she usually kept things more casual? Refrained from dating at all? Not that I could call this dating—we’d been so informal in our courtship so far that I’d wondered whether she’d let me past the front door.

Never in my wildest fantasies did I assume we’d slip from the hallway and fall into bed with the conversation I’d planned only half finished.

I soaked in the smell of her hibiscus shampoo, cuddling her soft frame closer, settling the creature prowling under the surface of my skin.

A tiger turned housecat.

It was… unusual.

I wasn’t a stranger to attraction, or to romance for that matter. In my long life, I’d had many lovers, mostly women, though sparsely a man or two had found their way into my bedover the decades. But Vi? She felt like something else altogether. A sort of siren call I’d believed only to exist in sonnets and fairytales.

Different.

Alluring.

Fucking maddening.

My kind—those of us who were born instead of made—fostered instincts that created vampires like Elsie didn’t.

The desire to create covens, to make new night children.

To share our blood with humans and gift them the immortality that we reveled in as our birthright.

To find mates to share our long eternities with.

Those needs burrowed into the back of my skull like a Dremel, worming their way through my subconscious until it was all I could think about.

At first, it had been frightening. I’d never had much of a desire to act on the impulses before, not even with Elsie. Ultimately, it had been Cherie who changed her. But there had been a courtship between us—time had passed that allowed us to form our own special bond before she joined our coven for the rest of our eternity.

Eternity, I’d found this year, could be cut short quite unexpectedly.

Regardless, we’d been fortunate to have the sort of time that allowed attraction to turn into more.

The sands of that hourglass, marking the passage of days and weeks that build bonds between souls, had barely begun to pool for Vi and me. And yet, here I was, fantasising about what it would be like for her to open her eyes after a lazy afternoon nap and see crimson ringing her dark irises.

Desire grated on my common sense as I cradled her fragile mortal body, my baser urges rattling against my skull.

Bite. Drink. Feed.Claim.