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“I’m sorry, Dana… You were together a long time, right?”

“Well, yeah. She was my wife for most of my immortal life. We got married about a decade after I was changed.”

“Even I’m not rude enough to ask a woman how old she is, but that was… a while ago?”

“A long time ago,” I confirmed. “When I was a fledgling, vampires were still largely in hiding. I spent a lot of those early nights doing things I’m not exactly proud of.”

Vi died again, adding more coins into the machine as I continued to play.

“Yeah, well… The past is past, right? You’re not that person anymore.”

“I’m not a person at all, Vi. I’m a vampire,” I corrected her.

She sighed. “Semantics. You know what I mean.”

Her next shot went so wide she might as well have been turned around.

“Are you looking for the little red circle? Use that to help you aim.”

“You’re trying to change the subject,” she accused.

She wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t exactly nice to own up to the vampire I had been before Cherie managed to wrestle me back into being something close to compassionate.

Vi did as she was told, and the digital bullet hit the target much closer to the center, causing her to let out a whoop as she punched the air. However, the moment was dampened immediately as a glowingYou loselit the screen again.

"Yes!" she cheered, high spirit unwavering, turning her head to look at me. "Did you see that? I totally hit one of them!”

“That was much better,” I praised. “Good girl.”

Vi’s cheeks pinked as her slender fingers pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. I followed the motion with my eyes, the little scar on her wrist catching my eye.

Unacceptable.

It wasn’t like I could do anything more about it—at least not within the confines of the law—but that asshole was lucky he wasn’t dust right now. If this were the old days, I would’ve burned him alive right after I allowed Ren to tear him apart.

But now we were expected to be upstanding citizens. To follow laws.

To act likehumans, notmonsters.

I pushed my venomous, violent thoughts aside, refocusing my attention on the woman fumbling to put tokens into the machine again.

"Are you okay?” I asked, setting my gun down.

"Of course I am. Arm yourself; I can’t do this solo."

"No, really, Vi," I pressed, reaching out slowly, giving her plenty of time to back away before my fingers curled around her hip, drawing her against my body. Front to front like this felt more intimate than holding hands in the car, her warmth leeching into me as I looked down my straight nose at her… though not very far down. I had maybe an inch or two on the human, tops. In her heels for the club, she was usually looking down at me.

This was, admittedly, a nice change.

"If you don’t want to talk about it, I… I get it, okay?" I sighed, fighting the urge to look away from her curious gaze. "A long time ago, I had a vampire compel me to do some… things. I understand how it feels to just…”Have no control.“I mean, I know what it’s like, I guess."

"What kind of things?" Vi asked, the game starting behind her with the hiss of aliens and the shout of the narrator calling over the fake radio demanding we shoot.

"Before Cherie, I was with another coven—my sire’s coven. It was very different. They were monstrous aspeople, even more as vampires."

Her small hand curved along my back, tracing patterns where my shoulder blade was left bare from the racerback straps of my sports bra.

“And they….compelledyou?” she said the word like it was dirty, the very flavour of the syllables distasteful on her tongue.