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I was so excited I couldn’t resist the urge to be snarky. “Do you know many other tenacious witches who would be foolish enough to magically talk to a vampire?”

There was a pause, and for a moment I wondered if I’d lost him. Could magic have bad reception?

“Shea?” he asked finally, almost bashful uncertainty in his voice that was kind of endearing. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you.”

“Yeah, well, I reconsidered your offer. I’ll have a look at your grimoire.”

There was another silence.

“That is, if the offer is still on the table,” I hedged.

“No, it is,” he replied instantly. “It’s just that I’m…out of town on business, and I don’t know when I’ll get back.”

Business? What kind of business could a vampire have? Not that I really knew anything about them outside of their diet. And I wasn’t about to ask for fear that his answer would scare me out of this decision.

“The grimoire is in my apartment in Chicago,” he said after a moment. “Can you get there?”

Okay, I was seriously in danger of cardiac arrest here, but I played it cool. “Maybe this weekend? I’ve got school.”

“That’s probably for the best. I’ll be...indisposed for a few days. You’ll have to use your magic to get into the apartment. I don’t leave extra keys lying around.”

“I can do that. What’s your address?”

He rattled off the address, and I entered it into my phone, pinging it on my map.

“I should be back soon. Where do you live?” he asked.

“Why?” I fired back, the hairs prickling all over my body. Maybe this was a mistake.

“I’ll want to get in contact with you when I get back.”

“Oh.” My nerves eased, but then I cringed. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leading him here. “You won’t...eat anyone, will you?”

I could practically feel Julian’s eye roll. “No, little witch. I’ve got some blood ba—”

“Okay. That’s good. I’ll take your word for it.”

Just the thought of blood made my dinner threaten to come back up. I really didn’t want images of Julian chugging bags of it like Kool Aid dancing in my head.

“I can give you my address, but you won’t be able to come here. My place is pretty heavily warded against...your kind.”

“That’s fine. I’ll send you a letter when I’m on my way back to arrange somewhere more discreet to meet.”

I told him my address, then closed the connection, relaxing onto my bed. Surreptitious glee flooded through me, and I felt like I had outwitted the system that had been pitted against me since birth. Despite every no that had cut me off at every turn, I’d finally found a yes. A gate that wasn’t chained and locked up tight.

I rejected the tiny bit of guilt that coiled my stomach at going behind Gram’s back. The vampire had a grimoire he couldn’t use, and I was a witch without a grimoire. I’d no longer be practicing spells blindly. It was the safer option, really.

Besides, Aunt June said not all vampires are bad. Maybe Julian was one of the good ones.

The thought made me smile. Perhaps he wasn’t such a waste of a pretty face after all.

I just really hoped this decision wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass—or the neck, more likely. My last few bold choices had gone pretty horribly. Ineededthis one to pay off.

Chapter 27

Julian

“Shea,” I whispered.