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“Do you blame me?”

Alice locked eyes with Hugo. She wanted to tell him the truth. She wanted to let out every emotion she held back. Anger. Fear. Anxiety. Sadness. Hurt. Despair. All of it. She wanted to lay it all out for Hugo to hear. But she held back. It wouldn’t have mattered andwould only make things worse. She kept her strong, brave face for him. For her. Forthem.

“I don’t blame you.”

“Liar,” Hugo was quick to answer. “What about Max?”

“I dropped Max off at the Raskins. I didn’t tell them about you. I couldn’t. I didn’t want them to worry. I only told them we thought she’d be safer with them, so the Savinos couldn’t attack her and use her against us.”

“Good,” Hugo replied in a low voice. “I saw her face. I saw the fear. She knew I was different. And now, if I frenzied and did something to her, I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t forgive myself.”

“She doesn’t have to stay there forever, just for now.”

Hugo nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Just for now.”

They locked eyes, not knowing what to say. They stood in silence, frozen. Hugo fiddled with the blanket in his hands before wadding it up into a ball. Alice wanted to shout, to let everything out, but held her mouth frozen.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Hugo broke the silence.

“Don’t be,” Alice replied. “It’s not your fault.”

“You can keep telling me it’s not my fault, but deep down . . .” His words trailed off.

There was only the silence again.

Alice shrugged her shoulders. “I get it. Like you said, if you can’t change the outcome, you might as well laugh.”

A smile played on Hugo’s lips as he lowered his head and let out a soft chuckle. His eyes roamed the wine cellar, finally settling on the bottle ofAir Walkresting on her workbench. He stole a quick glance at Alice. “So, what’s it like dating a vampire?”

Alice returned a half smile. Her fingers tapped against her arm, rubbing the cotton fabric of her long-sleeve black shirt. Shifting in her stance, she traced one of the stone grooves with her bare foot.

“As I said before, they suck,” Alice replied.

“Funny,” Hugo said with a hint of sarcasm.

“But those nights—” Alice added.

“What about them?”

Alice twisted in her stance, twitching her eyebrows. She held back all the lurid details she wanted to tell Hugo. The nights became a wild realm, filled with the electric energy of untamed beasts, where lovers reveled in the ecstasy of exploring and indulging in their primal passions. The thrill of dating a vampire was like no other. Alice’s heart fluttered as her imagination conjured images of how her and Hugo’s nights could play out.

“Let’s just say . . . it was fun.”

Hugo jumped up to his invisible shelf and leaned back with his hands behind his head. “Care to have some fun?”

Alice dropped her arms to her sides. “Are you going to be like this from now on? Because if you are?—”

Hugo jumped down. “I’m joking. But I feel so charged up, I think I’d lose it if you touched me.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Hopefully soon or else . . . hopefully soon. By the way, did you see their present?”

“What present?” Alice asked.

“The bag. Did they not leave it?”

“No. What bag? What was in it?”