Page 37 of Blood as Sweet as Roses

“You were right,” Crimson says, somberly.

“It doesn’t make sense to supply a potentially harmful substance with addictive properties to our food source.

Murad ran the numbers and at least five percent of users in the past six months have succumbed to magical comas and other significant ailments, directly related to the use of glow.

Not to mention the number of living humans who are drained because their ability to consent to being bitten is inhibited while they’re under the influence of other substances.

That cuts down on our supply of living humans to feed from, especially ones that are amenable to being bitten by vampires. ”

She cocks her head, a few strands of dark hair falling into her eyes.

“It was a bad business decision, so I took your advice. No more glow. Not on the eastern coast.” She lowers her chin. “And trust me, what I say always goes.”

There’s a warm, radiating feeling in my chest as I process what she’s saying. I find myself stepping up the platform to her throne. “Sir, I…you don’t know what this means to me…”

“Does it mean that you’re happy?” she asks. There’s a softness in her voice that takes me by surprise.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I’m very, very happy.”

Crimson smiles, looking at me like a prize that she’s won. “Then we should celebrate tonight. Anything you want.”

Looking into her eyes, the words tumble out of me. But as I speak them, I know I mean them with my whole heart. “You’re already everything I want.”

Someone clears their throat behind us. It’s a young vampire guard, who looks anxious at the prospect of interrupting Crimson and I.

“Excuse me, my king,” they say to Crimson. “Kai and the rest of the guard have returned and would like to report back on their mission. They’re waiting in the war room.”

“Excellent,” Crimson says with a nod. She stands, and takes my hand in her’s. It’s another unexpected gesture. She looks down at me. “Paige, I must attend to some business quickly. But it shouldn’t be long. Wait for me here.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply dutifully. “Is it the mission about…Cedric’s warehouse?”

“It is.”

She kisses the back of my hand, her lips thrillingly chilly over my flushed skin. Then she follows the other vampire out of the lounge. I watch her from my vantage point beside her throne, feeling as though I’m floating on a cloud.

Crimson banned glow from the mansion. Not only that, she knocked out the supply chain!

And she did it because she respected my advice.

In a million years, I didn’t expect her to do that. She said it was a business decision, but…could it have been that she wanted to do it for me? “Does it mean that you’re happy?” she had asked. The words drift around in my head, like a dream.

But no, it doesn’t matter why she did it. The important thing is that this will help to keep vulnerable people safe. Like Crimson said, it’s good for her business, and more importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

And…I’m proud of myself. I stood up for what I believe in, and it made a real difference. I can’t believe I did that. I wonder what my mother would think, if she was still alive.

I wonder what she would think of Crimson. Of our relationship. I guess that’s more complicated.

“Daydreaming, pretty one?” whispers a voice in my ear.

I jump, and almost fall off the platform. It’s Sabina, standing behind Crimson’s throne. She leans lazily against it, watching me with those ethereal, dark brown eyes.

“Sabina…” I reply, swallowing nervously. I’m glad there are lots of people in the lounge. She couldn’t hurt me here, could she?

“You and Crimson seem very happy,” Sabina says, running a long finger over the curved, golden ridges of Crimson’s throne. “It’s quite…refreshing…to see her that way.”

I don’t know what she’s insinuating, but I see no reason to lie. “Yes, she’s been drinking from me. That’s what you hired me for, isn’t it?”

“It seems like she’s enjoying more than your blood,” the vampire whispers, her unblinking eyes fixed steadily on me.

“And what’s wrong with that?” I ask, trying to be brave, although I’m afraid my pounding heart gives me away. Although I feel safer with Crimson now, it’s hard not to be wary in Sabina’s presence. There’s something chillingly terrifying about the way she looks at me.

“Nothing at all,” she purrs, with a catlike grin. “It’s just interesting, that’s all.”

I rub my arm, feeling the goosebumps that have erupted across my skin. Crimson said to wait for her here, and I don’t want to disobey her, no matter how uncomfortable I am.

“Why would I be interesting to you?” I ask Sabina, feeling a little frustrated. Then I recall what Murad told me in the library. It seems so ridiculous to even say out loud. “Does it have to do with…with the prophecy about Crimson?”

Sabina tilts her head, her thick eyelashes lowering. “You know of the prophecy?”

“Murad told me,” I reply, shaking my head. “But he said not to listen to it. Besides, it can’t be about me. I’m just a normal person, there’s nothing special about…”

“What did Murad tell you, exactly?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest, a condescending expression across her sharp features.

I take a shaky inhale. “He told me that there’s a prophecy about Crimson. That she’s going to meet a human who will be her undoing.”

In the blink of an eye, Sabina is right before me, standing so close I can practically taste her lips against mine, feel the cool whisper of her skin. I gasp, and almost stumble backward off the platform, but she catches me by the wrist.

My pulse beats frantically against her tight grip, but I’m too afraid to even shout.

“I don’t think Murad told you the whole prophecy,” she says. There’s a twisted, mischievous smirk on her face as she pulls me closer to her. “Would you like to hear it?”

What does she mean, the whole prophecy? Was Murad hiding something from me? Is this a trick? It’s pointless to struggle, and my curiosity gets the better of me.

“Yes…” I concede, unable to break her penetrating gaze.

Violet swirls in her eyes as she speaks, her voice soft and rasping, like it comes from the center of the earth itself.

“Many, many years ago, the Artemis witches foretold a prophecy, about a powerful vampire king that would one day rule Midnight City. They declared that she would be cunning and ruthless, bloody and sharp as a Crimson Stake. That she would bend and break herself for money, power and might. That she would trade her soul for a seat on a cold throne…that she would be unstoppable…except for one thing…”

Her words wrap around me like a biting, winter wind. My breath comes out ragged, Sabina’s grip still tight on my wrist.

“This vampire will have a soulmate…a living human with blood as sweet as roses and a heart as soft as its petals. A human who completes her in every way, who complements her perfectly, who loves her, despite everything she’s done.

One night, this human will capture her heart…

and she will be the Crimson Stake’s undoing. ”

Sabina’s eyes shine with an otherworldly glow, sucking the air from my lungs and the warmth from my skin.

“And then the human will die, in her arms.”