Page 61 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Four

Goddammit, Bran.

I should have listened to my own gut. What was it trying to tell me? Not to ruffle feathers. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was saying, right? But I’m so damn obsessed with pleasing Bran that sometimes I don’t listen to my own instincts.

“A year ago, I had no idea I was even fae…” I tell Arion, trying to think on my feet. “I don’t want to make trouble. But I don’t want you all to think me weak either. I spent the first several decades of my life thinking I was mortal, destined to be a blood bag…”

He takes a step toward me.

A breeze shifts across the glen and some of his midnight black hair flutters across his face.

“Arion, please…I’m not my mother. Our mother. Or my father, for that matter. I’m not even very fae. I’m like dollar-store fae.” I laugh nervously at my own stupid joke. “Maybe if we talk about this, we can figure out how to open the gate for you so you can go home and—”

The ground rumbles and I spread out my arms instinctively to catch my balance.

A loud clank sounds behind the gate.

My ears start ringing.

Oh shit.

“What’s happening?” I ask.

Arion goes still, his eyes trained on me, but his face blank.

The ground shakes again and dirt rains down from the archway, taking pieces of vine and flower petals with it.

A flock of birds lift from the nearby oak tree and fly away squawking.

“Arion?”

I look down at my arm again, at the blooming bruise in the crook of my elbow. The perfect spot to draw blood.

“Oh gods,” I breathe out. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“I can’t,” he answers.

A loud boom thunders across the glen, raising the hair along the nape of my neck.

More dirt falls from the stones.

Arion and I both turn to look at the fae gate…

…Just as it cracks open.