Page 131 of Origins of Eternity

“We will have someone call in from a burner phone or something, saying that something has happened in the house, and the family will think that the woman was also killed by Cassia or someone else. There are no cameras in that house. No security. She didn’t think she needed it. There’s no real record of any of us coming in and out of that place. I think she even signed the lease under a different name. She weirdly trusted me, Arwen. I’m not sure what I did to earn that when she didn’t even tell Iro about her ability.”

“She probably thought she had nothing to worry about with you. In her mind, she’d saved you, and you wanted…”

“You,” Zara completed. “I wanted you and not to be sick, and I did terrible things.”

“We’ll have to talk about that later because I can’t deal with it right now, but Zara, there could be other cameras on these houses. This isn’t exactly my neighborhood. These are rich people with things to protect.”

“I’ll check that out, but those houses are so expensive, people don’t put cameras outside to mess with the historical beauty or whatever. I think I’ve seen only one down the block, and it was aimed the other way. I’ll double-check, though. I’ll protect you, Arwen. I didn’t before, but Iwillnow.”

“And Iro, too, Zara? It has to be both of us.”

“Yes, Iro, too. I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay?”

“Thank you,” Arwen said before she hung up.

Then, she called the butcher next and asked for a delivery later that day, to be safe, and thought of something else. Back in the kitchen, she grabbed both the woman’s phone and Cassia’s and picked Iro’s up, too, on the way back into the hidden room.

“I don’t know what to do about these. Cassia’s probably won’t matter, since we’re going to destroy her body, but thewoman… Her phone will show she was here last, right? It’s turned on.”

“I have a guy who can fix it.”

“A guy?”

“A vampire,” Iro corrected. “He’s the guy you call when you accidentally kill someone, and you need technology to put them or you someplace else. Where’smyphone?”

“Oh, here,” Arwen said and handed it to her.

“DeMarco, I need a favor,” Iro said after dialing and putting the phone to her ear.

Minutes later, the phone was on the floor, and Iro was working on her sixth container of blood. Arwen’s hands were on Iro’s skin, feeling the wounds that were slowly healing.

“I should get you a shirt. You’re half-naked in here.”

“I’m fine,” Iro said. “Will you come down here, though?”

“Lie next to you?” she asked.

“Yes,” Iro replied and set the container on the floor. “Please. I need to hold you.”

“I should be holding you,” Arwen corrected, but she moved to lie in the twin bed with her, letting Iro wrap her arms around her and pull her in close.

“I love you,” Iro said. “I am so sorry you had to see me do that.”

“What? Drink from a dead woman in order to survive?”

“I haven’t had human blood in a very long time, and I’m not proud of how I acted out there. I climbed on her, Arwen.”

“You needed it faster than you could get it from her wrist.” She placed her hand over Iro’s heart. “Are you okay? Are you worried you’ll want to go back to feeding on humans now?”

“A little. I think I’ll be okay, but it might be hard for a while. I’ll probably struggle, and when I struggle, I need to work out a lot and… sex helps, like I said before, but that doesn’t matter right now. Areyouokay? I know you can smell it on me.”

“I can. And I’m embarrassed to say that it smells good, much better than the other stuff you drink, but I’m trying not to think about that.”

“Let’s both not think of it, then.”

“Iro?”

“Yes?”