Page 21 of Origins of Eternity

She bit down into the woman’s neck then, and just as the human was about to scream out, she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Good. Scream. I like making women scream.” She bit down again and sucked hard. “It’ll only hurt for a second.” She bit down into her wrist and shoved it into the woman’s mouth. “Yes, drink that. You’ll feel better.”

She licked the woman’s blood off her neck and moved her tongue over the woman’s bottom lip, leaving a trail of the woman’s own blood behind before she sucked her until she could no longer stand. Then, Cassia removed her hand from the woman’s mouth, called for her driver to pick them up, tossed the woman into the back seat with her, and told the driver to take her to her rental house.

“Now, I can finish my meal,” she said and sucked the woman dry.

CHAPTER 7

Arwen

Iro No Last Name: What about seven o’clock? I’ll pick you up.

Arwen Lam: Yes, that will be fine.

Arwen had tried to play down her interest, managing to resist the urge to send a happy face emoji, a red heart emoji, and the face emoji with the red hearts around it, which was probably good because Iro didn’t really seem like the emoji type based on the little she knew about her. She hadn’t gotten Iro’s last name, so she’d put her into her contacts as Iro No Last Name, planning to change it later when she actually got that information.

It had been four days since they’d met at the bar. Arwen had been having issues keeping herself focused ever since, and her job required focus. Her clients depended on it. Instead of paying attention tothem, though, she’d been thinking about Iro and their upcoming date. It hadn’t helped that she had hardly been able to find anything about Iro on the internet. Arwen didn’t have a last name, so she’d only had a first name to work with, and while Iro was certainly an uncommon name, she hadn’t been able to find any social profiles or even information on a business owned by someone named Iro that fitherIro’s description. She had given up on the third day and tried to refocus on her work.

“I’ve got that brief you wanted,” Zara said, walking into Arwen’s office.

“Thanks. Hey, you still look like you’re not feeling well. It’s been a few days, Zara. Maybe you should get checked out by a doctor.”

“I will if it doesn’t go away. I think I’m just tired. No cough, sore throat, or fevers, so it’s not a cold. I’ll be okay.”

“You said you were fine the other day,” Arwen noted. “Now, you’re tired?”

“Well, Iwasfine the other day, butnowI’m tired. I’ve been here until eight every night with you, trying to get our ducks in a row here for this case. I get home and eat a crappy meal for one and stay up late watching TV until my busy brain calms down, so I haven’t been sleeping well. I’m sure that’s all it is. I assume we’ll be here late again, but maybe you’ll take me to dinner and pay me back for making me stay late every night.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah, tonight,” Zara said, sitting down. “Veggie burgers?”

“I can’t tonight.”

“Why not?”

“Iro and I are going out.”

“Oh,” Zara said. “She texted you?”

“She has been,” Arwen replied with a smile. “We’ve been texting back and forth a little, not a lot. She’s busy, and I’m busy, but she texted me good morning the morning after we met and then goodnight, so we’ve been doing that. She’s very sweet.”

“How adorable,” Zara said with little emotion.

Arwen wanted to ask her about it, but her friend looked so tired and didn’t feel well, so now wasn’t the time. She felt bad about being so focused on Iro and the big case, along with the others she was working on. She hadn’t been paying much attention to her best friend, with the exception of worrying about how sick she looked.

“She’s picking me up at seven. I was going to ask you to help me pick out something to wear. I have no idea where she’s taking me, but she’s obviously rich to some degree, and she might take me to the fanciest restaurant in DC or something, where I clearly don’t belong. I don’t have anything nice enough for that.”

“You have nice clothes, Arwen.”

“Not for a five-star restaurant. Do you need a ball gown to get into one of those? God, do you think she’ll wear a tux?”

Her mind took her to a very happy place.

“I doubt it, but I can tell where your brain just went,” Zara said. “I’m still a little confused, by the way.”

“About what?”