Page 68 of Origins of Eternity

The woman nodded.

“You don’t have to,” Zara said.

The woman pulled off her shirt and said, “I want to.”

“Are you sure? We don’t–”

“Zara, trust me.” Cassia undid the woman’s button and zipper. “She’s sure. And there are ten more I can call for you whenever you need, who’d die to be fucked by you.” Cassia straddled Zara once more before she leaned down, cupped hercheeks, and kissed her. “You will be my right hand. I’ll see to it that you have everything you want.”

“What about Gigi and–”

“They serve a different purpose, which I need to go see them about now, darling.” She kissed Zara again, leaned into her ear, and whispered, “When you’re done drinking her, if you want, you can turn her. I’ll leave that up to you. But until Amy is ready for everything you want,shewill surely be a nice bonus, won’t she?”

Zara turned her head to look at the naked woman and said, “Yes.”

“Have fun, sweetheart.”

Cassia patted Zara’s cheek, stood up, and walked away. When her feet hit the stairs, she turned around and saw Zara on top of the human, her fangs bared, ready to dig into flesh.

“Perfect,” she mumbled to herself as she watched Zara devour the woman.

CHAPTER 21

Arwen

“You’re here today? I feel like I haven’t seen you in days,” she said to Zara when she walked into the small kitchen and noticed her best friend sitting at the round table in the center of the room.

“I am. I had a lot to get done yesterday, so I needed to eliminate distractions.”

“For which case?” Arwen asked.

“Patrick asked me to help him with something. I wasn’t supposed to talk about it. Sorry, it took me away from your stuff, but he’s my boss, so…”

“Oh. I didn’t know. Sorry, I wouldn’t have given you such a hard time had you told me he had you on something else.” She sat down across from Zara with her cup of coffee. “What did you end up doing last night? You said you were busy.”

“I was. I worked.”

“Oh,” she repeated.

There was such a distance between them now. Arwen wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but she thought she had a pretty good idea. Their office kitchen probably wasn’t the best place to talk about it, but Zara seemed to be avoiding her otherwise, so she cleared her throat, turned to see that they were alone, and decided to put it out there.

“Zara?”

“Yes?” the woman said, sipping her coffee and seeming as if she wasn’t even paying attention.

“What’s really going on? I thought you were sick. You said you weren’t, and youarelooking better, but now, you’re acting differently, and I’m getting the idea that you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you, Arwen. I’ve been busy. Patrick asked me to look into something, and that something was important and required a lot of time, okay?”

“What was it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You can’t tell me because I work here with you, but maybe you can tell your best friend.” Arwen smiled to see if that would get the suddenly serious Zara to lighten up.

“I can’t tell you either way. I could lose my job.”

“Okay. Never mind. It feels like maybe since I started dating Iro, you’ve wanted nothing to do with me, Zara. I’m trying to make conversation with my friend here. I wanted to hang out last night, and I get that you had work, but maybe we can spend some time together, just you and me, tonight or tomorrow.”