Page 63 of Sweeter than Honey

Hallie’s face lights up. “Really? If I get Professor Cross’s recommendation, can I help out?”

“Absolutely.”

“Great! I think he’s gone to ground for the day, but I’ll find him first thing tomorrow night,” she says, before disappearing into the office hallway again.

“See,” I say to Lexi. “Some people rise to the occasion when you give them a challenge.”

“Some peopleare suck-ups,” Lexi responds primly. “And I think you’re going to work yourself until you’re totally unable to function, unless you get some blood inside of you, Renata. It’s not healthy!”

I hiss at her again, still not looking up from my computer screen.

“Fine! But I’m going to ground, because I have goodwork-life balance.”

With one hand, I take the World Luxury Hotel 2023 award from the shelf behind me and throw it at my sister, but she dodges it with a laugh and scampers out of my office.

Maybe my aimisoff. It probably wouldn’t hurt to ask Lily to schedule another donor for me, or to even go down to the club tomorrow night to make sure I stay sharp.

But as my fingers dance across the keys of my keyboard, I can’t help feeling a little high off of all my hyper-focusing. There’s something about the restless urgency of bloodlust that keeps me going. The edginess gives me…well, it gives me an edge.

And then the twinkle of dawn in the sky pulls me down again.

I groan. I can’t stop now. I’m so close to finishing the shareholder report, and I promised I would have it off this week. Not to mention signing off on the wedding plan for this upcoming weekend. If I don’t get to it tonight, they won’t be able to start prepping the food orders until Thursday, and the staff is always busiest just before theweekend.

I can push myself just a little bit. Vampires can technically be awake during the day, it just drains us of our energy a little bit. But I can push through that. I take the remote for my electric blinds and press the button to lower and seal the blinds around the windows. Then I find a pair of sunglasses in the bottom of my desk drawer.

That’s better. With the blinds and sunglasses, the heaviness of the coming sunrise weighs a little less on my bones. I can probably go another hour or even two, if I keep pushing.

My office door opens again.Whenis Lily getting in? I need a gatekeeper.

Xia comes up to my desk. “Renata, did you send this email about internship mid-term evaluations? It doesn’t make any sense…”

“Yes, I need you and Damien to grade the students,” I tell her. “And I’d like a full security report for the club, as well. I’m concerned about Xavian’s vampires, and we need to make sure there are no opportunities for them to take advantage of us.”

“Ren, I think you need to go to ground,” the witch says. “You look exhausted, and you’re not functioning well. We’ve got security handled for the day, why don’t you…”

“I’mfine,” I snap. “Why does everyone keep telling me to stop working? I can operate on no sleep, I’ve been doing it for decades!”

“That doesn’t mean youshould,” Xia retorts.

A wonderful smell fills the air as Lily pops her head through the open door of my office. As much as I’d like to greet her properly, I know that if I stop now, I’ll lose momentum. I give her a wave, without breaking eye contact with the wedding plan that’s up on my screen.

“Renata?” she says. “What are you doing? The sun rose twenty minutes ago.”

“Just getting a few more things done,” I reply curtly.

“She’s in one of her moods again,” Xia says, out of the corner of her mouth.

“I heard that!” I snap. “It might be daytime, but I still have supersonic hearing!”

In my peripheral vision, I see Xia and Lily exchange a look.

“I’ll take care of it,” Lily says.

“Good luck,” Xia mutters, then she leaves my office.

Lily tiptoes closer to the desk. Then, without warning, she presses the “sleep” button on my laptop, so my screen goes dark.

“Lily!” I snap, shocked at this level of betrayal. “I wasworkingon something!”