Page 127 of The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends

Shit. “Seventy-two hours, then.” He’d skipped two days of classes. What did classes matter next to all of this, anyway?

Mari scanned Brennan, took in the stacks of books, opened and bookmarked and scattered around him. Whatever she saw, she took pity.

“Look, the comfort basket is more of Cole’s thing,” she said. “But it’s depressing as hell that you’re holed up here alone.”

“Gee, thanks?” Brennan said.

Mari winced. “No, I meant—I just mean…”

She stopped and sat down across from him, laying her hands out flat, cards on the table.

“I know I come off, like,” Mari started, mouth twisting up in obvious discomfort. “Well, I know I’m not the gentlest person. But, we’re kind of friends, right?”

“Are we?” Brennan was so shocked that the words tumbled out on their own. “I thought you hated me.”

Mari’s head dropped, covering her face with her hands. “I mean, I was skeptical, obviously, but it’s not personal.”

“Right,” Brennan said. “Just the vampire thing.”

“Yes, obviously. But it’s not just that, or you. It’s me, and Cole, too.”

“Okay…?” He wasn’t sure where Mari was going with this.

“I’m fucking terrible at this,” Mari murmured into her hands, thenwithdrew, straightening up and staring Brennan down with determination. “Listen up, because I’m not doing this monologue shit more than once, got it?”

“Yeah, sure, got it.” He said it dismissively, but hewaslistening intently.

“Cole is my best friend in the entire world,” Mari said. “He’s got the kindest, purest light inside him and I amso luckyto be near it. His parents and my parents were friends, so me and him and Noah were best friends since we were in diapers. We were like, this super awesome trio, for years. From kindergarten to graduation.

“Inpreschoolthis kid punched a boy for being mean to me. In middle school, when Noah was getting bullied, Cole made sure he never had to go anywhere alone. He’d sneak out of class to walk him to the bathroom. And now, no matter where I fall asleep in the apartment, at my desk, on the couch, Ialwayswake up with a blanket draped over me.That’sthe kind of person Cole is.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m not gonna apologize for being protective of Cole because the boy has no self-preservation instincts of his own. I get protective because there are people out there who would bleed him dry.” She cringed at the words. “Fuckin’ A. Well, I mean. He will give and give and give to the people he loves and that is agift.

“So when I realized he was choosing you to be one of those people, I thought, he’s gonna get hurt.”

“And now he did,” Brennan finished.

“Yeah, but not how you think,” Mari said. “Not how I thought, either.”

“It’s exactly what you thought. I’m a literal vampire and I literally drank his blood. You saw it coming since you found out about me.”

“You’re not listening. That’s not the problem. You can’t keep Cole from giving you his all because god knows no one could stop him if they tried.”

“Then what are you saying, Mari?”

“I’m saying that for as long as Cole chooses you to be one of those people he’d give anything for, you have to give him everything right back. That’s what he deserves. Do it for real or don’t do it at all.”

She frowned, looked him up and down, and concluded, “In other words, get your shit together.”

Brennan couldn’t even be offended. “But none of that matters if he won’t talk to me ever again.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, themelodrama.You really have no idea how gone he is for you?” Brennan blinked back at her and she threw her hands up in disbelief. “Since you crash-landed in the library, it’s been nonstop ‘Brennan’s so smart’ this, ‘Brennan’s sothoughtful’that, and ‘Yes he’s a vampire but he’s agoodvampire.’”

It didn’t make sense. That Mari didn’t hate him, that Mari thought he still had a chance.

“Do I have to spell it out for you? Show him you care. At leasttry.”

Brennan paused in thought. Show him. Show him that he loved him and trusted him, that he wanted Cole to know and see him as a whole, vampire and human. He wanted Cole to see his mistakes and flaws and think,Yep, that’s the one for me.