Page 137 of The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends

Mari

don’t speak for me

but I will be there.

Cole

and I will bring snacks!

Ignoring the panic of all his different worlds colliding, Brennan flipped through his notebook. He’d already filled pages with possible plans and outcomes, most of them negative. But that was the point of the meeting. He wasn’t alone. They would figure it out together.

“So, let’s see it,” Tony said as he flopped down on the couch next to him.

“See what?”

“Do you sparkle? Do you have fangs? Do you have, like, a dark form you shift into at night?”

“Uh, no,” Brennan said, trying to keep up. “Well, I do have fangs.”

“Fuck yeah,” Tony said. “Can I see?”

“I can’t call them out on command! It’s, like, when I’m hungry.”

“Or horny, right?” Tony asked.

“What the—” Brennan bit back a curse. “How do you know that?”

“Cole told me. He thinks it’s cute.”

“I’m uncomfortable with this line of conversation,” said Brennan.

“Well, I still wanna see. You’ll have to let me watch next time you eat something.”

“I will not be doing that.”

Brennan heard familiar voices drifting toward them from outside, along with a pair of footsteps, and Brennan took the excuse to dart out of his seat and preemptively answer the door. It swung open to revealCole, one fist poised to knock, the other holding a tray of lemon bars. Mari was a pace behind him with a bottle of wine.

“Hey,” Cole said, a closed-lip, bright-eyed smile making the rest of the room fade away. His presence alone calmed nerves Brennan hadn’t realized were building.

“Hey,” said Brennan.

“Yes, hi,” Mari said, and pushed between them to get through the door. Moment broken, Cole laughed and darted to press the briefest of kisses to Brennan’s mouth before following Mari to the living room. Brennan took half a dazed moment to stare after him with heart-eyes before reminding himself to get back to business.

“Okay,” Brennan said, “so we’re still waiting for—”

As if on cue, a knock sounded from across the apartment, in Brennan’s room.

“And, that’ll be Dom.”

He ducked out while Cole set out lemon bars and Mari broke into her bottle of wine, Tony playing a game on his phone. His room was just as he left it, except for the shadow darkening the window from the outside, the pale face peering in impatiently.

Brennan unlatched the window and pushed it open.

“You know, you could use the door.”

Dom perched delicately in her all-black ensemble, dark eyeliner around her eyes, black nails tapping on her knee.

“Your friends were using it.”