Page 23 of Vampire so Virtuous (Boston Vampires #1)

Eve opened the door before the ring of the bell faded through the apartment.

“Babe! I missed you!”

Cally endured the cheek bussing with rueful capitulation, but there was some comfort in the hug.

Eve leaned back, a small frown appearing. “Why is it each time I see you, you look more worried than the time before?” She shook her head. “Come in. Let’s get drinks, and you can tell me all about it.”

Unsurprisingly, Eve’s apartment reflected her personality: happily chaotic, full of warmth and light.

Cally didn’t visit often—they usually met at the café between their offices or at a restaurant—but there was something undeniably reassuring about the clutter, the mismatched yet comfortable furniture, the half-finished canvas propped on an easel by the window, and the scented candles flickering on the bookshelf.

The rhythmic notes of smoky, modal jazz drifted from her Bluetooth speakers.

The purple lava lamp on the small corner table, with its oddly shaped bubbling globules, exuded a distinct Eve-esque charm.

“Have a seat,” Eve said, walking into the kitchen. Even dressed lazily in an oversized T-shirt, joggers, and fluffy socks, she still wore black. “We’ve got an hour. Wine? We can walk to Zara’s.”

“Yes, please,” Cally replied, shifting yesterday’s clothes—black—off her favorite armchair before settling in.

Eve returned with a bottle of red wine and two glasses, and dropped onto the couch, one leg tucked beneath her.

She held both glasses in one hand, the stems between her fingers and the bottle in the other, unconcerned about the risk of spilling as she poured.

The bottle went on the coffee table, and she proffered a glass to Cally. “Cheers.”

Cally took the glass, and the ruby liquid seemed to shift, looking like blood as it swished in the bowl. “Cheers,” she said, trying to shake the image, clinking glasses and forcing herself to take a sip. She half expected it to taste metallic, but it didn’t. It was only wine.

“What’s with the haunted looks?” Eve’s smile was playful, but the flicker of concern in her eyes said she wasn’t fooled. “It’s not too late to switch to white.”

Cally toyed with the glass, rolling the stem between her finger and thumb. “I don’t know where to start.”

Eve’s brow furrowed, concern growing at Cally’s tone. “What is it? What’s happened?”

“You remember the night I told you about?”

“When you ‘kinda fainted’ after walking home from your date with that jerk?”

Cally nodded. “That one.”

“Okay?”

“Well, I figured out what happened.”

“Uh-huh?”

Cally swallowed, staring at her glass and twisting the stem back and forth, back and forth. The mark stirred inside her, tugging toward Antoine like an eager puppy.

“Want me to guess?” Eve asked into the silence. “I’m good at guessing. Uh, a low-flying drone knocked you out?”

Cally gave a dry laugh. “Surprisingly close.”

“Really? Told you I was good at guessing.” Eve leaned forward, warming to the theme. “Okay. A government black-ops experiment to turn you into a super spy used a drone to paralyze you as the first step?”

“Colder,” Cally said with a grin. Eve had a way of cutting through even the bleakest of moods.

“Damn.” Eve took a sip of wine to recharge for the next attempt. “An alien time-traveling drone accidentally—”

“It was a vampire,” Cally said in a rush.

“Pardon?”

“A vampire,” Cally repeated, looking back down at her wineglass.

“An alien time-travelling vampire drone?” Eve asked.

“No,” Cally said quietly. “There was no drone. It was just a vampire.” Only Eve could make her add ‘just’ to the word ‘vampire.’

“A vampire?” Eve blinked. “A vampire made you feel kinda fain—Oh.” She blinked again, twice, then leaned forward. “A vampire, huh?”

“Yes,” Cally said in a small voice.

“Was he hot? It was a ‘he,’ right?”

Cally gave her a look. “I tell you I’ve been bit by a vampire, and you ask me, ‘Was he hot? ’”

“Well.” Eve shrugged. “I mean, vamps are hot, right? ”

“Minh wasn’t.” Creepy, more like.

“His name’s ‘Minh’?”

“No. His name is Antoine.”

“Exotic.” Eve nodded. “Hot.”

Cally frowned at her friend. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t believe me?”

“Because you’re talking about vampires like they’re real?” She made a face that clearly said ‘duh.’

Cally stared at her in exasperation. “You told me I had witch blood, that I had magic. That’s somehow okay, but vampires aren’t?”

Eve flapped her hand. “Let’s take a step back. Are you seriously sitting there—in my favorite armchair by the way, which I only let you use because you’re my bestie for life—and telling me that you genuinely, really got attacked by a vampire after your date with the asswipe?”

“Yes, Eve,” Cally said, her tone flat. “Yes I am.” She hadn’t thought it would be so hard to persuade her occult-obsessed always-wearing-black friend who probably had at least three pentagram necklaces in her bedroom drawer.

“Like you got attacked by an actual blood-sucking fiend? A walking leech? An undead denizen of Nosferatu?”

“Yes.”

“Yes? What do you mean ‘yes’? Really yes?”

“Affirmative. Ten-four. Hundred percent. And all the rest of them.”

Eve lurched forward to the edge of the couch, her wine sloshing onto the carpet. She didn’t seem to notice. “Omigod,” she breathed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Still yes.”

“Did a train wreck just throw a party?” Eve stared at her open-mouthed, apparently lost for words.

The concept of Eve ever being lost for words was almost scarier than the vampires, and Cally couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re grinning,” Eve said, confused. “You just told me you’ve been really, genuinely attacked by a vampire, and you’re grinning.”

Cally shook her head as her amusement faded, blinking back tears that pricked at her eyes.

“Just thinking how… pissed off and terrified and angry and violated I’ve been feeling, and I’ve been bottling it all up, too scared to face it, and I come over here, and you don’t believe me, and then you ask if he’s hot—which he is, by the way—and then you do believe me, and you talk about alien drones, and it’s so…

you , and, well, it’s exactly what I needed. ” She finished with a little sigh.

Eve stared at her, the silence stretching. “Wow,” she said eventually. “Hug?”

Cally nodded hastily. “Hug.”

They both got up, wine glasses onto the coffee table, and met halfway between the couch and the armchair.

Eve was smaller than Cally, but she still managed to wrap her arms fiercely around her, making her feel safe and loved.

One hand came up to Cally’s head, pulling it down onto Eve’s shoulder, which was nice too, though a bit uncomfortable.

Cally drew back before she got a crick in her neck. “Love you, you know.”

Eve smiled. “Love you too. Always have, always will.” She picked up her glass and sat back down. “So, real vampire, huh?”

“Yeah.” Cally slumped back into her chair, then leaned forward to retrieve her wine and took a long sip.

“What are you going to do about him?”

Cally laughed bitterly. “I have absolutely no fucking idea.”

Eve pulled her phone out and checked the time. “We still have half an hour before we need to leave for Zara’s.” She looked at Cally, wide-eyed. “You okay to do Zara’s?”

It was a convenient excuse, and Eve was practically offering her a way out, but… “You know what? Yes. Yes, I am. I’m not letting this bastard ruin my life.”

“All right, you little badass. Half an hour. Spill every last bit of it.”

*

“Wow, not one but two?” Eve shook her head. “You don’t do things by halves, huh?”

Cally shrugged. Telling Eve her story had made Antoine seem knight-like in comparison to Minh, which was a strangely disconcerting thought.

But Antoine was the one who had bitten her. The one who had marked and claimed her.

“Still can’t believe you ended up in jail,” Eve said.

“That harder to believe than a vampire?” Cally teased. Somehow, Eve still had her feeling better about her life, even after re-living everything for the past almost half hour. She loved her for that.

“What’s hard to believe is that you didn’t call me.” Eve glared at her. “Who was the lucky recipient of your Constitutional right to a phone call?”

“Uh.” Cally cringed. “No one? ”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought.” Eve shook her head in mock dismay. “Reckless, impulsive, beautiful, distrusting, strong, independent…” She trailed off, waving a hand as if trying to find more words to add to the list.

“I feel called out,” Cally muttered. “I mean… reckless, impulsive… Joon calls me that all the time, though I think he means it about my style.” She made a face. “Distrusting, though?”

“You didn’t tell me! Your best friend! We had coffee together, a week after it, and you didn’t tell me!”

“Hey, no fair. I sort of did… what I knew, anyway.” Cally shook her head, remembering back to the time when all she had were nightmares—no vampires in her life. “I hadn’t met them back then. Besides, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“All right.” Eve seemed half-mollified. “So, what are you going to do?”

“I was kinda hoping you could tell me.”

“Well, let’s see. Stakes, obviously. Garlic? Crucifix? Um, silver?” She perked up. “Wait! UV light!”

“UV light?”

“Yeah! It’s the stuff the sun puts out, right? Vamps are vulnerable to UV light. You can get these torch things. Any hardware store.”

“You think I should, what, attack him?”

“No, but defenses, right? Especially if that Minh guy comes back again and Antoine isn’t around.”

That was a good point. And a worrying one. Not just because Minh wouldn’t hesitate to rip her throat out, but because Antoine might protect her.

Which was concerning on a whole bunch of levels.

And also kind of nice?

No. Not nice. Concerning.

“I can’t trust Antoine,” Cally mused out loud.

“Why not?”

Cally frowned at her. “What do you mean ‘why not’? He violated me. He sunk his teeth into me and he drank my blood .”

“So?”

Cally blinked at her, staring. “What do you mean ‘so’?”