Page 167 of Vampires of Eden

“Good. I’ll be waiting.”

Daniel and Leoni leave. I do a lap around the house, looking for Reginald Vern from theCentral Eden Courier and Newsand his camerawoman, but they’re not inside. Neither Roland nor Kathryn have seen them in a long while. I go to the front of the house to see if the news van is still parked there and the weirdest thing happens.

The van is there, but as I push the front screen open, it pulls off and drives away.

What the hell? I stand, watching as it disappears down the tree-lined lane.

Well, whatever. Maybe they decided to focus their story on the event itself and not me, like I’d hoped. The other news crew never even came inside the house. Apparently, they took some b-roll of the line and exterior, then made an appointment with Kathryn to do a more in-depth story later when the safe house is less busy. Which is the proper way to handle the situation, in my opinion.

Since I’ve been stood up, I say my goodbyes and congratulations to Kat and Roland on a phenomenal opening, then head to the vineyard cottage.

During my drive, I firmly decide that it’s time to confront my mother about this ridiculous Lord Cherrington situation. And to tell her about Danny.

It is not going to go well.

At all.

But if Daniel starts feeding from me, I’ll have to see him regularly to maintain his diet. There’s no way I can hide this from her and I refuse to.

If appearances mean everything to my mother, then there’s no positive way for her to respond to this situation. Me, feeding a first-gen vampire that I love, but have no formal arrangements with. In her eyes, this situation is preposterous, but… I have to face her.

When I pull up to the cottage, the sun is low and burnt orange in the sky. Threatening to disappear behind the jagged mountains surrounding me. I step out of the car and the air smells clean and fresh like damp earth and green.

As I bound the steps, I’m nervous.

When will I not be nervous anymore? Danny seems so confident lately. I know he likes me. No, he says he loves me, even still… is my rigid way of thinking about relationships and bonding arrangements holding me back?

I’m trying to relax and go with the flow. I am. But it’s not easy.

Now that I’ve given him consent, it’s like I’m naked. The omnipresent barrier that shields me from another vampire biting and feeding from me has dissolved between us. It’s strange, letting that shield drop for someone new. Someone I’m not Officially Engaged to—with capital letters.

It also doesn’t help that the only other vampire to ever intimately feed from me didn’t like me. I’ll never forget that murky gray but polite sensation that flooded my body when Oliver fed from my neck. I know that Danny is not Oliver, but I don’t… It’s a hard memory to shake.

I ring the bell. Within a minute, the door swings open. Thelight from the orange sunset at my back floods Daniel and makes his eyes radiant. He’s wearing a crimson-colored terrycloth bathrobe tied at the waist so that there’s a deep “v” exposing his pale chest. His long hair is damp and swept over his shoulder.

“Hello sweetheart—that was fast.”

I point to my car over my shoulder. “I can come back later if now’s not a good time?”

He frowns. “Come back later for what? To sell me a vacuum cleaner? Get in here.” Daniel reaches and tugs me forward by my jacket and I laugh, tumbling over the threshold and into the space of his body. He raises a palm to my face and kisses me.

I return the kiss, but then lift my head. “I know that was a joke, but could I be hypothetically selling you something less rudimentary? Encyclopedias, maybe? The Lord?”

“Hm, visually you do exude a kind of seraphim, ‘celestial herald of God’ aesthetic, so religion would fit.”

“I do not.” I step out of my shoes, then shrug out of my jacket. I should dye my hair. People wouldn’t see me like this and call me “Goldie” and shit if my hair was a different color.

When my jacket is on the hook, Danny slips his hand into mine. “You do, but I’m into it. Maybe it’s why I’m so desperate to make an absolute mess of you.” He steps closer and dips his face to kiss beneath my ear, then slips his free hand up to palm the opposite side of my head.

My entire body tenses as he kisses down into the curve of my neck.

“Are you about to bite me?”

Daniel freezes. He stands upright, impassive. “No, I am not about to bite you next to the front door. What is wrong with you?”

“I want to know when it’s going to happen.”

He narrows his eyes. “Why? So you can mentally prepare yourself?”