Page 53 of Vampires of Eden

It’s starting to feel as if I’m wading farther out and deeper into the ocean, but I’m not wearing a life vest. Is it too late to turn back?

“How was your walk?” Leoni asks as we fold the table cloth together. Alexander is over by the van and on his phone.

“Fine, good,” I say. “He asked me what love is.”

“Oh? So, you had some light and trivial conversations, then?”

“He thinks love is like what he has with his cat.”

“People unconditionally love their cats,” Leoni observes. “Some people love their cats more than their children or spouses. I think you would be very lucky if he loved you as much as he loves his cat.”

“Shut up,” I hiss, panicking and looking over my shoulder. Thankfully, he’s far enough away that he can’t hear this ridiculous conversation. “I’m just... trying to benice, since allegedly, I need to work on that. Why the hell are we talking about love?”

“Because it must be in the air, cariño.”

I shake my head. “It is not!”

Unquestionably, Alexander has softened toward me this past week. But his mind and heart are totally centered on Oliver. I getit, because once upon a time, I stood in his shoes—agonizing and heartbroken over a vampire that rejected me.

Leoni takes the folded material and stacks it atop the already finished one sitting on the table. “You two go back to the cottage together,” she says. “I’m going to visit with my friend in town. I’ll have her drop me off at home later tonight.”

“Y-you’re ditching us again?” I ask, wide eyed. “Leoni?—”

“Danny,” she says, setting her hands on her hips. Squaring her posture. “You like him, yes?”

My heart flips in my chest as I balk. “No—Not like that, anyway. That would be totally, utterly stupid of me. I mean…” I remember Alexander calling me “Danny” earlier, all breezy and off-the-cuff as if he’s been doing it since forever. “I like a lot of things,” I deflect, agitated. “Rainy days, freshly baked bread… when I’m able to sleep at night for eight hours straight without getting too hot or numb. Which is rare?—”

“Fine. Have you told him anything about my sister?”

At this, my eyes practically bulge out of my head. “Hellno. Why on earth would I do that?”

Leoni grabs everything from the table and heads toward the van. “Oh, I don’t know, because she’s the reason why you’re in this state—and the reason why you’ve been a snarky asshole toward him and every other purebred you cross paths with.”

Rushing behind her, I lower my voice. “I’m changing my asshole ways, alright? I’m a recovering asshole.”

“All the more reason to open up to him about her. He hasn’t asked why you look like this?”

“No.”

“Tsk. Puercoespín is so damn polite. You should tell him why.”

“I should not.” This isn’t a topic that I can spring on someone without precedence. Who says he’ll even care? I don’t want him pitying me—or thinking that I’m scheming and trying to manipulate this situation into something for my own gain.

Because I am not.

We step up to the van just as Alexander pulls his phone from his ear. “Sorry about that,” he says, running his fingers through his hair. Those rings on his right-hand glisten under the silver light of the overcast sky. “Raphael needed to talk to me.”

“The manservant-best-friend-brother?” I say, not meaning to sound facetious but it comes out of my mouth that way.

Alexander scoffs, turning his nose up at me like he couldn’t be less bothered—but then he grins with a playful twinkle in his golden-brown eyes. He stalks past without saying anything and I’m left in his sweet and invigorating wake.

Bringing my palms up to my face, I exhale a groan.

I am losing my goddamned mind.

“Youlikehim.” Leoni whispers.

“I do not.”