Page 72 of Vampires of Eden

What do I even say?

My phone buzzes in my hand and I toss it across the couch, startled like a snake bit me. It lands right side up, glowing with a phone call. Cautiously, I lean to view the screen and caller ID.

The unknown number.

Daniel.

Dazed, I sit on the couch and set my feet on thefloor, staring forward and waiting for the buzzing to stop. There’s no way in hell I can talk to him on the phone. Three minutes ago, I didn’t even know that Daniel owned a cell phone. Now I’m supposed to talk to him on it? After I’ve been a cringeworthy weirdo?

No. Not happening.

He said that Josefina would manipulate him with her aura. Compelling him to desire her. When he told me that, I couldn’t help but think of my behavior with Oliver and how I used to proudly flare my aura outward around him. Not because I wanted to manipulate him. I just… I wanted him tolikeme.

I wanted him to feel drawn to me and my nature, so I was never shy about relaxing my aura in his presence. I wasn’t ashamed to hone in on his essence, either. Sometimes we’d be in the same room and I’d quietly study his scent and presence—analyzing him in the same way that a scientist might thoroughly examine a spore under a microscope. I wanted to know him, deeply and truly. Every part of him.

The irony is, despite all that, I didn’t know him at all.

Not in any of the ways that mattered.

The very last time that I fed from Oliver was a disaster. I could feel him slipping away. Not just emotionally, because we never had that connection to begin with. But physically. The way he’d look at Aries in passing and smile at him. The way they danced together at the ball, with Oliver laughing and more euphoric than I’d ever seen him before. It hurt so much. That was also the night where I understood that our union was in danger.

Then, he told me outright that he wanted to leave. That he wanted nothing to do with me, our arrangement or all the hopes and plans I had for us.

Feeding from his neck, I felt desperate to keep him close. I wanted him so badly—to the point where I ignored his will.

I hurt him and I scared myself.

It frightened me that I could want someone bad enough totakefrom them. Like something dark and possessive lurking within me that I didn’t realize was there.

My mobile stops ringing against the couch, but anxiety makes my shoulders and chest stiff. Paralyzed.

I don’t know if I’ve hurt Daniel, but that’s definitely not what I want. All I can do is apologize. I’ll do that and assure him that it won’t happen again.

I am not a manipulative vampire.

I’mnot.

With trembling hands, I reach for my phone and set it in my lap. I close my eyes and give myself a moment to think before typing a message.

[Hi Daniel, I’m very sorry about what happened yesterday. I don’t know what came over me and it was inexcusable, but I promise that it won’t happen ever again. I hope you can forgive me.]

I read the simple message five times before I hit send and lay the phone face down against my thigh. There’s… nothing else I can do, really. So, I exhale another breath and try to ease the tension in my shoulders.

My effort is short-lived, because my phone buzzes against my thigh.

Continuously.

Another phone call.

With wide eyes, I carefully flip it over. It’s Daniel.

“Why do you keep calling me?” I whine. Is he determined to scream at me? I apologized to him. What more could he possibly want?

When it stops ringing once more, I set it on the opposite arm of the couch, away from me. I lie down and go back to watching Buffy, even though it does little to ease the pounding tension in my neck and shoulders.

Raphael said that he didn’t raise a coward.

He did, though. Because I decide to skip my normal day at Kat and Roland’s house. I’m going the day after instead.