Page 25 of Vampire's Hearth

“What?” I blinked a few times as my eyes followed him to the dock. He hooked his hands into his waistband, and I spun my head away, feeling a heat in my cheeks and a tingle in my core. I wished he was something beyond the uncaring evil I knew vampires to be.

“Did he come back?” The words tumbled from Jade’s mouth.

I glanced out the window, an emptiness filling my chest as I strained to make out the shape of Mac’s pants on the dock. “No. He went for a swim in the river.”

“So why don’t you get out of there? Like, for good?”

“Because...”

Jade sighed. “Aurora, that does not sound good.”

“Neither is you calling me Aurora.” My annoyance at her motherly tone must have been more pronounced than I intended as a silence enveloped us.

“Are you going to tell me what’s happening, or do I have to guess?” Jade asked after a few seconds.

I took a deep breath, knowing how it would sound—ridiculous. It sounded ridiculous. “Sometimes I’m so drawn to him. It’s like I’m supposed to be with him. And then I had this dream—”

“A dream?”

“Yes.”

“Like a prophetic dream?” Her voice warbled like it did every time she was nervous. It was one of Jade’s tells.

“That is what it felt like, but it happened in the past, not the future. It looked like we were in Ireland. One thing was certain, though. I was definitely with him.” I pressed my lips together.

“You mean with, with him?”

I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see. How often had Jade and I had conversations like this, and now she was questioning me as if we were virgins? “Yes, I dream-fucked him.”

“Are you sure this isn’t something that we should talk to Amara about?”

I couldn’t stop the sarcastic laugh. “That’s just what I want to do—call my aunt and tell her about my sex dreams.”

“It sounds a little weird when you put it that way. But what are you going to do about it? What does it mean?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s probably just that infatuation you get when you think you’ve fallen in love with your rescuer.”

“Rory, you can’t. He’s a vampire.”

“That makes love a little difficult.” I glanced out the window again, part of me hoping to catch him as he came out of the river. Sure, I wasn’t close enough to see anything, but I had to admit I was curious.

“If we can’t talk to Amara, what about my mother?”

I looked at my foot propped up on the chaise. “And what are we going to tell her? Rory wants to fuck a vampire, and we need to figure out how to kill him?”

“I didn’t suggest killing him,” she retorted.

“Isn’t that what normally happens to vampires? We find a hunter to kill them?”

“True.” I’m sure Jade rolled her eyes as she said it. “But we need to figure something out.”

“Fine.” The word came out with an exasperated sigh. Just after, I could hear Jade open the door of her room.

“Mom,” she called. The timbre of her voice changed, so I knew I was on speakerphone.

“Yes, dear?” Evangeline sounded aggravated.

“Rory and I need to talk to you.”

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