Page 53 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

She spent more time with her camera after that, to avoid revealing to Beckham what had happened. The driver had agreed to stop at another clothing store, where she picked up a few plain T-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a baseball cap, and her coveted Converse. She had stashed all of those clothes in a hiding spot where hopefully no one else would find them and throw them away. On the rare occasion that Beckham was home when she was planning to head out, she would stash her street clothes in an oversize bag and change in the car.

It was hard enough getting pictures the way she wanted without standing out like a sore thumb. She never again wanted to encounter what had happened when she went back to the warehouses dressed in silk and heels. She might have a bodyguard, but people were not forgiving of the wealthy in this environment. And she could hardly blame them. She didn’t want their anger to come down on her.

And the pictures she wanted to take weren’t nice, normal pictures of the city. She preferred the ones that showcased the true heart of the city, sort of like the black-and-white ones hanging in Beckham’s living room. She wanted to capture what was really happening. She wanted to find her perspective.

Most of her time was spent trying to take pictures of the poor, the homeless, the beggars, starving vampires, human–vampire interaction on every level. She wanted to remember what it felt like to see these people. She never wanted to become the establishment or forget where she came from.

Every afternoon after she finished with her shots, she downloaded them to her computer and uploaded them to a secure site Beckham had made for her to organize her photos. He had done it all for her so she wouldn’t fuck up and reveal who she was—not that it even mattered. It was just pictures of the reality of city life.

But no matter what she did to occupy her time, the night of the ball approached. She had officially been in Beckham’s penthouse nineteen days. He hadn’t tasted one drop of her blood, and they had barely seen each other the last five days. She was both excited and anxious to spend the entire evening with him.

Beckham had hired a team of artists to do her hair and makeup for the event. When they finished and she looked in the mirror, she barely recognized herself. Her hair was piled high on her head in an intricate creation exposing her neck and collarbones, she noted anxiously. Her eyes were smoky and sultry and her face a perfect mask of porcelain. She hoped he approved.

Swallowing back her anticipation, she left her room to find Beckham leaning against the kitchen bar in a tuxedo, completely engrossed in his phone.

“Well?” she asked, turning slowly in her ball gown. She had finally decided on a floor-length, strapless, black-and-rose-gold lace dress that shimmered with her movement. It hugged her curves and transformed her figure in the most flattering of manners. It had a tasteful slit up the right side, which revealed the strappy black heels beneath.

She could feel Beckham’s eyes on her, but he remained silent. And when she finally stopped her circuit, she stared into his eyes and saw hunger, desperate hunger, reflected back.

“Is it okay?”

“You look exquisite,” he said.

She beamed at his approval. It was the most he had said to her in days.

He offered her his arm, and she rested her hand lightly on his sleeve, letting him draw her out of the apartment. They didn’t speak in the car. She was too nervous about what was about to happen. She had never been to a ball before and wasn’t sure what it was going to be like or how to behave. Couple that with her fears about Roland, and she was completely on edge.

When they pulled up to the giant building, Beckham helped her out of the car. A red carpet was rolled out for them, and as they passed the sea of reporters, cameras flashed, capturing their every movement. Beckham kept a tight grip on her hand. She felt safe in his grasp and wished he were like this all the time. But it was futile to wish for something that would never be.

Inside, the ballroom was enormous. The biggest room she had ever seen. The lighting was dim, and crystal chandeliers dripped from the ceiling, casting soft light on the crowd. Beautiful men in black tuxedos and women in tiny black skirts and white button-ups carried platters full of hors d’oeuvres and champagne. Glitz and glamour were everywhere, from gold-crusted champagne flutes to glittering diamonds on all the women. No expense had been spared for an event that had been planned in just a few short weeks.

The room was already filled with Visage employees, celebrities, and important political figures. It was both incredible and overwhelming.

“Wow,” she murmured.

“A bit pretentious, don’t you think?”

She startled and looked up at Beckham. Had he just made fun of the party for his boss?

She laughed softly, loosening up. “A bit.”

“Let’s go make nice,” he muttered under his breath.

Beckham meandered them lazily through the crowd. Everyone knew Beckham and wanted a few minutes of his time. At every turn, he stopped to say hello to a different person, and she was introduced to more people than she would ever remember. They were a blur of faces and tuxedos and ball gowns. All vampires. The only humans in the whole place were the servers, entertainment, and herself.

They finally made it to the front of the room and to his boss, Mr. Harrington.

“Beckham,” he cried. They shook hands like old friends. “I see you’ve brought the lovely Reyna. Roland and Cassandra have just shown up with their Permanents. We’ve had a few others roll into the program as well, and they should be in attendance tonight. Jesse, I believe, was bringing his subject.”

“That’s great to hear, sir,” Beckham responded cordially. “Everything working out with all the new positions?”

“As good as we could hope. One had to be taken back,” Harrington said flippantly. It didn’t seem to occur to him that he was talking about a human being. Or if it did, he didn’t care. “They didn’t seem to work out. No worries, though. Everyone else seems fine. Once the Blood Census goes into effect, we can start rolling this out company-wide.”

Beckham nodded. “Sounds like another success.”

“Indeed. Well, I need to go prepare for my big speech.” He nodded at Reyna once more and then disappeared.

“Reyna,” Sophie called, running up to her and kissing her on both cheeks. “I didn’t see this gown. I’m so jealous. That cow didn’t want me to have it, obviously.”

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