Page 49 of Bite Marks & Broken Hearts

I was a monster. I was a creature of darkness, and I had no right to drag Flynn into my shadows.

10

Flynn

Iclosed the door behind me, sagging against it with an exhalation of visceral relief. My Killigrew Street room would finally offer a sanctuary from the absolute madness outside. My hands still trembled as I crossed to the bed, sinking into the plush duvet.

My few possessions lay scattered about—a duffle bag of clothes spilling onto the floor, my laptop perched precariously on the bedside table, and the worn photo of Mum, Katie and me at Giant’s Causeway propped against the lamp. The familiar items did little to ground me to reality.

Blood.There’d been so much blood.

And those fangs. That woman’s—no, thatvampire’s—fangs, sharp as razors, an inch away from my neck.

Vampire.

The word ricocheted through my mind like a stone skipping across water.

Seconds before the attack, I’d been drunk on my own daring—fingers trailing down Seb’s tie, mind racing with thoughts of pulling him closer. What else could a nighttime trip to a romantic moonlit marina mean, right?

Thenboom.The fragile moment between us had exploded like a storm surge, dragging everything I thought I knew into its depths.

I couldn’t stop seeing it—that moment Seb’s eyes had locked with mine, his lips curling back to reveal fangs just as lethal as his attacker’s.

How had I not known he was a fuckingvampirethis whole time?

My lungs constricted. The walls of my room pressed in, suddenly claustrophobic. I needed air, needed to run, needed to hear somethingnormal. Needed to hear a voice that didn’t belong to this world of monsters and blood and death.

My phone felt heavy in my hand as I pulled it from my pocket. Before I could overthink it, I pressed Mum’s number and held my breath.

“Flynn?”

Her voice, soft and lilting with that familiar accent of home, hit me like a punch to the gut. One syllable carrying years of shared history, worry, and love.

“Hi,” I choked out.

“What’s wrong?”

A laugh bubbled up, hysteric and raw. “How did you know?”

“What’s happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I am. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Well, it’s about time! Are you… missing us?” The hope in her voice mixed with confusion, cutting deep. After all, I’d left nothing but a hastily scrawled note on the table before disappearing. That night, every second had felt like drowning, and I was too much of a coward to face the horror in my mother’s eyes when I told her I was abandoning her. “Are you coming home?”

“No, Mum. I live here now.”

Her sigh crackled through the phone. “I didn’t know you hated it here quite so much, you know. You hid it so well.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Then explain it to me!” Her voice rose sharply, and I tensed, waiting for the explosion. “Your messages have been so short and vague. You never once mentioned to me that you wanted to leave, never complained about the boats—and now you’re suddenly in London working at some random bakery? You don’t know how worried we’ve all been, Flynn! It’s all your sister can focus on, and Tom keeps ringing her every other day.”

The mention of Tom and Katie made my teeth grind together. This was a mistake, ringing home. I couldn’t deal with talking about it, especially not after everything that had just happened.

“And you told Barbara to rent out your room to someone else? What if you change your mind? You’ll never find another room here. You’ll have to move back in with me!”

“I’m not going to change my mind.” Demon marks and vampire attacks aside, London was slowly becoming home in its own way. Sure, the loneliness gnawed at me most nights, but at least here I could breathe.

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