Page 72 of Vampire so Virtuous
“You didn’t tell me! Your best friend! We had coffeetogether, aweekafter it, and you didn’t tell me!”
“Hey, no fair. I sort of did… what I knew, anyway.” Cally shook her head, remembering back to the time when all she had were nightmares—no vampires in her life. “I hadn’t met them back then. Besides, I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“All right.” Eve seemed half-mollified. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I was kinda hoping you could tell me.”
“Well, let’s see. Stakes, obviously. Garlic? Crucifix? Um, silver?” She perked up. “Wait! UV light!”
“UV light?”
“Yeah! It’s the stuff the sun puts out, right? Vamps are vulnerable to UV light. You can get these torch things. Any hardware store.”
“You think I should, what,attackhim?”
“No, but defenses, right? Especially if that Minh guy comes back again and Antoine isn’t around.”
That was a good point. And a worrying one. Not just because Minh wouldn’t hesitate to rip her throat out, but because Antoine might protect her.
Which was concerning on a whole bunch of levels.
And also kind of nice?
No.Notnice. Concerning.
“I can’t trust Antoine,” Cally mused out loud.
“Why not?”
Cally frowned at her. “What do you mean ‘why not’? Heviolatedme. He sunk his teeth into me and hedrank my blood.”
“So?”
Cally blinked at her, staring. “What do you mean ‘so’?”
“We were talking about trust. He also protected you, didn’t he?”
“Because he ‘claimed’ me!” Cally said, anger at the injustice of it threatening to overwhelm her again. “Because he’s marked me! And I’m not even sure what that means!”Just that I can feel it, constantly tugging, like a god damn leash.
“Yeah, but he’s a vampire,” Eve pointed out, in the sort of tone that suggested it was fine for a lion to chew your head off, because he’s a lion. “I bethedoesn’t see it that way.”
“Good for him.”
Eve shook her head. “Not what I mean. We were talking abouttrust, right? Well, I think you can trust him—from what you’ve said so far, anyway.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, sure. I don’t think he’d hurt you.”
Cally hesitated. What Eve was saying… she’d thought the same, back in her kitchen. “I had considered going to see him. You know, tell him to remove the mark?”
The mark had tugged at her for the last half hour, a constant background reminder of Antoine’s existence. Then again, he had been the topic of conversation the entire time. And even when he wasn’t, he was still on her mind. How could he not be?
“It’s not abadidea,” Eve mused. “I mean, it is, but it’s not, too. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”
Cally blinked rapidly. “I came over here because I was thinking of going to see him, expecting you to talk some sense into me. Instead, my best friend of… however many years—”
“—Eighteen—”
