Page 73 of You Only Love Twice
"Is he going to demand repayment?"
"Already accounted for, Gem. I'll pay the price."
"With a pound of flesh?"
Ingrid gave her a wolfish smile. "It's a great hardship, I know, but I am prepared to make this sacrifice for the sake of our friendship."
"Thatisincredibly selfless of you," Ava said, with a choked laugh. She was new enough to the world of physical pleasure she still blushed whenever Ingrid and Gemma teased her.
Gemma stepped aside, gesturing them inside her room. After the heartbreaking moment in Malloryn's study, she desperately needed the pair of them.
"Tell us everything," Ingrid demanded, then snagged the cork between her teeth and popped the bottle open. "Blud-wein for the pair of you." She filled the glasses Ava held up, the liquid thick and viscous. "And brandy for me, as drinking blood-laced wine is vile."
Gemma tipped the glass to her lips and drained the entire damned thing.
"Oh, dear," Ava said when she lowered the empty glass. "That bad, huh?"
Ingrid lounged on the bed, handing the bottle over.
"I hope you brought more for Ava," Gemma said, taking the bottle for herself and knowing neither of them would protest. Bugger the glass. Screw etiquette. "Here's to Malloryn choking on his own tongue."
She drank to that.
Ava produced a flask from inside her apron pocket. "You definitely deserve the entire bottle. Don't worry about me. Kincaid's been corrupting me, and I had a feeling we'd all have sore heads in the morning so I came prepared. Blud-wein's not my poison of choice, either."
"A blue blood who doesn't like blood. What are we going to do with you, Ava?" Gemma shook her head. "Oh, well. More for me."
"So... apparently we share a common interest indhampirmen," Ingrid prodded. "I never knew you had such wicked secrets."
Gemma took a seat next to her, and Ava knelt on the end of her bed.
"I have some bad news for you," she told Ingrid. "Apparently Byrnes is due to eventually grow a set of razor-sharp canine teeth."
Ingrid had her glass to her lips and almost sprayed brandy across the room. "What?"
Ava thumped Ingrid's back as she choked.
Gemma explained, hooking her index fingers into little curls and tucking them under her lip to mimic fangs. "Like Dracula."
"I always wondered if Bram Stoker took the blue blood myth and embellished it. We've never had fangs, after all." Ava frowned, and then suddenly grew excited. "But what if he had somehow encountered some sort of story aboutdhampirsomewhere? What if—"
Ingrid tossed a pillow at her. "No, Ava! No talk of craving viruses and the origin of thedhampirtonight. I want to know more about Byrnes's teeth. The man's a menace as it is."
"Well, we all know there's been an increase in Byrnes's, ahem, stamina. Apparently, his bloodlust's going to go through the roof as well, from what I understand," Gemma said.
"Too late for that warning," Ingrid muttered into her glass.
Her eyes shot to the other woman's neck. Then Gemma snatched her wrist. Not a mark upon her. "Ingrid Miller. Just where is your husband biting you?"
"Don't worry. I bite him back."
"What sort of menace?"
"Can't corrupt innocent ears," Ingrid said, with a wink.
"Oh, it's not as if we cannot hear the pair of you every damned night," Ava protested. "And I shall have you know—"
"Not Kincaid!" Both Gemma and Ingrid plugged their fingers into their ears.
