"How old are you?"
"Older than I look."
"How old, Edgar?"
"I'm fifty-three years old. That's very young for an immortal."
She pressed both hands to her temples. "You told me you were twenty-eight!"
"I look twenty-eight, so that's what I tell people."
"Oh my God." Angelica's eyes were filling with tears now. "We've been together for four months, Edgar! And you've been lying to me this whole time?"
The accusation hurt, but it was justified. "There are rules about revealing our existence to humans. I couldn't tell you the truth before."
"Bullshit!" She grabbed her pillow and threw it at him. Edgar caught it easily. "You kept this huge, massive secret from me! You let me fall in love with you while lying about who and what you are!"
"I didn't lie about my feelings. Those were always real."
"How am I supposed to believe anything you say?What else have you lied about? Are you really a pilot? Is your name really Edgar?"
He stifled the urge to roll his eyes. "Did you forget that Frankie introduced us? Would she lie about who I was?"
"Well, she did, didn't she?"
"About the immortality, because she couldn't tell you! Everything else was true. My job, my name, all of it."
"That's not exactly a small detail, Edgar! That's like saying 'oh, by the way, I'm secretly a serial killer, but everything else about me is totally honest!'"
"It's nothing like that. I'm not a criminal."
"You've been manipulating me this whole time. And thralling me. Making me see things, or rather not see things, messing with my mind. What the hell, Edgar? How am I supposed to ever trust you again?"
Edgar's stomach sank. He'd hoped she would react to the whole thing better.
"It was only to hide my fangs and make you forget that I'd bitten you."
"Get out." Her voice was deadly quiet now, which was somehow worse than the shouting.
"Angel—"
"Get. Out." She pointed a shaking finger at the door. "I can't even look at you right now. You are a monster! You've bitten me and made me forget it."
"But I didn't make you forget the awesome orgasms my venom induced. You certainly liked those."
"Get out!" she shrieked. "Now!"
The door burst open with enough force to make itbang against the wall, and Frankie rushed in with Dagor right behind her.
Julian must have contacted Frankie to let her know that her cousin was awake, and she must have dropped everything to get to the clinic this fast.
"Angelica!" Frankie hurried to the bedside. "Oh, thank God you're awake. We got here as fast as we could. How are you feeling? Are you?—"
Angelica punched her in the arm. Hard.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"That's for keeping secrets, you lying bitch!" Angelica was crying and laughing at the same time now, that volatile combination of emotions Edgar was well familiar with. "You turned immortal and you didn't tell me?"