barely noticed it.
But like sharks in ocean waters, vampires were evolutionarily adapted to find blood.
His head cranked around of its own volition, and then his body moved slowly.
Off in the distance, he heard the thump of the front door shutting, but he didn’t pay any attention to the sound. Every part of his consciousness was trained on that closet.
With a feeling of utter unreality, he reached out and pulled heavy, black folds forward.
When he’d looked in here the night before, he’d made a wrong assumption. What he’d thought was a black bathrobe was, in fact . . . a black cloak. And as he put his nose to the thick fabric?
He smelled blood. Dried blood, but blood nonetheless. And it was from a female.
What the fuck?
In the foyer of Boone’s family’s mansion, Helania stood aside as Rochelle put on a lemon yellow draping coat—which was probably worth more than the truck Helania had back at her place. And yet the female had no pretension about her.
“I really need you to know,” Rochelle was saying, “that I was wrong to make Isobel stay silent about us. I put her in such a terrible position, and all because of my own fear. But that’s over now. I’m not hiding any longer. If all this has taught me nothing else, it’s that life is short, no matter how many nights you’re given, and I’m not wasting any more time. I’m going to come out to my parents and move all the way into that white house—and just so you know, you and Boone are welcome anytime.”
Helania smiled a little sadly, and then murmured, “You never know what the future holds.”
Putting her hand on her lower belly, she thought about duty and obligation—and people sacrificing for a greater good that meant they didn’t live their full lives. She and Boone were going to have to resolve their relationship at some point, but she was afraid of the future for them. Pregnant or not . . . she wanted to believe they would be together, but she worried about that dutiful side of him.
The part that meant he sacrificed himself, no matter the cost.
Sure, the sex they had was good. But it was nothing worth compromising your future for.
As the lights went out again, she waited for them to come back on. When they did, Rochelle was looking over expectantly, as if she were hoping for a less obtuse statement of where things stood between Boone and Helania.
“It’s just,” Helania said, “you know, he and I—who knows what will happen.”
The beautiful blond aristocrat frowned. “He’s in love with you.” Helania recoiled, but at the same time, a secret place in her heart got excited. The former she didn’t try to hide. The latter, she forced herself to temper.
“He can’t be in love with me. I don’t know if he’s told you, but I went through my needing the other night. So . . . if he said we’re getting mated or something, it’s only because of that—”
“He didn’t tell me anything about your time having come. But he did say to me that he’d fallen in love with you at his father’s Fade Ceremony.”
Helania did the math on the days of the week. Wait . . . that had been before her needing. “What are you talking about?”
“Right in there.” The female pointed off across the foyer. “In the males’ formal bathroom. He was melting down in the middle of the crowd after the ceremony, and I took him in there for a break. He told me he was in love with you. Look, you guys do what you want, but bonded males? They fall within seconds, as the saying goes. And I have to tell you, Boone’s one of the very best males I—”
The blow to Helania’s head came from out of nowhere. One moment, she was grappling with a total game changer; the next, she was aware of the other female rearing back in terror. Before she could ask why, a ringing pain exploded in her skull, the impact of whatever it was causing her to lurch to the side, stumble . . . fall.
As she hit the ground, her vision went fuzzy and her hearing phased out completely. But as it turned out, she was just a secondary target. Rochelle was backing up against the foyer wall, someone coming toward her with menace and a long-bladed knife.
Training all her will into her eyesight, Helania tried to carve a window of focus out