I stood amongst this hubbub, perplexed.
Was he moving in?
I mean, I was pretty certain Rafe didn’t live with Lana. I was equally pretty certain that Duncan didn’t live with my cousin Natalie.
By the way, I’d learned Natalie’s (my favorite cousin) vampire’s name was Duncan after my Selection, when I learned all my cousin’s vampire’s names. I had six cousins, four of them Selected, two of them not yet.
All of them, I was pretty certain, didn’t live with their vampires.
Furthermore, I was sure my mother didn’t live with Cosmo.
As I was standing in the hall watching the men go back out to their truck to get even more boxes, Stephanie waltzed in the opened door.
She looked fantastic in a royal blue satin blouse and matching skirt that fit her like a second skin and hit her at her knees. Her high-heeled, royal blue, strappy sandals were, no other words for it, the bomb.
As a woman, regardless of my current tumultuous state-of-being, I couldn’t stop myself from crying, “I love your outfit!”
She put her hands out and smiled. “Fab, isn’t it? We’ll get Lucien’s card and I’ll take you to the shop where I got it, kit you out.”
My pleasure at her outfit disappeared and I wrinkled my nose.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
She got close, her brows drawn, a small smile playing at her mouth. “Why’s that?”
“I don’t want anything from Lucien,” I announced grandly.
For some unhinged reason this made her laugh out loud like I was hilarious.
Then, eyes on me, she whispered, “God, I envy him.”
Boy, vampires were weird.
Suddenly something occurred to me and I looked out at the blazing sun Stephanie had just walked through to get to the house.
“You can’t be in the sun!” I shouted and it sounded like an accusation.
She asked through a chuckle, “What?”
“You,” I stated, pointing at her, “just walked through the sun.” I pointed out the door before dropping my hand. “I thought sunshine was deadly to vampires.”
Confusion washed through her face before she muttered to herself, “Vampire Studies aren’t what they used to be.”
“I was expelled,” I divulged.
Her beautiful blue eyes widened then she threw back her head and laughed, uproariously I might add, all the while coming toward me and sliding her arm around my waist. She moved me forward into the family room where she seated us facing on the couch.
“Vampires are human,” she told me.
I waved my hand between us and said, “I know that. Lucien explained that last night.”
“Sun isn’t deadly to us.”
I didn’t know that but I didn’t share mainly because she already knew I didn’t know that from my reaction.
She went on, “We were nocturnal, back in the day. That’s how that rumor got started.”
“Oh,” I said just for something to say.