‘Of course.’ I shrug. ‘I didn’t help, dragging you out to the abbey in the dead of night. We could have had that same conversation in your flat.’
He hums, his smile almost reappearing. ‘I liked the abbey.’
Our eyes catch again and I tighten my hands into fists in my pockets to avoid doing something I can’t take back. Butthen Cam saves the day, barrelling through the door and closing it behind him with a flourish.
‘We meet again,’ he declares, like a cartoon villain, before grinning and flopping down in an empty chair across from us. ‘Florence, did you?—’
I pass him the vials of blood before he can finish, and he pockets them. ‘Excellent.’ He turns to Quinn. ‘So, as I was telling you last night, we have options here. These new samples are heading to a specialist lab in Edinburgh. I have an old colleague there who is very experienced in’—he pauses, weighing his words—‘less mortal matters. I have every confidence that you are a puzzle he will be able to crack.’ His glasses slip down his nose and he shoves them back up with a forefinger. ‘And until then, we have something in medicine that we call “watch and wait”. Basically, we keep an eye on you and just see what happens. We’ll do regular bloods, monitor your symptoms, and wait to see if anything changes.’
Quinn’s nodding slowly. I imagine it’s not the decisive answer he was hoping for, but quite often with the human body– and the not-quite-human body– there isn’t a straight answer.
‘What do I do in the meantime?’ he asks, that crease reappearing between his brows, and it makes Cam’s grin change to something softer, something wistful.
‘I suggest,’ Cam says, uncharacteristically serious, ‘the same thing I would suggest to any patient: live your life. Enjoy every moment of your mortal existence as if it’s your last. Whatever happens, one day it will be.’
And as Cam’s words settle in my consciousness, I suddenly know exactly what I can do to help.
ChapterEleven
QUINN
It’s a little after one in the morning and I should definitely be asleep. But, as is happening more and more these days, I’m definitely not.
It’s difficult, now that I know about the whole partial vampire business, to know which new symptoms are down to that and which come just from worrying about it. The insomnia could go either way.
Some nights I lie awake wondering if it’s all a big mistake, one big, bad dream, and I’ll wake up one day soon and laugh about how realistic it was. Other nights– darker nights– I wonder how long I have left and I feel the darkness creep up on me slowly, sucking me further and further down with every day that passes.
But I’m not thinking about either thing now.
I’m thinking about Florence.
It’s been five days since I saw her at the clinic. Five days since I tapped my phone number into her contacts, adding my name and a single black heart emoji. Five days since she added hers to mine. Four days since I reasonably expected she might use it.
There was a vibe in the room, I was sure of it. There was more than one moment when my gaze snagged on her lips, when I thought about dragging her towards me and kissing her. I had, perhaps naively, thought she was feeling it too, but now it’s been five days of radio silence, so I guess not.
Fine, ok, I could text her first. Once upon a time I would have– I’d have done it before I even left the clinic, but I’m trying not to be that guy anymore. Things never worked out well for him.
And Florence? Florence is a woman worth waiting for.And,if she was willing to abandon her no-dating-humans rule, which admittedly is a bit of a roadblock, we could still work it out.
We could slow burn the hell out of this.
I sink down into my pillow, my mind flicking through its catalogue of Florence moments that have made my blood feel like it’s boiling in my veins, and I reach for my phone. I’m just about to conduct some google searches that I’ll definitely have to scrub from my history later, when, as though I’ve summoned her, her name lights up my screen.
FLORENCE
Tap.
Not what I was expecting, but I can work with that. After all, I’d tap?—
FLORENCE
Tap.
FLORENCE
Tap tap.
What?