‘Ok, this is new,’ Mina says, and when I turn back to look at her I see she’s watching us, her chin propped on a loosely clasped fist. But there’s no judgment in her expression the way there usually is the first time my friends meet someone I’m with. Instead, it’s something more like curiosity.
Mina– fully human as far as I’m aware– has a way of reading people that feels like it could be supernatural. She works as a journalist, so I suppose it makes sense. Her first impressions of people are almost always bang on, so the way she’s looking at Florence right now is honestly kind of validating.
It feels like maybe I haven’t totally fucked up, for once.
‘This is Mina,’ I say to Florence, grinning silent appreciation at Mina. ‘She’s Bram’s cousin, and Lucy’s best friend. Mina, this is?—’
‘Florence Everett, as I live and breathe,’ a deep, familiar voice rumbles from just behind Mina before I can finish. I feel Florence tense beside me.
‘Elias,’ she replies, which shouldn’t be a huge surprise, because most of the western world knows who Elias Moreno is. But not many of them say his name in that strange, guarded way. It makes something unfamiliar and vaguely nauseating race through me.
I honestly didn’t think I was a jealous person. It’s not something that’s really been a problem for me before, but then this is the first time I’ve found myself in a love triangle with a world-famous, 400-year-old master of seduction. I think he might even have been named World’s Sexiest Man last year.Fuck.
Ok, I’m getting ahead of myself here. All she said was his name, for God’s sake. They probably just know each other for general vampire reasons.
‘You two know each other?’ I ask, a lightness to my voice that’s definitely not reflective of the unease currently churning inside me. And it isn’t helped by the smirk that twists at Elias’s cover-model mouth.
‘We…haveknown each other,’ he says, and a knife twists in my guts. So much for the general vampire reasons.
‘You slept with Elias?’ I whisper-hiss at Florence, and her tiny nod almost ends me there and then.
‘Dude, chill,’ Elias says, in that easy way I normally admire about him. ‘It was a hundred years ago.’
But I do not chill. Instead, a fresh wave of nausea crashes over me and I clench my fists against it.
‘Fuck’s sake, Elias.’ Mina slaps him on the shoulder, her eyes alight with rage. ‘You could have taken that secret to your grave.’
He rolls his eyes, not even looking at her. Whatever grudge Mina is holding against him, it appears to be mutual. ‘I’m immortal,’ he replies, one eyebrow cocked. Mina grabs a handful of shirt at his shoulder and hauls him off his seat.
‘Excuse us for a minute,’ she throws over her shoulder, and she drags him away from the bar, disappearing through the door to the toilets.
When I look back at Florence, there’s something like an apology in her eyes. ‘It was a weak moment.’
I nod, trying to force the feeling down. I know, rationally, that I’m overreacting, but this isEliaswe’re talking about. I love the guy, but he’s on another level. Whywould you settle for a lowly bar manager when you could have an immortal A-lister?
Unless…
‘Remember what I said about vampire sex?’ she asks at exactly the same moment I remember it. The knot in my throat eases just a little.
‘Nothing you couldn’t do yourself,’ I say, and she nods, a slow smile spreading across her face.
‘I like Elias a lot,’ she says carefully. ‘He’s a good guy. But it’s literally been a hundred years since that night and in all that time I never once thought about sleeping with him again.’ Her hand slips under my Bitten T-shirt, fingers spreading across my abs. ‘I think for me it’s more about the person than the act.’ She rises on her tiptoes and kisses me just in front of my ear before she says, in a low voice. ‘Because with you, it’s all I can think about.’
Ok, that does it. The last embers of jealousy in my stomach are burned away by the roar of a bright new flame. I know what she means. My brain might have told me I was in love dozens of times before, but my body knows the difference. It curls around her, my hand going to her hip, squeezing through the soft fabric.
‘Come on,’ I say, watching as the last customers nod their thanks and slip out of the front door. ‘Let’s lock up and we can talk more about that.’
As I buzz around securing the bar for the night, I don’t think about the fact that Mina and Elias have not reappeared from the toilets, nor that Fox is whistling to herself while she cleans at the other end of the bar. All I can think about is getting Florence naked at my earliest convenience.
And maybe it’s the fact that all the blood in my body has been diverted to my crotch, but when I push through the door to the flat, those black spots suddenly reappear, dancing in front of my eyes as heaviness travels in a wave up from my feet. And the very last thing I hear before everything goes black is a distant chorus of vaguely familiar voices.
‘SURPRISE!’
ChapterTwenty-Two
QUINN
Awareness comes back to me like a heartbeat, a steady pulse of voices and lights so blurred together that I can’t pick individual things or people.