I pulled out the book and crawled back on Andre’s bed, noticing how delicious the sheets smelled. I propped up some pillows and began to read.
The stilted language the author had used to translate the plays made them hard to follow, and soon the words began to blur together.
That was probably the moment I should’ve gotten up and asked to be driven home. Instead I set the book aside and curled up. Between the comforting smell of Andre’s sheets and the watchful, painted eyes of a younger Andre, I nodded off.
***
I breathed in the smell of pine needles and wood burning fire.
“Mmm.” My lips curled into a smile at the smell and I opened my eyes. I was in another freaking forest, wearing another freaking gown, and in another freaking bed. I glanced down at the arm thrown around my torso. I followed the arm back to its owner, a beautiful, dark haired man.
He leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.
This is a dream, so wake up. Wake up!
I jolted awake, and like every other night that I’d dreamed of them, the incubus surfaced from the dream alongside me.
“Get away from me!” I pushed away the demon’s hands.
Suddenly the demon was airborne. He slammed against the far wall and the mansion’s foundation shuddered. Andre was on him in an instant. He grabbed the demon’s wind-blown hair and slammed its head repeatedly into the ground.
I pushed aside the throw blanket that someone had covered me with and scrambled out of the bed.
The incubus was covered in black blood. I didn’t even know it was possible for them to bleed. “Tell your friends in hell that this is what will happen to each and every one of them the next time they decide to invade my soulmate’s dreams,” Andre said, baring his fangs.
The demon laughed at him. “You don’t scare us, brother. We welcome violence. More will come to visit her, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
***
Even after the demon had vanished, neither of us moved. Andre kneeled on the floor, head bowed, and I stood uncertainly off to the side. The unexpected violence had brought all those memories of Andre’s birthday gala back to the surface.
“How long was I asleep?” I finally asked.
Andre didn’t look up. “A couple hours.”
A couple hours? “Why didn’t you wake me?”
Andre gathered himself together and stood up. His expression was bleak. I noticed the black blood that had covered his fist was gone. Either he’d wiped it off, or it had vanished with the incubus.
“You were smiling in your sleep. You looked happy,” he said, as if that were explanation enough.
He picked up a book resting on his chair and placed it back on his shelf. It was the same book I’d been reading, Euripides’ plays. My heart did something funny.
He’d sat next to me and read a book I’d picked out while I slept. Strange that a man who a moment ago had acted out his most base nature could also enjoy something as civilized as classical Greek plays.
He stepped away from the bookcase and watched me. There was no remorse in his eyes. He wouldn’t apologize for what he did, but he was waiting to see how I’d react.
“Andre, violence won’t solve my problems.” I knew that even as I said this, I was a hypocrite. Hadn’t I killed someone who had threatened me? That seemed to take care of that situation pretty decently, too.
“I don’t want to scare you away Gabrielle,” he said, “but I also can’t let those who try to harm you go unpunished.”
We were at an impasse. Andre wasn’t going to change, and I could either deal with it, or I couldn’t. I sighed. “Thanks for beating the crap out of that creep,” I said.
Andre gave me a shadow of a smile, his way of acknowledging my decision to stay with him rather than running away again.
“But,” I said, “just so we’re clear: no more mass killings. If that happens again, I’m so out of here.” I couldn’t believe I’d ever have to say those particular words to someone.
He inclined his head, and I hoped the gesture was sincere because I had my doubts. I mean, if you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks, then teaching a vampire new ones should be next to impossible.
Chapter 9
“What the hell, Gabrielle?” Caleb had waited for me outside the Politia’s headquarters the next morning. On Saturday mornings we were required to come in for training, and in this case, to discuss the ongoing investigation. “You made out with Andre? The guy who left me to die?”
The guilt that I hadn’t felt yesterday slammed into me. When he put it that way, I sounded weak-willed. Maybe I was. “I did tell you it was a vampire orgy.”
“I sincerely hope you’re kidding about that.” He looked as though I’d kicked his puppy.
“I am,” I said. I could hear his heartbeat. It pounded away in his chest. Along with it was the smell of adrenaline. Confronting me was physiologically doing the same thing to him that whispers in the graveyard yesterday did to me.
He rubbed his face. “I’m going to be honest here for two seconds and just let you know that seeing those pictures fucking ripped my heart out.”