“I-I-I cannot,” Kitty said, stammering the words. This was a nightmare. Adowager countessstood before her, asking for her help, and she was sayingno. As much as she craved the future she’d dreamed of since she’d been a young girl, she loved Cordon more. Therefore, there was no other option but to decline and join his side as soon as possible.
She would have other opportunities in the future.
Eventually.
She looked up from the worktable, prepared to suffer Lady Kilkenny’s ire for refusing her, but the woman was smiling.
“I thought you might say that,” the countess said. “There is something else you should know, then.” She grinned, revealing two sharp, elongated teeth.
Kitty’s body reacted before she could process what she was seeing. She scrambled back and nearly tripped over a stool. Lady Kilkenny hadfangs.
“W-What are you?” Kitty asked.
The countess sniffed. “Come now, child. I have seen into your mind. You already know. You simply refuse to admit it.”
She squeezed her hands until her nails bit into her palms. “No. It’s not possible.”
Cordon’s eyes had changed color. His flesh had burned from a mere ray of sunlight. Then there was that sharp, piercing pain each time he’d brought her pleasure. The warm substance that had dripped down her shoulder that he’d claimed had been saliva. He had bitten her because he’d been drinking her blood.
She must have been dreaming, or the countess was playing a cruel joke, or Kitty had succumbed to the stress of her overbearing family and could no longer distinguish reality from fiction.
That was the only logical explanation.
Lady Kilkenny made a disparaging sound. “Humans. Even with the evidence before your eyes, you refuse to believe. You know what we are. If you will not say the word, then I will. Vampire.”
Cordon was a vampire.
A vampire who had held her in his arms as she’d cried, who had nursed her back to health when she’d fallen ill from exhaustion, who had kissed her with such tenderness that it had made her heart ache.
She should have been terrified, but all she felt was sadness because this was one more reason they could not be together. He wasn’t merely in a different social class from her; he was a differentspecies. Or was it breed? That depended on if humans and vampires could reproduce.
An anxious laugh erupted from her lips. She slapped a hand over her mouth. She was standing in front of what her religion considered a demon, and she was debating terminology. It didn’t matter if Cordon could reproduce because he was… how oldwashe?
Lady Kilkenny studied her nails. “Cordon was turned in 1737 at the age of three-and-forty.”
“One hundred and seventy-three,” Kitty whispered. She never would have guessed he was that much older than her. Then again, it explained his unusual fashion choices and occasional old-fashioned way of speaking. If she remained by his side, she would continue to age while he remained exactly the same. Except he had told her he was dying, and she had seen the bruising and the bags under his eyes. Surely, that could not have been a deception.
“It was not,” the countess said.
“What?”
“A deception. Yes, I can read your thoughts.”
Kitty winced. Having someone peer into her mind was tremendously uncomfortable, like she was being forced to take part in a conversation against her will. Oh, God, the countess could hear everything she was thinking. She would have to keep a tight hold on her thoughts and not remember a single thing she’d done with Cordon. Not the opera. Not the masquerade. Definitely not their ride in the forest and the way he’d used the switch on her after.
Lady Kilkenny sucked her teeth. “I apologize for my rudeness, Miss Carter.” She bowed her head. “I promise I will not intrude again. Now, if you are ready, I have a carriage waiting.”
Kitty blinked. “‘A carriage’?”
The countess ran her palms over her fitted bodice. “You love Cordon, do you not?”
Kitty’s throat went dry. “How do you—” She shook her head. “Never mind. Yes. I love him.”
Lady Kilkenny nodded. “Then I will take you to him.” She walked to the door. “Come. I have always wanted to be the force that reunites lovers.”
Kitty followed, feeling as if someone had removed her stomach and other organs and replaced them with stuffing.
She was going to see Cordon again.
