Orfeo coaxes me toward him with a microscopic flex of his finger. His eyes search my face. Standing this close, I see them—his fangs.Gentle points that press into the soft flesh of his bottom lip. Like the rest of his teeth, they’re perfectly straight and white.
Kiss me, I think. Such a foreign thought. But I want it so badly. I want his mouth on mine, on my jaw, on my neck.
Am I his prey? I need to know. I need to know if all of everything I’m feeling is some form of enchantment. Or if I’ve just lost my mind.
“I don’t know how much or how little of you they saw, and if they ever learn what you can do, they will try everything possible to trap you in their world. This power you have…” He devours my features with his gaze, settling for a moment on my lips. Orfeo pulls in a quick breath. “It’s incredible. Stay away from Hades House, Diantha.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
Orfeo holds me there, eyes narrowed. Is he trying to read my mind? Then, he drops his finger from under my chin. Instantly, I miss the warmth. “I’m going to leave now.”
I don’t want him to go. I don’t want to sleep in my apartment, alone with my thoughts and the vague terror that something bad is happening in Echidna. But I also don’t want him to leave just yet. I need more information. I want him to take off his shirt again and slip between my sheets and speak to me in that deep, throaty voice for hours.
I force myself to turn away from him. “See you tomorrow night in class.”
“Tomorrow night.” Orfeo clears his throat. “Ciao, Diantha.”
The balcony doors slam shut. He’s gone.
Orfeo
“Stronzo di merda,where have you been?”
Some vampires can glare holes into their victims’ heads. Not me. The look I give Leo just makes him laugh. “Living my fucking life,stronzo di merda.”
After an hour spent in the company of a woman whose form would have brought Donatello to his knees, Leo’s dopey smile is an assault on my eyes. What pathetic company I’ve found myself in.
Leo smirks. “Alfo won’t like that.”
Imagine if I actually had any courage left in me to tell Leo the truth? Undeniably, Diantha has powers that could topple Alfo. Her decoupling alone is a magical mastery beyond anything I’ve seen out of that buffoon.
And I’ve always suspected that Leo isn’t as loyal as he lets on. There’s something about the way he narrows his eyes when Alfo speaks. The way he grits his teeth when he’s given an order.
It is a moot point.
I would never betray Diantha. She may be a stranger, but I see her clearly. Her eyes are wide open in some ways—and yet she has remained so blissfully unaware of what is actually goingon around her. I felt her power and her innocence in equal measure.
I want to believe that there is a way to be supernatural—to be so close to the apex of Good and Evil—and remain gentle and kind in the way only humans are. I guess I want to believe that Diantha is not too good to be true.
Pathetic, idiot vampire.
Human Orfeo was never this poetic, this obsessed withcapturingsensations and emotions as though they are lightning bugs.
“What does he care?” I check the Bvlgari watch around my wrist. Its silver face catches the light, reminding me that beauty still exists in this horrible world. “My shift starts in five minutes. What the hell have you done to this place?”
In the last twenty-four hours, the interior of Hades House has been cheapened so dramatically I can’t imagine a governor or mayor—or really anyone capable of spelling their own name—ever wanting to step foot in here again.
The first floor—the dining room—has been destroyed: heavy-backed walnut chairs stacked and pushed into far corners of the room, leaving deep drag marks through the rugs and scratches on the wooden floors; and the lacquered bar and baroque crown molding have been half covered in dirty drop cloths.
And the cherry on top is, of course, a fucking disco ball jerking around in a circle, sending a honeycomb of colors lurching around the room. Leo sits guard next to it on a folding chair, staring at me with a look filled with boredom and utter daftness.
“He cares because he needed something and you weren’t immediately at his feet, you fuck. And the rest of us had to hear it.”
“Right, of course. He needed his little Roman servant boy.” I snort, digging the heels of my hands into my eyes. “What are we doing tonight?”
“More vibe adjustments.” Leo rounds the bar and pours himself two fingers of bourbon. “Drink?”
I shake my head. “How the fuck did he buy this place?”
