***
“Okay,” she admitted around another long pull from the straw in her tumbler, slowly lowering it as we passed through FangTech’s front doors. “You were right.”
Her shoulders loosened visibly after that sixth gulp, color returning to her face little by little.
“I definitely needed this.” She lifted the smoothie in surrender. “Who knew a tiny amount of sunlight could make me feel half dead and starving?”
A laugh slipped out of her as she shook her head.
“I totally get why vampires become night creatures now. Human me would’ve judged.”
“It gets easier,” I assured her, watching the way she instinctively stayed closer to me while we walked through the lobby. “Your body’s still adjusting. Right now, everything hits harder because you’re newly turned.”
Her nose scrunched faintly.
“So eventually I won’t feel like I got hit by a truck after five minutes outside?”
“Eventually,” I said, amused.
My gaze drifted over her again, and irritation immediately tugged at me.
I hated the glamour spell.
The disguise did its job, sure. Brown hair. Green eyes. Softer features. Safe. Forgettable. But it erased her, and the only one I wanted to stare at was her.
It stripped away the sharp, dark edge that made Olivia look like trouble wrapped in charcoal and smoke. Gone were the ruby eyes that flashed when she got worked up. Gone were those red-tipped braids my fingers had already become obsessed with.
This girl beside me looked pretty, but she didn’t look like my mate. My Olivia.
Not for the first time, I found myself counting down the days until we figured out who tried to kill her so she could stop hiding.
And fuck, that search was turning into a nightmare.
Since the shooting, I’d had people digging nonstop. We’d hunted down every alley camera, every whisper on the street, every mechanic, dealer, and low-level idiot with loose lips and nothing.
Whoever pulled the trigger either knew exactly what they were doing… or got impossibly lucky.
No one was bragging. No rumors had spread. Even the people who heard the gunshot conveniently “saw nothing.”
The streets around the garage were scrubbed clean except for tire tracks too muddled to identify.
Every dead end only made the frustration worse. Our only real lead was Olivia’s memory, which still hadn’t come back.
At the front desk, I handed her a guest badge application and watched her glance around the lobby like she was trying to absorb every detail at once.
The awe on her face reminded me of the first time she saw Calix’s underground lab. That same spark lit behind her eyes now, and I realized her brain worked like his.
Different angles. Different solutions. Different instincts.
Which was exactly how I knew where she’d actually care about going.
Not the executive offices or fancy conference floors. Testing and Development. Calix’s territory.
The elevator dinged open, and I stepped aside, motioning her in first. Then I looked over my shoulder at the employees waiting behind us.
One glance was enough.
They immediately pretended they’d always intended to wait for the next elevator, but Olivia still looked back at me suspiciously before stepping inside.
