“Are we taking this outside, bloodsucker? Or are you going to tear my throat out in front of all these customers?”
“Outsidewasthe plan.” Charley took another healthy swig of the drink, the rage in her eyes lowering from a boil to a simmer. A soft curse escaped, quickly turning into a snicker. “The thing is, Jaci, I really fucking like you.”
Jaci’s chest flared with an unfamiliar warmth. She liked Charley too. In another life, she imagined they’d probably be pretty good friends.
She let her eyes return to their usual blue, the hellfire cooling inside.
“Also,” Charley continued, “my future brother-in-law would stake me if I laid a finger on you—even a finger laid in his defense—which would make Christmas dinnersuperawkward. I mean, the Redthornes just started talking again after half a damn century. The last thing they need is a catfight tearing them apart for another fifty years. I swear, those royal vampire man-babies can hold a grudge like—”
“Charley? As much as I appreciate the deep dive on the Redthorne family history, I’d rather skip the pregame and get right to the beat-down. Anticipating my own demise gives me anxiety.”
“Tempting offer, but…” Charley let out a resigned groan, the very last of her anger melting away. “I think you need a friend more than you need a beat-down. And that’s saying something, because you need a beat-down somethingfierce.”
“A friend.” Jaci practically snorted. “Right. And you’re volunteering? Thirty seconds ago, you were ready to slaughter me.”
Charley lifted a shoulder and sipped her drink, peering at Jaci over the rim of her glass.
That Charley didn’t trust her was obvious. So why the hell was she sitting here, dangling the f-word out in front of her like a bone for an attention-starved dog?
Jaci waited another beat for Charley to answer, but her response never came.
“I’ve lived my entire life without friends,” Jaci said, ignoring the burn of guilt and fear when she thought of Meech, who still hadn’t answered a summoning. “Pretty sure I’ll survive for another…. well, however many days I’ve got left.”
“Is that what you want? Tosurvive?”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s not bad. I just think you should aim a little higher than merely surviving.”
“Oh, I’d love to. Unfortunately, not all of us have the luxury of marrying the king of the supernatural underworld and being whisked off to a beautiful castle in the country.”
Jaci hated the bitterness in her voice, but what the hell was she supposed to say? Charley might’ve had a rough past, but now she was a vampire queen, cherished and loved, protected, part of a family that would do anything for her. She could afford to aim higher than survival.
Jaci didn’t have that luxury.
“That’s fair.” Charley reached into the garnish dish behind the bar for another lime, squeezing it into her drink. “A bullshit copout, but fair.”
“Copout?” Jaci laughed, a hollow and bitter sound that would’ve made her sad if she’d had time for wallowing. “So you got the fairytale happily-ever-after with a vampire who worships the ground you walk on. Congrats, girl, but life doesn’t always work out like that for the rest of us.”
“Are you kidding me?” Anger flared again in Charley’s eyes. She pointed at Gabriel, who was now at the other end of the bar conferring with one of his vampire goons. “That vampire, for all his flaws, is in capital-L Love with you. You’d have to be lobotomized not to see it.”
Jaci’s cheeks flamed at the insinuation, but she forced herself to stand her ground. “Even if that were true, which—”
“Oh, it’s totally true.”
“—which itisn’t… Do you seriously think that’s enough? That being in capital-L Love is so damn easy, everything else just falls into place?”
“Let me tell you something, Jaci. Love is theonlyeasy thing. It’s the rest of it that makes it feel impossible—all that messy, complicated shit we pile on because we think we don’t deserve to be happy. Because we can’t imagine that someone could see all the worst parts of us and still want to hold us at night and cook us breakfast in the morning and just… just fuckingbethere. And if you think Dorian and I didn’t go through our share of complicated shit, well… Get me drunk enough one night, and I’ll tell you some stories that’ll make your head spin.” She drained the rest of her drink, then lowered the glass and cringed. “Sorry. Was that insensitive? I didn’t mean ‘head spin’ in a demonic, exorcist kind of way. I meant the metaphorical way. Wait, your head doesn’tliterallyspin, right?”
“Wow,” Jaci deadpanned. “A gorgeous vampire queenanda comedienne? Watch out, world!”
Charley laughed, easing the last of the lingering tension between them.
“Look, Charley,” Jaci said. “I appreciate the pep talk almost as much as I appreciate you not killing me. I just don’t understand why you’re trying so hard. The Redthornes are your family—I get it. But I’m… I’m just the enemy they’ve got on retainer to bring down a succubus and break a curse so the rest of you can get on with your lives. You don’t need to go out of your way to be nice to me. You don’t even have to talk to me.”
Charley’s eyes filled with something far worse than her earlier anger.
Pity.
