Page 58 of I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell

I’m still holding the door open, so I pop my head outside to take in the dark sky. Like last night, it’s filled with deep purple low-hanging clouds, so dense they block out the moon. I turn back to Luke, locking the door behind me. “Another Reckoning?”

He nods, sitting on the edge of the bed facing the love seat so his back is to me. “Tatianna says it will be the sixth one this month. They’re getting closer together.”

Tatianna. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. Not synonymous with charcuterie cheese that pairs best with fig jam and prosciutto.

“And you trust her because…?”

His laugh is sharp. “Oh, I don’t trust her. But she has no reason to lie about this.”

“How do you know her?”

He’s silent for a long moment. I come around to the love seat and sit so I can see his expression, but it’s guarded.

“We were lovers in a past life.”

Lovers. The word is passionate, so much more so than calling her an ex.

“It was a long time ago,” Luke continues. “I was young, barely more than a teenager. We weren’t together very long. It was all fast and exciting and like a match. Burned out far quicker than expected. We had some very big differences.”

“Like how she’s a vampire?”

His expression fractures, all the indication I need to know I’m right. “How’d you know?”

I’m glad he doesn’t insult me by refuting it. “Just some hypothesizing. All the red meat on the menu. The boy who took me to our room could smell the blood from my leg, I think. Every drink the bartender poured was darker and thicker than normal beer. I didn’t know blood on draft was a thing.”

“They get creative these days, don’t they?” He chuckles. “Yes, vampires. Tatianna is the leader of the Midwest clan.”

“Did you know this was their territory when we stopped here?”

“I did. Vampires tend to be fairly hospitable. But I was hoping not to run into her.”

“You’re on her turf.”

He grimaces. “I’m more than aware. We’re not staying long.”

“If the other vamps find out we’re human, are we screwed?”

He shakes his head, leaning back on his elbows. “Doubtful, unless we do something to really piss them off. They have more than enough blood on hand to sustain them. For this clan, sucking blood straight from the source tends to be more of a…sensual thing.”

I’m assaulted by a visual of Luke and Tatianna mid-bloody make-out session. Two objectively hot individuals with red handprints and kiss marks dotted across each other’s skin, clothes shredded—

“Brie, are you listening?”

I’m snapped out of the pervasive daydream by Luke’s amused voice. “Huh? Yes. Of course. What’d you say again?”

He stares at me with a wry expression. “I asked if you mind if I shower first.”

Fifteen minutes later, Luke emerges from the bathroom in a cloud of steam. Unlike the movies, he is not barely covered by a white towel wrapped around his waist that shows off the abs I’m 99 percent sure he’s sporting. Instead, he’s fully clothed, which, good, he should be. If I can’t walk around in a towel showing off my nips, neither can he.

He wears a nearly identical outfit as before, though his black shirt is fresh and rip-free. His dark hair sticks up at all angles as he runs his fingers through it.

“Will it keep you awake if I shower, too?” I ask, stretching as I rise from the love seat, where I’ve been reorganizing my duffel.

Luke shakes his head, flopping onto the bed in a way that I find endearing but the springs don’t, if all the squealing is anything to go by. I pick up the stack of my things to take into the bathroom and am nearly to the door when his tired voice makes me pause.

“I didn’t know you wear glasses.”

I glance back at him. “Usually contacts, but I had to take them out. I’m not a fan of how I look in glasses.”