Page 54 of Once Bitten, Twice Mine

Though she couldn’t think of a justification for Nelly’s death.

As she hit the second-floor landing, she hesitated. Valeria would still be asleep, but she itched to see her. Last night had been transcendent, but she couldn’t afford for it to happen again. She was still engaged to Edgar. Even if their union wasn’t born out of love, he still deserved her fidelity.

Caroline did need to speak with her, though. She had danced around her belief that Valeria was the vampire they looked for. Whenever they were apart, that fear nearly consumed her, but the moment Valeria was in her presence, those fears melted away until all that remained was her desire.

At least she still had enough of a sense of preservation to have stopped Valeria before her teeth were in her neck. At least not until she knew if Valeria was a vampire.

With a sigh, Caroline turned down the hallway to Valeria’s room. Sunset was approaching quickly enough that it wouldn’t be long until she was awake. She didn’t bother opening the door slowly; it didn’t matter that Valeria was asleep or that the door squeaked. Nothing would wake Valeria up during the day.

Caroline stilled in the doorway. That was strange. She was a heavy sleeper, but she could still be roused. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t wake up Valeria. Part of her wanted to run away and lock herself into her room while her houseguest wasn’t a threat, but she needed to know for certain. This was Valeria, not some hypothetical monster.

Even though it was a violation of her trust, Caroline knew what she needed to do.

The room was pitch black, without even the soft glow of a single candle. If this hadn’t been a room Caroline had known her entire life, she wouldn’t have been able to reach the drapes. She would have stumbled into the armoire or the corner of the bed. Before she thought better of it, she tore open the drapes.

It wasn’t the violent reveal of the sun as it was when Dr. Murnau did it during the apex of the day. The light this close to sunset was dim as the last golden rays of sunlight had almost dipped beneath the horizon. It barely counted as sunlight.

Valeria’s skin instantly smoked, even worse than the patient who had been exposed to the full midday sun. There were no visible flames, but there was a sizzling sound that made her stomach turn. It sounded like when Cook had a pig roast. Unlike the patient earlier, Valeria didn’t scream or even open up her eyes. She kept completely still as she burned.

Caroline dropped the curtain and ran to the bed. The dim light from the hallway didn’t illuminate much, but she could see Valeria’s light pink skin as she ran her hands over her, checking for burns, but not finding any. Just unblemished skin that felt cool.

“What are you doing?”

Caroline’s panic stuttered as she looked up to see Valeria blinking confusedly at her. Her skin wasn’t smoking, and her color had returned to its usual pale olive. With lightning-fast reflexes, Valeria grabbed her wrist before she could pull it away.

“You were smoking; I was checking you for injuries.”

“Smoking.” Valeria frowned, her eyebrows stitched together until the expression melted from her face and a frosty look replaced it. “Did you let sunlight into this room?”

“Yes, but only for a moment, right before sunset.”

“You could have killed me,” she hissed, her brown eyes sharp and her face contorted into a mask of anger unlike any Caroline had ever seen. “I only ever gave you one instruction: that I can never be exposed to sunlight.”

“I’m sorry.” Caroline cringed back, but Valeria’s grip on her tightened so she couldn’t escape. “I was only trying to see something. I was at Dr. Murnau’s⁠—”

“You’re still visiting with that quack? I told you I don’t want to be seen by him. You shouldn’t even be going to see him anymore. All he does is fill your mind with nonsense.”

“He has done nothing of the sort.” Valeria’s grip on her may have been tight, but Caroline could easily wrench away her wrist. “He’s only trying to help. There’s an awful sickness going through the village right now. People are dying.”

“And how is that my problem?” Valeria snapped. “Am I to be blamed for all the ills of the world?”

“No, but you must see how I could be a little curious. You’ve been here for weeks and haven’t even told me the name of your disease.”

“I lay here every day entirely unprotected. You saw, I won’t wake up. I thought I was safe with you, but you’ve proven that I can’t trust you.”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you, or even hurt you. I’ve never wanted that.”

Hurting Valeria had never been the goal. She hadn’t even wanted her to smoke. All she wanted was proof that what Valeria had was different.

“If you didn’t want to hurt me, then you shouldn’t have done the one thing that could kill me.”

“I didn’t mean to. I was only trying to understand your sun sickness. It’s an illness unlike any I have ever seen before.”

“Are you a doctor? Have you gone to medical school in between weaving lace and building dinner menus?”

“No.” Anger built within her until the only thing she wanted was to scream. Even now, Valeria wouldn’t give her any answers, only admonishing her for trying to find the truth.

“Then don’t you think that maybe this illness is something you haven’t heard of? You or that backwoods doctor who hasn’t even seen me.”