Page 102 of Only Fangs

“I’m fine, Matt. Honestly.” I don’t want to have to tell him that I want to be on my own. I want to sit here in my pyjamas and stuff an entire cake into my face and try not to think about everything that happened over the past few days.

The way Ari looked in the soft lighting in my room, her dress falling from one shoulder. The way she felt. The taste of her.

The elation of getting the funding. Those heady few minutes when it felt that I had finally won and everything was coming together.

Then the crushing blow as Andrei switched off the magic mirror to leave me standing there as the only reflection in the room. The way I could feel every eye on me. Every vampire in that room suddenly seeing me as prey.

The run through the corridors and tunnels of Hele House. Terrified that any moment I would be caught.

Ari looking me in the eye and telling me she didn’t love me. That everything I had hoped for, wished for, worked for, was worthless. That I was nothing to her.

And then the run through the dark, the sound of them keening behind me, searching for me, ready to tear me apart.

The deal with Victor.

Just how much work I have ahead of me if I want to avoid ending up an actual demon.

It has been the longest forty-eight hours of my life. I just want to be left alone in peace with my cake.

“Fine,” Matt says eventually, my silence telling him everything he needed me to say. “But you only get tonight to mope around, OK? Tomorrow we’ll go and do something fun. Get you out of the house.”

“Fine.” I agree with him because then he might leave more quickly.

A Slice of Heaven delivers me an entire red velvet cake forty-five minutes later.

“You off to a party?” The driver asks when he hands it over. He frowns a little as he takes in my attire. I don’t exactly look like I’m on my way out and in need of an emergency birthday cake to feed twenty-four people.

“Something like that,” I say and force myself to laugh. “Imagine if all this was just for me. Ha ha.” But I think I might have said too much as he backs away from me.

Fuck it. I get a fork from the kitchen and place the box on the sofa next to me. The sponge is moist and the frosting thick and so full of sugar it makes my teeth hurt. This is exactly what I needed.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know someone is shaking me awake.

“What the—” I start to say as I sit up properly. I can feel a line of drool from the corner of my mouth.

“You stupid idiot.” Clara is standing in front of me, hands on her hips as she stares at me. “What were you thinking?”

“Err… I…” She’s caught me entirely off guard and I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“Is that red velvet cake?” she asks.

I look at the box next to me. It was a red velvet cake, but I’ve already smashed down almost half, just forking it straight from box to mouth. No wonder I feel a little queasy. And the left overs aren’t looking too appealing.

“Ivan,” she calls out. “Get a couple of plates and a knife.”

“Will do,” he shouts back.

“Right,” she says to me, her tone back to before. She sounds seriously pissed off. “Are you going to explain what the actual fuck you’ve done?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The deal, Brody. The deal you decided to make with a demon.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yes, that. What were you thinking?”

“Hang on. How do you know about it?” I sit up even straighter. I only did the deal a few hours ago. Is everything really so interlinked in the paranormal worlds that everyone knows everything that fast?