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“Where did you say Amari went?” I ask, hoping to catch Shawn slipping.

“He had an important meeting with some vendors,” he answers, never missing a beat.

I sigh loudly, then ask, “You sure he wasn't just in his room with the door closed? You know, trying to avoid me?”

Shawn’s jaw clenches before he turns to look at me.

“No. Of course not,” he says, and I can't help but notice how the kindness and patience in his voice did not make it onto the elevator with us.

Feeling pressure from his suddenly cold demeanor, I choose not to press him on it as we get in the car and start our drive back to my apartment. But the thought doesn't leave my mind. In fact, it’s only accompanied by more thoughts that I was too distracted to focus on before. Like the fact that Amari didn't eat a bite of his dinner at the restaurant last night. It’s the second time we've eaten together, only for him to not eat at all. I also think about how I felt a sharp pain in the same spot I felt it last time, and I saw the blood, but there was no knife anywhere near us. Yet, somehow, Amari had my blood running down his mouth.

But the most intriguing thought comes when I quietly raise my dress to look at the spot where I felt the sharp pain. I expect to find a scratch or pinprick—some sort of evidence proving there was a wound for my blood to leak from. But when I look down, I have to pinch my lips together to keep from gasping out loud. I push my dress back down and look out the window, feeling my heart kick into high gear as I realize that once again, my skin is completely healed. I have to focus to not draw Shawn’s attention, but what the hell?

When we reach my apartment, he comes around and opens my door for me, and I can feel his eyes on me as I step out of the car. He watches me closely, like he's waiting for me to look at him. When I finally do, he pushes something toward me. I look down and grab it. It’s another check for twenty-five-hundred dollars. He never told me he was going to stop paying, but for some reason, I'm disappointed.

“Have a good night, Aaliyah,” Shawn says as he watches me walk to my elevator.

I clinch the check in my fist, feeling a million different emotions all at once. Amari has me all over the place—filled with worry, hungry for our situationship to evolve into something real, and terrified that there is much more to him than I'm ready to learn.

How am I healing like this? How did he cut me last night? Or did he bite me? Who bites people? Why does he never eat in front of me? And there's so much more. The questions have no end, and by the time I step onto the elevator, I feel weighed down by them. But intuition is a real thing. When your gut tells you to find out why something looks funny, it’s for a reason.

Well, my gut is yelling at me, and I think it’s time I start listening. Because something isn't adding up, and I need to find out what it is.

AMARI

Twenty-Nine

SUNRISE …

The first thing I feel is the sensation of warmth on my skin. It doesn't sting at first. It’s just warm, like standing next to a fire. But with each passing second, it’s like I'm stepping closer and closer to the flames until I'm doused in them.

My eyes shoot open, already widened to their maximum circumference as I realize that I am lying down in the sun. I fell asleep next to Aaliyah last night like an idiot, and the sun is rising, peaking through the clouds and looking directly at me through my open curtains. How could I have been so stupid, allowing myself to fall asleep in the living room instead of my safe bedroom? I had my room fitted with what I need to protect myself from the sun’s rays, but I put no such precautions in place for the rest of the penthouse. Until now, I never realized how dumb of a mistake that was. But how could I have been so stupid?

Her blood. I merely sipped from her last night and it was still enough to fog my mind and make me forget to be cautious. Now I'm fucked.

With my skin sizzling more and more by the second, I look next to me and find Aaliyah asleep comfortably. She's completely naked, and if I wasn't in such agony I would take my time looking at her just to marvel at her beauty. But I have to choke down a grunt as my face burns like bacon in a skillet.

I jump up, hearing my skin start to crackle as I flash as fast as I can through the penthouse while trying not to make a sound. If she wakes up, she’ll know everything, finding out in the most terrifying way that I'm not human. Again. She can't see me like this, so I have to dart through the penthouse in silence, pressing my lips together to keep from crying out. I zip from the living room into the bedroom to grab a blanket for her, and flash back into the living room under the full brunt of sunlight to cover her naked body. Once she's good, I flash back to my room, leaving a smoky streak behind me as I go. I slam my bedroom door and dash to my nightstand to press the button on the remote to blackout my room, closing the curtains and securing the door. Finally, after an agonizing minute in the sun, I’m back in the dark, my skin riddled with burns and blisters. I go to my bed and grab a pillow just to scream into it. Usually, I heal quickly, but the damage is at the cellular level, and it’s going to take a minute. All I can do is lie down and wait.

I struggle to get in the bed. Some of my nerve endings are fried and exposed, so every movement is torturous as I lie down, but I manage to get onto my back. Once there, I telepathically reach out to Shawn.

“Shawn, wake up. We have an emergency.”

My friend struggles to pull himself from his slumber, but finally answers. “It’s too early to be hearing voices in my head.”

“I'm sorry, but I messed up. I just woke up next to Aaliyah … in the sun. I managed to get out without waking her, but I'm covered in burns. I need you to be here when she wakes up. Tell her I had to go to a meeting or something.”

Shawn sighs, and even though I can't see his face, I know he's rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

“My god, Amari. You fell asleep with the curtains open in the living room?”

“I don't wanna hear it. I'm in enough pain. Just be here when she wakes up. Put her dress near her and tell her she can have breakfast if she wants, but make sure you take her home.”

“Okay, I got it,” Shawn says. “I can't believe you burned yourself to a crisp. Are you sure she's worth all of this?”

Without hesitation, I answer, “Yes.”

The sound of the door slats being removed is a loud hiss followed by a pop, and when I open my door after sleeping the day away, Shawn is leaning against the wall. He looks me up and down, checking for burns that have healed in my sleep. I'm perfectly fine now, but that doesn't stop him from bursting into laughter.