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He tilts his head. “Your heart says otherwise.”

“My heart watched you kill somebody an hour ago. Give it a minute to catch up.” My palm finds his chest, finds it absent of a heartbeat. “It’s not telling me to run.”

“Ellery.” My name sounds like agony. “I don’t think you understand what this…between us…means. It’s complicated⁠—”

I press the pad of my finger to his bottom lip and he stops talking. His brows draw down. My hands move to his shoulders, and I stretch up onto my toes to put my warm mouth to his cool lips. This time, he doesn’t go anywhere, just holds me tighter, arms locking around my waist. His tongue moves against mine, and he groans, obliterating any shred of caution I might’ve had.

When we break apart, I’m breathing hard and he’s grinning. I’ve never seen him do that with his whole face before. There’s a brand new dimple in his cheek.

“I’ve wanted this for months, but I don’t want to rush it,” he whispers.

I do. I want all of him, right now on his couch, but if he wants slow, then we can do slow. Enjoying every moment, drawing out every surprising aspect of Nick I’ve yet to discover, however long it takes. I could be convinced of slow.

“Okay.” But because I’m only human, I suck on his bottom lip until he opens back up for me.

“You are going to be the end of me,” he mumbles against my mouth.

Chapter 33

Nick

I wake in a haze, blissfully lost in a dream so vivid I can smell her, feel her warm body…

Not a dream.

We talked, and then we didn’t, and at some point I made myself stop. I tucked her against my chest and watched her fall asleep as the fire burned low. We’re still on my couch. She’s lying half on top of me, drool pooling on my shirt.

I lie there and let myself have it.

Twelve hours ago, I killed another vampire. She’s still in her torn clothes, and I still have blood on my hands. And now I have to explain all of this to the council.

Ellery whimpers and rolls over when I carefully climb out from under her, but doesn’t wake. I make myself leave her and head upstairs to scrub away the parts of last night I’d rather not remember. Then I call Roslyn from the office.

She answers after one ring. “Bit early for you, isn’t it, Nick?”

“The intruder attacked Ellery. She’s okay, but I killed it.” I slump down into the chair. “I told her everything. I had to.”

“I see.” Her kettle boils in the background. “There’ll be a meeting. You can lodge your petition then.”

“Thanks, Roslyn.”

“Don’t thank me. You have to convince the rest of them.” A teaspoon clinks. “Oh, and Nick. I saw Constantin with Ellery outside Jack’s yesterday. He didn’t do anything as far as I could tell, spoke to her for a few minutes and left. But you should know that going into this.”

Before the line goes dead, I’m in the living room, kneeling beside a sleeping Ellery, brushing my knuckles along her cheekbone until she stirs.

“Hey,” I whisper. “Tell me what happened yesterday.”

“What?” She leans on one elbow, groggy and rubbing sleep from her eyes. “You mean other than nearly getting eaten by a hungry vampire?”

“Before that…when you left the newspaper. What happened? Do you remember?” It’s hard to keep my voice steady.

“I might need caffeine if you want an actual conversation at this hour, Nick.” She sits up a little more and yawns.

“It’s important.”

“Uh, okay.” She pushes her hair back from her face. “I was at the newspaper with Roslyn for a while, then I went to the cafe for my shift around five. Hardly any customers, just two guys passing through. Marthe wanted to close up early, practically shoved me out the door. I was out of milk, so I went to the store and…you know the rest.”

“Did you meet anyone on the street on your way to the cafe?”