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“You could have told me about what you did for the wolves or that you house vamps free of charge. But you didn’t. You were smug and arrogant. You held back on purpose.”
He came closer again, and again I dodged him. “This is not about—”
“It is. It’s about keeping secrets. I’m only demonstrating that you’re not faultless here.”
Julian tried to blur to me, but I blurred away yet again. “Damnit, Eden, would you stay still and let me explain?”
“No! Not so you can cajole your way out of this with the shit you do to my body. That’s playing dirty.”
He grinned at me. “I wasn’t going to do any such thing. I only want to…” Julian’s words trailed off and he made his way to the sofa. He dropped onto it, shaking his head as he looked toward the ceiling. “Jesus, Odette, what did you get me into?”
I came closer and took the opportunity to redress myself. When fully clothed, I sat next to him, though I made the effort to keep out of his reach. “What’s going on, Julian? Did you know Odette?”
He nodded, head in his hands.
The urge to comfort him, to slide my hand up his back and ease away whatever troubled him was too great to ignore. I put my palm flat on his smooth skin, and gently stroked his back until he found his words again.
“Odette was my half-sister. We shared a mother but there was about five hundred years between us. Her father, Pierre Laurent, brokered an agreement with Titus during his reign as Laurel Cove’s king. He’d arranged for Titus to take Odette as his wife so Titus would have the right to annex the cove as his own.”
My mouth dried out and my fingers went tingly as Julian told me his tale.
“Odette made a game of dodging Titus’s advances over the centuries. She’d come up with every excuse not to take her place at his side. My first few negotiations, I’d tried to free her of the obligation, but Titus wouldn’t have it, insisting that if I pushed further, he’d demand that she’d join him then and there. To him, it was foreplay. A game. He’d said it multiple times. Odette stringing him along would only make it sweeter in the end.”
Julian took a shuddering breath and pulled his hands through his hair. “During the last incursion, Odette acted carelessly. Titus caught her in the act with another vampire, something she’d done countless times over the years but had never been foolish enough to do in front of Titus.” Julian’s throat worked as he swallowed the emotions welling within him. “I can’t imagine why she’d do it so blatantly during the only event both she and Titus would attend, but I’d like to think it was her way of telling him the deal was off.”
His hands shook and I took them in mine, willing my strength into him.
Julian took a breath and continued. “He beheaded her on the spot, in front of everyone. And I couldn’t retaliate because I knew he had every right to do so. She’d humiliated him, breaking not just her word but a sealed, negotiated contract made by two kings.”
My stomach hollowed out and fell away, leaving an empty pit in my middle.
I had no idea Odette dealt with so much. She’d never told me. Never given so much as a hint that she’d been avoiding an arranged marriage her whole life. “Julian, I’m so sorry.”
Julian’s gaze rose, lingering on the wetness on my cheek. He let go of my hand and wiped a fresh tear away with his thumb. “No, Eden.I’msorry. It must have been awful for you to rise, born anew with no one there to tell you it was going to be okay.”
My mouth fell open. “That’s literally the last thing I expected you to say.”
“Odette’s loss was felt by many. Remembering that, remembering all the lives she touched, helps me deal with my own grief.”
I nodded, getting it. It was almost like knowing others carried grief for your loved one spread out the burden of it, lessened it somehow.
I asked him what I would want someone to ask me in his position. “Do you want to hear how we met?”
A sad smile lifted the corners of his lips. “I do.”
I beamed at him, settling into the sofa and tucking my feet under me. I snagged one of the earth-toned throws and spread it across my lap. “It was the worst shift I’d ever had at the bar. I had three bachelorette parties, who were all great, but my other bartender was sick so I was stuck mixing drinks for all of them. I was way in the weeds and the customers who weren’t a part of the three big parties started getting angry and rowdy. I was pouring and taking orders as fast as I could, but I just couldn’t catch up. I hear the door chimeagain, and I’m thinking there’s no possible way I can handle another person yelling at me.
“So I look up, about to give Jerry the signal that we’re at capacity, but I stopped. Odette stood in the doorway, harsh neon signs lighting up her face and she still managed to look like a literal goddess.”
Julian smiled. “She did have that effect on people.”
“The whole bar stopped and watched her enter, and I would have too, but shook myself out of it and used the time to get myself outta the weeds. By the time she’d convinced everyone to enjoy themselves and go back to their evening, I’d caught up. God, I’ll never forget it. She came up to the bar and ordered a mint julep with a straight face.”
Julian erupted in laughter. “Yes. She was a Southern belle through and through.”
“Once I googled how to make one, she told me it was the best mint julep she’d had in all her years. I remember saying something like, ‘All your years? You barely look over twenty-one.’ But she just smiled and said something about not judging books by their covers. Anyway, from that night on she became one of my regulars and I knew then and there that whatever she had, I wanted it. Whatever it was that made her confident and let her take charge of any situation, I wanted some. I told her as much, too, but she laughed it off. I knew from the second she walked in that there was something different about her. To this day, I can’t explain it. I don’t know how I knew she was something else, and that whatever it was, I wanted to be it too, but I knew.”
Julian stayed suspended in the tale of my memory for a few moments, face relaxed, eyes brimming with both sorrow and joy, before speaking again. “It’s common for humans with born vampires in their genealogy somewhere to sense other vampires,” Julian offered.
