Page 22 of Burn for Her

Dorian leaned into the mirror, desperate to make it out.

Count Tacola. What the fuck was a Count Tacola? Whatever it was, she was eating something out of a cup with its logo on it while she was driving. He could only make out the black leather headrest from her driver’s seat, and nothing more to even suggest what make and model car she was in.

“Count Tacola.” What was that, a food chain? Only one way to find out.

Chapter 7

“Blah, blah, blah, he blah blah.”

Storming past a chattering Lucian, Dorian was already searching his phone for what and where this Count Tacola place was located.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Hmm?” If he could at least narrow it down to what country it was in, that would be a major win. A state would be too much to hope for, but…

“Holy shit.” He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the picture of the food truck. A. Food. Truck. All stainless steel, making it look like one of those airstream camper things. A sign stretched across the side of it in splashes of bright colors that had the name Count Tacola on it. Was this a goddamn joke? The Ts in Count and Tacola were elongated to look like a set of fangs with… Jesus Christ was that supposed to be hot sauce dripping off of them?

He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

“Dorian?”

Ignoring Lucian, he stared at the picture under the Facebook page he’d opened. The business was run by a woman named Carmen Lopez. The pinned post at the top was a link to an article showcasing a picture of Carmen and… Dorian’s fated mate.

His ass dropped into a chair. His jaw clenched and his entire body tensed as he stared at the picture.

How could it have been so easy? One simple online search and boom, there she was. This picture didn’t do her justice though. No camera could capture the beauty he saw in her reflections—and that was saying something considering her condition both times he saw her. In this picture, however, she was dressed in a blue sundress.

Holy shit, she was a stunner.

How… how could she be so goddamn decadent? It was a hard truth to swallow—a perfect creature like her fated to be tied to a wreck like him. Why would the universe ever be that cruel to an innocent person?

He knew why and it made his heart shrivel. The curse. This was part of the blood curse put on his kind.

Paralyzed, his gaze locked on her picture. Now he back-peddled again because seeing her happiness, her smile? A life with him would ruin all of that.

I shouldn’t go after her.

Deep down, he knew it. Better to leave her alone so she could live her life without the trouble that follows a vampire. But deep, deep, waaaayyy deep down, buried under a shit-ton of shadows and misery, Dorian desperately wanted to find her if only to see her with his own eyes, just once. He wouldn’t even approach her. Wouldn’t make his presence known. But to see her before him, before fate killed him, would be…

As close to heaven as I’ll ever get.

And that would be enough for him. More than he deserved, really.

“Dorian, are you listening to me at all?”

No, he wasn’t. All Dorian heard was the swishing of his blood pounding in his ears. His throat was working overtime to swallow the amount of saliva building in his mouth. Sweat bloomed across his brow. His hands trembled as he stared at the picture of his mate. He couldn’t read the article below it because the words were too blurry.

“I can’t read it,” he said quietly to himself. “Why can’t I read what this says?”

“What?” Lucian leaned over. “What what says?”

Oh, hey, he completely forgot Lucian was in the room. Dorian looked up at him and all words failed. Already, his health was downward spiraling. Colors dulled. There was this awful high-pitched ringing in his ears. His chest ached as if a vice was compressing his ribcage. His vision was no longer perfect.

“Something’s wrong,” Dorian said slowly. “I’m losing my sight and hearing.”

“Fuck,” Lucian snagged the phone from him and looked at what was on the screen.

Dorian watched Lucian’s blurry face drain of color completely and when he stared at Dorian, he couldn’t even tell what color Lucian’s eyes were. Shit, was he going color blind?

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