Page 58 of Hot Blooded

Tessa let out a small laugh, trying not to crinkle her eyes. “I know what you mean. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with the ‘smoky eye’ look. In all my old pictures, I look like a panda. But I see high school girls today, and their makeup is flawless. What happened?”

“The internet,” Fran put in, looking up from her phone. She was lounging on the small sofa on the other side of the luxurious powder room, already dressed and ready to go in a three-piece suit cut from fabric in a deep plum color. “It’s exploded over the last decade. I can’t tell you how fast the world has changed since the nineties compared to what came before.”

“It’s just another technological revolution,” Etta said. “When I was young, old-timers were always going on about how rapidly machinery had changed the world. The internet is the new industrial revolution.”

Tessa considered that. “I wonder what the next revolution will be, then.”

“You’ll probably be around to see it,” Fran said.

Tessa blinked hard, caught off guard by the very idea.

“Oh, shit,” Etta muttered. “Smudged it. Hold still.”

Tessa said nothing, staring vaguely ahead as Etta cleaned up the mussed eyeliner with a q-tip. The reality of being Amos’s bloodmate hadn’t really sunk in until just now. Her time with Amos felt like a peaceful reprieve from the real world—a place where time didn’t matter and she could forget the outside world. But being with him forever would be a drastic change. Logically, she’d understood that he was immortal, and that as his bloodmate, she’d become functionally immortal as well. But she hadn’t truly comprehended it until now. One day, she might look back on the rise of the internet with the same distant awareness that she had for things like the industrial revolution. It was hard to fathom.

“There,” Etta said, drawing back to survey her work.

Tessa blinked the stunned vacancy out of her eyes, putting a smile on her face.

“Gorgeous,” Etta said proudly, capping the eyeliner.

Tessa turned to the mirror, unable to hold back a self-satisfied smile. She looked like a goddess, and she hadn’t even taken the curlers out.

Not much later, the doorbell rang. Etta looked up at the clock, frowning. “I told him to be here at eleven.” It was only quarter-past-ten.

“Guess somebody couldn’t wait,” Fran said with a smirk, rising from the sofa. “I’ll keep him busy until you’re ready for the grand reveal.”

When Tessa was fully styled—makeup complete, hair done—she and Etta helped each other into their dresses. Etta was wearing a gold-beaded gown with full-length sleeves, a daringly deep neckline, and a flowing, translucent skirt.

“Alright, let me go first,” Etta said, nudging in front of Tessa. “I want to see his face when he sees you.”

She swanned out of the powder room and down the hall to the living room. Tessa followed, highly conscious of the slide of the silk around her legs and the soft sweep of her hair down her back, feeling more beautiful than she had in ages.

When she stepped into the living room, Amos was standing on the other side, next to Fran, sharply dressed in a stark black suit with a burgundy shirt and a black tie. His gaze lifted from Etta and landed on Tessa. Even from across the room, Tessa could see the dramatic shift in eye color as his pupils shot wide, vanishing the red of his irises. His jaw clenched as an involuntary growl rose in his throat. Instead of looking embarrassed, he looked downright vicious. He crossed the room, meeting Tessa in the middle with that furious look on his face, a low growl still resonating in his throat.

“Tessa,” her name came out just as savage as he looked. He cupped her cheek, gently, searching her face for a moment before his gaze tracked down her body. When he looked back up, that hardness was still in his expression, making Tessa’s heart pound.

“Do you like it?”

He let out a huffing laugh that was half snarl. “Do I like it? Christ alive, it’s taking everything in me not to pin you to the wall and suck you dry.”

Those words shouldn’t have been as pleasing as they were. Tessa pressed her thighs together, a flush climbing her neck.

“Good lord, Amos,” Etta said dryly. “Have some self-control.”

Amos shot her a dark look. “Don’t act like you didn’t orchestrate this entire situation.”

“How is it my fault that she’s gorgeous? All I did was take her dress shopping.”

Amos gave her one more mistrustful look before returning his attention to Tessa, the heat rekindling in his gaze. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She took a steadying breath. “I’m ready.”

The Council’s seat was a beautiful neo-Gothic building near Grant Park. Weathered gray limestone, narrow stained-glass windows, pointed arches, and a towering archway over the massive bronze entry doors made Tessa feel as if she were headed into a cathedral. As they entered the building, she automatically turned to reach for the holy water stoup. She quickly remembered herself and drew her hand back. She hadn’t thought to ask before now, but she’d imagine vampires weren’t keen on the sign of the cross.

The entry was a long, broad corridor. As they crossed the elaborately tiled marble floor, their footsteps echoed to the vaulted ceiling. Tessa tipped her head back to take in the ceiling mural of a beautifully painted night sky. Her gaze slid down the walls, where the mural work gave way to colorfully-veined marble, then to paneled dark wood. There were ornate carvings worked into the wood—moths and owls and bats and foxes and crickets all woven into the twisting vines and leaves of some fantastical nocturnal forest.

“Are we the only ones here?” Tessa whispered into the echoing silence.

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