Page 82 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Three

There’s something inherently sexual about the way he inhales, how the curl of his finger is exaggerated as he pulls it away from his mouth.

When he exhales, he paints the night in smoke.

“Are you okay?” I ask him.

He takes another hit, holding the smoke in his lungs a beat. “I don’t know,” he admits and exhales.

“Anything from Bianca yet?”

“Not yet.” He goes over to a stone bench nestled among flowering bushes and sits.

I join him and am horribly aware of how rigid he is beside me.

“Bran—”

“You’re more powerful than I thought you’d be,” he admits, then snorts, bringing the cigarette back to his lips. He takes another long drag, the ember blazing orange. When he pushes the smoke back out, he goes on. “I thought maybe you could wield fae magic like a weapon. Maybe you could cast a really, really deceptive glamour. Controlling an entire room of extremely powerful supernatural creatures?” He shakes his head to himself and looks across the garden. “That…that I never would have imagined.”

I lean into him and hook my arm through his, resting my head against his shoulder. “I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“But…what does this mean? Are you…I mean, are we…?” I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Are we okay? Will we survive this? Am I terrifying to you?

He drops the cigarette and crushes the ember beneath his boot, then takes my hand in his. “Make me a promise, Mouse.”

“Of course. Anything.”

“Give me a safe word.”

“What?”

“Something we can both agree on that should that happen again, if I use the word, you’ll release me immediately.”

“Bran—”

“Give me this, Mouse.”

I meet his gaze and find a pulsing glow in his irises. There’s desperation there.

“Okay. What’s the word?”

He squeezes my hand and brings it to his mouth. His breath is warm across my knuckles as he thinks.

“Lavender,” he finally says.

“Really?”

“It reminds me of home.”

I don’t think he means Duval House and it makes me realize I know nothing about where he was born or what life he had before he was turned. The only thing I know about him is who he is in Midnight Harbor at this moment in time.

“Okay. Lavender. You can use it at any time, for any reason,” I say. “Not that I plan on using that power on you. I don’t know if I’ll ever use it again. In fact…what if we just don’t undo the binding? I mean…I could put the necklace back on and we could forget about it and—”

“No.” He stands and pulls me up beside him. “It’s part of you and you should absolutely use it for that reason. But beyond that, everyone who matters was in that Pledge Hall tonight. You’ll have to use it. Because if you don’t, they’ll use you.”

Bran’s attention wanders away from me and Jimmy appears a second later. “Damien?” he asks her.

“No.” There are bags beneath Jimmy’s eyes and her lips are chapped. She looks about as great as I feel. I don’t know what the Lockes did to get past her and grab Kelly, but I am absolutely sure she did everything in her power to protect my sister.

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