Page 45 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

I opened the wine and poured us each a glass, then popped the top on the synth-blood and put it in a mug for Gabriel. The fuzzy blanket on the sofa was even softer than it looked, and I draped it over myself happily.

“Where the hell did you find wine glasses?” I asked. “And the blanket?”

Gabriel looked a little sheepish. “In my camping supplies.”

“You… brought wine glasses on a camping trip,” I said. “A very short camping trip.”

“They were included with the tent,” he said defensively. “It had a built-in bar cabinet.”

“Oh, well in that case, it’s totally normal,” I teased.

“I’m so glad you agree,” he said primly.

We ate our food in companionable silence. Well, I ate, and Gabriel sipped slowly at his fake blood while he examined my movie collection.

“This one,” he said eventually, holding out a DVD case for me to inspect. It was the font documentary.

“You sure? It’s kinda dry.”

Gabriel frowned slightly. “I’ve been wanting to see it for some time. But the blog post I consulted while you were away suggested that romantic comedies are more typical fare for girls’ night, so if that would be a more suitable choice, I can?—”

“The documentary sounds good,” I interrupted. “I mean, it’s really good, I just didn’t know if you’d like it. It kind of takes a while to get going.”

“I am nothing if not patient,” Gabriel said. It didn’t sound like he was just talking about the documentary.

I flushed a little but didn’t know why.

That was how I wound up curled up on my sofa next to an ancient vampire prince, watching a documentary about the history of Helvetica. I decided to skip the face mask; I wasn’t exactly planning on making a move on Gabriel, but if wine-drunk me decided to flirt a little, I didn’t want her to have to do it wearing a sheet mask printed to look like a panda. Gabriel, on the other hand, opted for under-eye patches.

“Do you even need those?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not like you have dark circles. Your skin is so perfect it’s a little irritating.”

Gabriel smiled. “The perfect skin is a vampire thing, I’m afraid. Something about the body chemistry of undeath.”

“Unfair,” I grumbled.

“We’re very prone to dry hair, if it helps,” he offered.

“It helps a little.”

“So, no, I don’t need the patches,” he said. “But as an honorary member of girls’ night, I felt I should participate to get the full experience.”

“Good to see you’re taking this seriously.”

Gabriel gave me an amused little look, and I smiled back at him.

“Okay, this is a crucial decision,” I said as the credits rolled on the documentary, picking up two of the bottles of nail polish. “Espresso Caress or Pine Baroness?”

Gabriel looked at both of the options with a frankly adorable level of intensity. “Pine Baroness,” he decided.

I nodded and handed it over.

Gabriel folded one of his legs up onto the sofa, turning to face me. He reached out and touched my wrist with the gentlest of touches, and my breath caught in my throat. His hands were cool and careful as he guided my hand down, so that my palm rested on the curve of his knee.

“For stability,” he explained. He squeezed my wrist lightly before letting go, so lightly that I might have missed it if my treacherous body hadn’t decided to make me incredibly, painfully aware of his touch. I flexed my hand against the bony curve of his knee, and watched, hypnotized, as he wetted his lips with a pink flash of tongue.

Gabriel began painting the deep green polish over my nails in even strokes.

“You weren’t kidding,” I said, “You’re really good at that.”

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