Page 52 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“No,” Gabriel said, just a beat too quickly for it to be believable.

I snorted into my empty bowl. “Well, I guess it’s meant for getting liquids to body temp,” I said. “Innovative use for it. Probably voided the warranty, though.”

Gabriel decanted his warmed blood into a cup—one of the Eastern European style mugs, with a glass inside a metal holder that had a handle. “There are some perks to modern technology,” he said mildly. “Being able to warm blood with the touch of a button is one of them.”

“Yeah, that’s probably the most important one,” I teased. Gabriel’s eyes crinkled at me over the top of his cup as he took a sip. “All right, I’ve gotta get cleaned up. I’m starting to feel super gross.”

“I left your go-bag in the guest suite,” Gabriel said. “I assume you have a change of clothes in there?”

“Yeah, I—Shit.” I groaned. “Last time I had to use it, I forgot to put in a clean shirt. Can I borrow something to change into?”

Gabriel froze for a split second, then nodded jerkily. “Of course. I’ll leave something on the bed for you if that’s acceptable.”

“Perfect.”

The shower in the guest suite was about the size of my apartment’s entire bathroom, stocked with the fancy, vaguely generic bath stuff that rich people tended to put in their guest bathrooms. When I emerged, feeling worlds better and smelling like an expensive forest, I pulled on my clean clothes. I’d never been so happy to wear jeans.

Gabriel, true to his word, had left a sweater on the bed for me. It was a dark, rich purple, and insanely soft. Pothos was curled up into a small ball squarely on top of it. He grumped a little when I scooted him off his new bed, then wandered off, probably to commit some sort of crime.

The sweater was big on my body. Gabriel was almost a head taller than me, after all, and even though he was pretty trim, his shoulders were broad. I rolled the sleeves up to my elbows and tucked the sweater in, messing with it until my reflection looked more like a cool girl making an intentional fashion choice, and less like someone who’d been sent the wrong size after buying something online. The neck of the sweater gaped a bit to one side, showing off some of my collarbone in a way that was actually pretty cute.

Gabriel was waiting for me in an alcove at the top of the stairs. The place had an honest-to-God foyer, with giant carpeted staircase and all. He was staring into space in the general direction of the front door and jumped a little when I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Lost in thought?” I teased.

“What?” he said. “I… Yes. I was. Yes.” His eyes were flicking across me, as if he was trying to stop himself from looking at any one spot for too long. I was really glad I’d taken the time to primp in the mirror, especially when his gaze landed on my collarbone for just a moment too long, and his eyes widened a fraction.

Pothos trotted down the hall toward us, his tail held high in a way that spelled danger for any fragile curios he could get his grubby little paws on. I watched Gabriel’s eyes, still moving restlessly, and was struck by a sudden, not terribly kind impulse.

“Hey, buddy,” I cooed at the cat, bending down to scratch his grassy back. The sweater draped forward, giving Gabriel a clear view down the front. When I straightened up, he was staring up at the ceiling like a renaissance painting of a monk praying for strength in the face of temptation. I mentally high-fived Past Evangeline for putting a cute bra in the go-bag.

My phone buzzed frantically in my pocket, and I winced when I checked it. Three missed calls from Isabella, and another one coming in..

“Heyyy,” I answered, grimacing. Gabriel shot me a questioning look, and I moved the phone away from my cheek enough to show him the screen. He nodded.

“Don’t you fuckin’ heyyy me,” Isabella said. “I’ve been trying to call you for a fucking hour. Where are you? Are you okay? I’m at your place and it looks like a goddamn bomb went off in here.”

“I’m fine,” I told her. “I sort of got attacked by some vampires, but I’m okay.”

“Sort of?” Isabella repeated, sounding strangled.

“I’m not hurt, I swear. There was a curse on me, but that’s happened before. I’m at Gabriel’s.”

“Fuck. Okay. Jesus, you scared the shit out of me,” Isabella said. “Tell me about the curse. What do you need?”

“I’m set,” I told her. “Gabriel broke the curse for me. Actually, you know what, let me…” I pressed the phone to my chest for a second. “Is it cool if I invite her over?” I asked Gabriel. He nodded. “All right, I’ll send you the address, you can come over and take a look for yourself.”

“I’m gonna,” Isabella said. “Because you love to bullshit about not being hurt that badly, and I hate that. So, I’m going to come over and make sure you’re not dying, and if I find out that you forgot to let me know you were okay because you were making goo-goo eyes at your hot vampire, I will actually kill you.”

“Uh…”

“Wait, wait,” Isabella said. “I’m not on speaker, am I?”

“No,” I said. “No, but, you know. Vampire super-hearing.” I didn’t think there was any point in trying to hide what I was talking about, given the stare Gabriel was leveling at my phone.

“Oh no,” Isabella said. “Okay, well, I’ll see you in ten—fifteen tops. Have fun dealing with that.” She hung up on me.

I blew out a slow sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose.

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