Page 193 of Mama Si's Paradise

The bathroom mirrorsaid I looked good. Better, in fact, than I ever had before. My skin was indeed smooth, cheeks glistening like glass. My eyes were wide and bright, more green than brown, and the red of my hair had never been more intense. It reminded me of flames, especially with the highlights Adam had put on me toadd dimension,which now started from the middle of my head because my hair had grown so fast. The tips reached the small of my back, but it suited me. This whole look suited me. I couldn’t put my finger on what else was different about my face,though, but something was. Something that wasn’t too obvious. Something Ifeltrather than saw.

I had bite marks on both sides of my neck, but they’d mostly healed. The wounds looked like tiny dots, and the skin was just slightly raised as I ran my fingers over them, but they didn’t hurt. I had expected to be repulsed by the sight of them, by the idea that I’d been bitten, that vampires had actually sucked blood out of me, but I wasn’t. Instead, a pleasant chill ran down my back and the memory heated my cheeks up instantly. I’d liked it. I’dlovedbeing snacked on by all the Evernights, especially Grey. It had felt incredibly relieving to be in their arms and to have them latched onto my neck like that, despite what I thought I should feel about it.

And when my eyes closed as I sat in the bath and rubbed my skin, I could feel them on me. I could feel my blood rushing out of me eagerly just like it had the night before. I could feel Grey’s hand on mine, and his lips, and his teeth—I could feel him everywhere on me, and fuck, I was turned on within seconds.

My eyes popped open.

“What the hell is wrong with me?”I asked the bathroom, but the bathroom had no answer.

I stood up from the tub, a bit panicked, struggling to understand these feelings that were so foreign, and at the same time felt like they’d always been there, but I somehow hadn’t noticed them until now.

Grey Evernight—what a fucking shock.

And Valentine.

I kept trying to think if maybe I’dfelt somethingwhen he kissed me in the mirror room. I tried to recall that kiss, but the memory somehow merged with the ones last night, and within seconds, it was Grey over me, kissing the air out of my lungs. It was Grey touching me and biting me and sticking his tonguein my throat. It was Grey’s cock buried so deep inside me that I felt him in my soul, the pleasure?—

“No.”

I closed my eyes and I repeated that word over and over again—no, no, no, no, no.I had to stop thinking about it because I was already on my second pair of panties after the bath. And I was hungry. And I wanted to get out there and talk to Valentine, to Grey, to the brides, just to make sense of this whole thing somehow.

With those thoughts in mind and my cheeks still slightly flushed, I left the room and went downstairs, searching the hallways for Shadow because he was usually always there.

Not today, though. Today, I was all alone as I walked down the stairs of the fifth tower, and the closer to the ground floor I went, the better I heard the voices.

“…this far by following all the rulesexactlyas they are,” someone was saying—it could have been Romin.

“And we’re already late. We’ve talked about this before.” Emil.

“It’s evident that what we’re doing right now isn’t working,” said Tristian.

“Or rather,whowe’re doing it with,” Emil said.

“Which isn’t to say that it’s anybody’s fault,” said Romin, and when I reached the first landing of the stairway, I stopped. If I got closer, they’d know I was there. They’d hear my heart—and fuck, I wanted to hear what they were talking about. Curiosity was a monster inside of me already. Couldn’t resist it if I tried—and I most definitely wasn’t trying.

“It’s because Rassin had all of us during his lifetime. We know how it works—if we manage to produce a single Evernight heir, I’ll be fucking happy,” Emil said.

“We will. Of course, we will,” said Romin. “But to do so, we must be smart. We must utilize every possible option that we have at our disposal.”

My heart was beating in my ears as if I already knew exactly what they were talking about, even if I didn’t want to admit it yet.

Suddenly I was walking closer, farther down the stairs, the need to see them consuming me.

And I did. They were behind the corner on the other side of the wide hallway, all five brothers. Grey and Valentine were leaning against the walls, watching in silence as their brothers talked.

“Her blood is compatible with all of ours. It’s a sign,” Tristian said.

My knees shook.

“We should all be able to bed her until she’s with child,” said Emil.

“Because if we die without an heir, we all know what happens,” Tristian again.

“It’s for the Isles,” Romin said. “It’s our duty to protect the Isles at all costs.”

“And she could give us an heir,” Emil whispered, and about a million spiders crawled all over me, taking my breath away.

Silence.

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