Page 65 of Seph

“Saw you in London one night. Little red dress. Painted on. You had two big vamps eating out of your hand, following you into an alley, thinking they were about to ‘split a drink.’ All that they ended up sharing was a pile of dust on the pavement.”

“You saw that?” Emily backed away, a faint blush climbing her neck and settling into her cheeks.

“You looked like a party girl. Every man’s dirty little fantasy—but you looked dead when you weren’t hunting them. Dead in the eyes. No smile. Just a robotic thing.”

Emmy let out a harsh huff of air. “That’s why my father said you were so dangerous. He said you’d slip inside someone’s soul—know them too well. To kill a vampire, you have to think like one—but you never lost your ability to think like a human.” Her head cocked. “That’s why you could make someone fall in love with you.”

His absent pulse seemed to tick back to life, just for a minute. What was she saying? That he made her fall in love? Tricked her?

“Maybe some folks, Huntress—but never you. No one has ever made you do anything you didn’t want to.”

Emily let out a hollow laugh, swaying with him. “Except life. Except my father.”

“Every time you live like a person and not a killing machine, you’re breaking all of his rules, Emily.” His head dipped. Hers lifted. There was a slow, hypnotic slide, eyes watching eyes, living, blushing lips dancing so close to chalk-tinted ones.

“Did you fantasize about me? Back then?” Emily asked.

The question startled him—but he told the truth. “No. That started later. When I saw the soul inside the shell.”

Her hand tapped his chest. “And you don’t have one. So even if you love with all your heart—you’ll never love the way a humancan.” Her lower lip seemed to shiver even as she blew warm breath on him.

“No. I s’pose I won’t. But maybe the memory is enough? I knew how to love when I was a human. It’s what got me into this mess in the first place.”

Emily swallowed, pulse in her neck standing out like a beacon of light to hungry eyes.

“Maybe,” she answered, sliding her arms around his neck.

There was a kiss, a press of his hips to hers, and a long, slow separation that made Simeon want to slide back inside of her and plant his fangs in her neck, too. Not to kill. To take her heartbeat into his mouth, to feel the way her blood ran hot and pulsed hard when he was making her come.

Maybe, she says.

If I do this little thing for Hades—he’ll grant me a boon.

I could wish that Emily finds what she’s always wanted, that she heals, that her mother... maybe that her mother never died to begin with. That we rewind everything—or just her life.

Then Emily would never have been brought up like this. Never hurt like this. Never feel less than human and more like a robot, someone’s legacy, someone’s tool.

Would I get to keep my memories of her though? Would we all rewind?

Could I live like this, knowing she’ll never know how much I loved her?

Yeah, I could. For her. As long as I get to remember these months...

“Call Hades,” Emily murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. “I wonder if he’ll be able to remember anything about her.”

“I wonder the same thing,” Simeon whispered.

“Mnemosyne? Zeus’s Titan sidepiece?” Hades sounded shocked. “Most of the Titans are dead or in Tartarus.”

“Yes, but is she? We need you to check, and you need to do it very discreetly. If we’re right, and she has something to do with your missing wife, you could tip her off by nosing around. Then she might move Persephone.”

“You... you think Mem has my wife hidden somewhere?” Hades’ voice was so powerful that a small crack appeared in the hotel’s wall. “And you expect me to sit idly by while Seph is—”

“Just chill out,” Emily snapped, jumping into the conversation.

Simeon winced.Well, we really need to work on those self-preservation skills, don’t we?

“Mortal! How dare you tell me—”

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