Page 62 of Blood and Buttercups

“Livi?” I say.

“Give me a minute,” she answers. “I’m processing.”

“Are you on your way?”

“Well, yeah. Obviously. But I’m ditching a massage with Alessio to come see you, so you better be a creature of the night, or I will be ticked.”

“Go to your appointment. I’ll still be a monster tonight.”

“This is weird.”

“Tell me about it. Turn your car around and go see Alessio.”

“I’m going to,” she finally says. “He’s hard to book.”

“I know.”

“When do you get to become extra hot? Is that like an actual thing?”

“I haven’t noticed any increase in hotness. Maybe it happens at a later stage?”

“Bummer.”

“Yeah.”

We say our goodbyes, and then I turn my attention back to Noah and Max.

“Who’s Alessio?” Max demands.

“A masseur who works at the Glenwood Springs Spa. Olivia likes him.”

Max’s eyebrows jump, jealous enough he’s temporarily distracted.

“I know this sounds crazy,” I say, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. “Short of frying myself in the sun, which is incredibly painful, I don’t know how to convince you I’m telling the truth.” I pull up Ethan’s text messages and then slide my phone across the counter. “But read these and tell me they aren’t concerning.”

“Are those from Ethan?” Noah asks.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll need to see them as well.”

With a frown deeply etched on his face, Max scans them and then hands Noah my phone.

“Vampires are real, but they’re not magical monsters,” I say. “The weird symptoms are the product of a virus. It’s an illness—an illness I now have.”

“An illness your body fought and overcame,” Noah corrects. “You’re not a vampire yet, Piper, and you never will be.”

Max stares at me, eyes slitted, expression skeptical. Then he jerks his head toward the bottle on the counter. “Okay, prove it. Drink that blood.”

“Right now?”

He doesn’t answer, but he definitely isn’t playing.

My stomach twists, and I turn my eyes on Noah. “We better try that smoothie.”

14

“Look at the bright side,”Noah says to me from the porch as Max pulls out of the driveway. “This is the first time you’ve gotten fruit in a while.”

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