Page 77 of Vampires and Violas

I frown at my laptop screen as I log in. “You’re not upset?”

“I was never serious about Cassian,” Olivia reminds me. “I just think he’s yummy. We had this conversation, remember?”

“I know, but you guys had that date.”

“I like him a lot, but I don’t think we really click romantically.”

“Because you’re in love with Max?”

“Probably because he’s in love with his ex-girlfriend,” she says wryly.

“In love with hisex-fiancée—they were engaged.” Even though I shouldn’t gossip, I can’t help myself. “Apparently, she broke a vampire law, and he was supposed to kill her. But he let her go because he loved her.”

“Oh my gosh,” she swoons.

“I know. It’s romantic, in a violent sort of way. But to be honest, I’m a little uneasy about the whole situation. This woman is involved in all kinds of vampire politics, and things are messy with the recent assassination.”

“Some guy came by while I was visiting Cassian. He mentioned the assassination, too. I stayed in the other room, but I overheard some of the conversation.”

“Who was it?” I ask.

“I didn’t catch his name. Some big blond man with a northern European accent. I only saw him outside the window as he was leaving. He didn’t stay long, and it was obvious Cassian wasn’t expecting him.”

“Did he sound like he was from Denmark?”

“Hmm, maybe. Yeah.”

“It must have been Jorgen, the head of Marilyn’s husband’s house. She said he was looking for him.”

“How surreal is it we know an actual vampire prince?” Olivia says in a hushed whisper. “Piper, our lives have gotten so cool.”

I laugh, and then I hear the doorbell ring.

“Hey, I need to go,” I say. “Cassian just got here.”

“Call me if anything interesting happens, okay?”

“Will do.”

I hang up and then open my emails. Cassian and Noah are talking downstairs, but I know the vampire will come up to say hello when Noah leaves for work, so I don’t bother to join them.

As predicted, as soon as the door closes again, footsteps sound on the stairs.

A minute later, Cassian pokes his head into the room. “Hey.”

I pull my eyes from my laptop screen, looking at the vampire over my shoulder. “I’m not sure how I feel about Noah leaving me with a murderer.”

He rolls his eyes and enters the room, sitting in the extra dining room chair that somehow made its way up here. He leans back, balancing on two legs. “Sophia exaggerated the situation.”

“Did she? So, you weren’t going to kill her?”

“I was supposed to, but Ididn’t. Surely that counts for something?”

I raise a brow, refusing to answer that.

Cassian sighs. “That’s how it was when Nicolau first enacted the laws about transmission, before he created NIHA. If the head of a line discovered one of his progenies made another vampire, we were supposed to execute them and their creation.”

“Noah told me.” I swivel around in my chair to give him my full attention. “But it’s just as awful when you say it.”

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