Page 74 of Sunshine and the Vamp

“Stop,” Damyr whispered, his face pale. He looked like he’d seen a ghost and it had slapped him in the face.

“What is it?” I asked, anxiety turning my skin clammy.

“Where did you get that?” Damyr demanded, ignoring me.

Lucia looked flustered. “It was delivered to my chambers. It came with a note that said I needed to bring it to you.”

“Who signed it?” Vlad asked.

“The same guy that sent you the body,” Lucia said. “Ronin.”

“Let me see it.” Vlad pulled the letter from her fingers, his eyes scanning the page for any secret it might hold. “It’s just a love letter.”

“Out,” Damyr shouted suddenly, making me flinch. “Everybody out.”

I’d never seen people move so fast.

Acheron disappeared instantly, Remy and Lucia practically ran, and Aleksey strode out the door. I’d forgotten he was in the room, to be honest. The guy barely said two words together.

I exchanged a look with Vlad. He seemed just as confused as I was. I helped Wilder out of his chair and made to walk with him. I figured if they had a doctor on site, there must be some sort of medical equipment somewhere. I needed to get Wilder on a machine to watch his heart for a bit. I didn’t want it arresting again.

“Vlad, take Wilder to the doc. Benji, you stay.”

I bristled a little with his command, but I didn’t rise to it. Damyr was clearly upset, and I could always mention it later.

Vlad gave me the letter and went to pick Wilder up to carry him.

“I can walk, asshole,” Wilder said as he batted Vlad’s hands out of the way. It was a little concerning that Wilder was still rubbing the spot over his heart, but whether that was because of the brutal way I hit him, or his heart spasming, I didn’t know. He seemed to be managing the walk out of the office fine, though, so as soon as they closed the door behind them, I turned all thoughts to Damyr and the letter in my hand that turned him whiter than the sheet of paper it was printed on.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Damyr

Ihadn’t heard those words for more than three centuries. But when Lucia started reading them aloud, everything came crashing back to me. The agony, the pain, the love. The loss. As clear to me today as it was all that time ago.

“What is this, Damyr?” Benjamin asked as he came around the desk with the letter in his hand. It wasn’t an original. It couldn’t be. The paper was too new, too crisp.

How could Ronin have gotten his hands on these? I thought they’d been lost to time, or burnt to ashes after Edwin had died.

Hands cupped my face, dragging me back into the present.

“Talk to me,” Benjamin said softly.

I looked up into his green eyes, trepidation running through me at telling Benjamin about my past.

“Is this about Edwin?”

My stomach dropped. “How do you know that name?”

He sighed. “Vlad told me. Not everything, but he mentioned it. Don’t be angry at him, I kind of pushed him to tell me when we were talking about how rare mates were and how marriages traditionally worked between vampires. He said you’d been heartbroken.”

I scoffed. That was one way to put it. I pulled Benjamin onto my lap, seeking the comfort I knew that only he could give me. “You mean you were digging for dirt on me and probing my second in command for gossip?”

“When you put it like that, it sounds seedy.” The smile that Benjamin gave me was warm, and it fed my soul with something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I sat there with him in my arms for a few minutes and soaked up his touch. He ran his hands through my hair and hummed a song that I found soothing. This whole moment with Benjamin was soothing, and I could feel it softening the rough edges of my soul.

“I met Edwin when I was a lot younger,” I started, my voice rough as the ghosts of my past clawed at my memory. “I’d been a vampire for just over half a century. I was young, arrogant and naïve.”

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