Page 10 of Watch Me Burn

“Seventy-two,” she admits. “I’m not even a century yet. To my kind, I’m barely a mature female. But my parents want me to find my beloved otherwise they’ll arrange one for me.” She waves her hand. “That’s not important. What’s important is that you’re a witch?—”

“I’mnot.”

Maybe if I say it enough times, one of us will believe me.

Elise raises her eyebrows at me, then lays her unnaturally cool hand on mine—and how have I never noticed how chilly she was before? “Bridge, sweetie. I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this, but you shot fire out of one of them and nearly incinerated a man where he stood.”

I know.

Iknow.

It’s impossible. Unbelievable. But I did it… and she’s holding my hand anyway.

Trying to sound like I’m not about to lose my shit completely, I teasingly say, “Aren’t you afraid I might burn you?”

“Of course not. I know you. If that’s really the first time that happened, there’s a reason it took this long for your powers to manifest.”

“Yeah. That dickhead was following me,” I admit, remembering my frightened reaction when he picked up the pace and crossed the street. “He got a handcuff of me.”

Elise squeezes the top of my hand. “I know. He was trying to get your hands behind you back so that?—”

I snort, cutting her off. “I couldn’t do what I did?”

“Something like that. And I know this all so incredible. That it’s going to take time to really come to terms with this new reality. But it did happen, Bridget. Simon was on patrol nearby. He caught the… that man stalking you. He tried to stop you, but he was too fast. And then…”

Her voice trails off, as though realizing that the further explanations have only made me keep quiet—and isn’t that a feat in and of itself.

She removes her hand. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

This is Elise. Apart from learning she’s older than I thought, and her diet is definitely not what I was expecting, she’s the same.

I can be the same Bridget, too.

Am I awitch? It would be so easy to use that as an explanation, but twenty-nine years as a regular old human myself insists that witches aren’t real. Magic isn’t real.

I peek up at Elise, gaze drawn to the points of her fangs.

Vampires aren’t supposed to be real, either.

You know what’s funny? I find it so much easier to say, yup, Elise is a bloodsucker. After all, I could tell she had a secret. A huge one. But I thought she was, like, hidden royalty or something. Her accent sealed it for me, and so did the strangewas she talks sometimes, almost like she’s as fancy as her name suggests. The way she spoke of her family, and details of a long lineage that she would mention, then dismiss just as quickly.

Then there was my suspicion that she had an eating disorder. In a way, I was right. Elise doesn’t eat because, if this is all true, she drinks blood instead.

Because she’s avampire.

I guess I’m still kind of hung up on the food thing. Sue me, but when faced with something else that seems impossible, I cling to what I know. Elise doesn’t eat, though she’s always sipping something through that damn metal straw of hers—blood, my mind screams, it’sblood—and when she goes out to eat, she brings home plenty of leftovers. She rarely sees the same man twice after how much Peter got attached to her… but that doesn’t stop her from going out multiple times a week.

“What about all those dinner dates?” I ask. “If you’re a vampire, don’t you drink blood?”

“Someone was having dinner,” murmurs Elise. “And, yes. I need blood to survive, but I can nibble here or there. The males get dinner on me. They let me drink after.”

“So, what? You pick up a guy, go on a date, then eat him for dessert?”

She exhales, and I’m not sure if vampires need to breathe or if it’s the short of reaction I get just by being me. “Is that really what you want to know about my kind first?”

It’s either that or ask if she’s been drinking me since she clearly kept her secret the entire time I’ve known her. And I get it—if I’m a witch, I’m not telling anyonethat—but what if her claim to be lonely and looking for a roommate she can trust was BS? Maybe she wanted easy access to food…

“It’s considered uncouth for a female vampire to repeatedly feed on a male if she isn’t going to sleep with him. So I choose donors instead. They get my company and a free meal. I sip theirblood after and leave them almost as satisfied as if we had actual intercourse.”

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