Page 128 of Hunters and Hydrangeas

“And I wouldgive updonuts for you. Which…I’ve already done.”

“I’ll try to make it up to you,” he promises. Then he pulls back, resting his weight on his hand as he frowns down at me. “Just as soon as I figure out how to remove this corset. Is it like a modern-day chastity belt? What is this thing?”

“I have full confidence in you.” I raise a brow. “After all, we both know how good you are at breaking and entering.”

Noah’s snort turns into a laugh. “You’re never going to let me forget that stupid door, are you?”

“You want to know a secret?”

“I want to know all your secrets.”

“It was pretty hot.”

“Oh yeah?”

I smile as he kisses me. “Yeah.”

I pullup to our house at half-past three, a full week after the nomination gala. It looks the same, but I’m not.

I’m married. My fangs have grown in. And I have a sick vampire husband.

“We’re back,” I tell Noah.

“Just leave me here.” He’s crashed out against the passenger side door of our SUV, eyes closed.

“All you have to do is walk into the house, and then you can have more painkillers for your headache.”

He groans, sitting up slowly, blinking in the bright light. “Being a normal human sucks.”

I laugh, grabbing the small, soft-sided cooler that holds our blood. “You’re not normal. More like pre-vamp level right now. The doctor said you’ll be back to your usual vampire self in a few weeks.”

He turns toward me. “Bite me again. Maybe it will help.”

“That’s not how it works,” I remind him with a laugh. “You have to give the virus a chance to reestablish itself. Now, come on.”

The day we were flying back to Miami, Cassian’s doctor got the answer he was looking for. Cassian’s sickness wasn’t an abnormality, nor was it the product of biomedical foul play.

It was caused by the daylight drug.

Apparently, over the last year, a rash of vampires on the medication have been getting sick, and they all have two things in common—they’ve all been on the drug for at least twenty-four months, and they hadn’t been bitten in several years.

Married vampires weren’t having any issues, nor were vampires with more promiscuous lifestyles. But single vampires who abstained from casual relationships and vampires married to humans were all picking up everyday viruses their bodies should have been fighting.

Simply put, the drug weakened their immune systems, and they needed a Vampiria B booster shot. Thankfully for Noah, I’m happy to step up and help him with that as often as needed.

NIHA scientists have already started doing further research on the drug, working with vampires willing to abstain from bites to see how else the medication might affect them. If they’re on it long enough, will they be able to eat plant-based foods? Have children? Will they forfeit their immortality?

Only time will tell.

But a question keeps circling in my brain: Has NIHA found a cure for vampirism? And if they have, what does that mean for our future?

Thankfully, worrying about that is Cassian’s job, not mine.

The heads of the lines will converge in Romania again in a month, and this time, the archduke will be announced. Cassian is expected to win by a large margin.

But even if it’s not Cassian, one thing is for certain—it won’t be Jameson. He’s in a high-security prison, charged with a vampire life sentence.

At least he’s not alone.

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