Page 48 of Kissed the Mark
“The audacity,” I said, clutching fakepearls.
“Right? Well, my sister had died inchildbirth, and I was worried about succumbing to the same fate—andour little port had a legendary vampire who was recently in townfrom the Philippines. Or so it was rumored. I sought her out someyears later, had her turn me into a monster, and ripped thatEnglish boy’s throat out, and then drank all his blood.”
“Um. I don’t really know what to say tothat.”
“Well, it was nearly a hundred years ago. Ijust thought, you know…” She gestured to the bookshelf, as thoughit exemplified something she couldn’t articulate. “I thought itwould help.”
“Are you bi?” I asked. My chest had stoppedfeeling so tight.
“No, I think…well. You’d call me a lesbian,because I don’t really go for men these days. I didn’t do labelsuntil recently. We didn’t consider it part of our whole identitywho we liked to sleep with back in my day. We just fuckedwomen.”
“Interesting.”
“Do you feel better?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, though something elsefluttered in my chest, the reason I’d been so uncomfortable thatLeandra had immediately identified and sought to remedy: that I wasso exposed, showing Leandra all of Faerie, having her makedeductions about my upbringing, meeting people from my youth. And Ihadn’t known even her basic backstory, butGod, how was sheable to see through me so easily? How had she known just what tosay? “Can we discuss our backup plan for shelter?”
“The plan was Austria, which didn’t happen,sothisis kind of the backup,” she said, surprising me byanswering rather than deflecting. “Are we able to go to Austria inFaerie and then switch back over to the real world?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. Vienna hada Seelie court—though likely, we wouldn’t be welcome there, either.Maybe even less welcome than we were here. “Let’s look into it.I’ll ask my mom.”
“You look just like her,” Leandra said. “Imiss having family sometimes.”
I’d assumed the vampires thought of eachother as family, although Leandra was obviously trying to leavetheir ranks. Was it the system she didn’t like? “You really want tobe immortal for the freedom?” I asked. “Why can’t you just leavethem?”
“I have an obligation to them, now thatwe’ve been in this mutually beneficial relationship for a while,”she said. She kneaded a pillow as she spoke. “They wouldn’t justlet me leave. I sold myself to them in a way, when I entered thatcommunity. They gave me kinship, and a steady blood supply, and Iclawed my way up the ranks to get to where I am. The system’s justawful, is all. The mayoral council isn’t much better. They alwaysbend to the powerful ones in the other groups. If your UnseelieQueen called them up and made a request, even from Chicago, I haveno doubt they’d give in to her.”
The St. Louis mayoral council wasn’t even onthe Unseelie Queen’s radar. It wasn’t a big enough city to warranta fairy court, barely a blip on the radar.
I opened my mouth to respond to that andstopped at the look on Leandra’s face—it was indescribable.
It was how she looked right before she’dkissed me the first time.
“What?” I asked. Her eyes were doe-soft, herlips slightly turned downward.
“I was thinking that I like you, and weshould date.” It was a simple statement, so matter-of-fact, andsaid so gently. It also contradicted what she’d told me beforeabout her intentions, but that was no surprise considering hertrack record of contradictions. “If we’re going to be out in publiclike this too—it’s easier to explain it that way, isn’t it? Evenyour mom picked up on the fact that we’re not just allies sharing acause or whatever.”
It was a moment before my mouth startedworking again. “I thought we were just having sex,” I saiddefensively.
“Well, that too.”
“I’m…Are you asking me for”—I swallowed onthe word—“exclusivity?”
“I’ve made it this far without catching theclap and I’m sure not going to get it from you.”
“Romantic,” I said, but my stomach flipped.“I don’t even have time to go around dating people anyway, Leandra.If you wanted exclusivity, you’ve got it.”
“So we are dating now? Officially?” sheasked. “Can I update my Facebook profile?”
“I don’t believe for a second that you havea Facebook,” I said. The words turned over in my mouth. “You cantell people we’re dating for convenience.” But did I actually likethe idea of dating her? She was dangerous. Leandra had just said soherself—tore out the throat of the person who’d cheated on her.
The way she watched me seemed to say:you’re dangerous, too.
I settled on the bed next to her, and didn’tresist when she slid a comfortable hand up my leg. “So we’re fakedating?” Leandra asked, a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Sounds like you read too much fanfiction,”I whispered.
“I’m going to live a long time,” she said.“I want to readeverything.”
