Page 44 of A Dream of Stars and Curses

‘Come to mine in a few days,’ he says. I feel his chest rumble with every word and treasure being close enough to feel it. ‘If you still want me then, I promise you will have my undivided attention.’

I want to object, tell him I don’t need time to decide, but I see his point. Everything somewhat escalated tonight. I know how I feel, but I can hardly blame him for giving me time to think it over. As far as he knows, I might just be high on adrenaline after Chiara’s threat.

And as I sink more against him, a small, petty part of me hopes that she saw the whole thing.

I tilt my head back to smile at him. ‘I’ll be there.’

He brings his nose to mine. ‘Think carefully about this, Esta. Once we give ourselves to each other, you won’t get rid of me. Consider if you’re ready to have an utterly devoted vampire partner.’

I nearly whimper again but swallow it. Everything he just said will follow me forever. My core aches for him, but I make myself nod and step away slightly. He needs to be sure that I am sure, and I can give him that peace of mind. Frankly, I’ll do anything he wants—a bit of thinking isn’t the most he can ask of me. Maybe a cold shower will help that. And who knows? Maybe he’ll be the one to change his mind; although, after everything he just said, I wouldn’t know how to begin to recover. Does he have any idea just how hard I’ve fallen for him?

I smile. ‘Alright. I will.’ Maybe I’ll talk it through with Bonnie and Lady, but I know it won’t change anything for me. I may as well think it through, though, because I’ll be replaying every single word he said to me tonight anyway. Again. And again.

Because I’m so stupidly and utterly besotted with this man.

I know the blue flashing lights are outside our house before Leverett even turns the corner onto our road. Just a gut feeling. We park behind a police car. My throat goes dry. There’s no ambulance or anything like that, so I hope that Bonnie is okay. Against the blue light from the police car, the warm living room light looks wrong. I as good as fall out of the car and race to the door. Behind me, Leverett shuts the door and hurries after me. Our door is unlocked, and I brace myself.

Bonnie sits on the sofa with Lady by her feet, eyes flying between Bonnie and the police officer standing before her. When I enter, Lady gets to her paws and struggles to decide whether to stay with Bonnie or run to me. She whines in protest at the hard decision but stays with my sister. Bonnie’s eyes are red and puffy, her arms around herself. The police officer gives me a kind smile, though, so I’m guessing no one died? I scold myself. I’ll feel terrible if I’m wrong and joked about it.

‘You must be Esta,’ the officer says. Her voice is warm and doesn’t betray even a hint of disaster, but something must have happened or she wouldn’t be in our house.

‘Yes.’ I sit next to Bonnie and put an arm around her. ‘What’s wrong?’

Bonnie looks at me with quivering lips. She opens her mouth to talk, but whatever she wants to say dies in her throat.

‘There was a break-in,’ the officer says. ‘Nothing big seems to have gone missing, just a necklace. Bonnie tells me it’s of great personal value.’

My stomach dips. She can’t mean—

‘My grandma’s necklace,’ Bonnie chokes out. ‘It’s gone.’

I tighten my hold on her and gently rock her as she cries into me. I want to ask if anything else was taken, but fortunately I know how insensitive that would sound before I open my mouth. If there was anything else, the officer will tell me.

‘We will do what we can to track the thief,’ the officer says, ‘but this person left very few clues. The locks don’t look tampered with, and the windows are whole. Frankly, if it weren’t for Bonnie’s testimony that something was stolen, we’d be struggling to find any evidence.’ The officer looks at Bonnie. ‘And you’re sure you didn’t just misplace it?’ She looks at me. ‘Did you borrow it and just forgot to mention it?’

I frown—like I wouldn’t tell her—but it’s my sister who snaps, ‘Yes, I’m sure! I told you before, this necklace means a lot to me. I don’t just lose something like that.’

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