“I will.”
The car starts itself as we climb in, and we head out of our development onto the main road.
“So. Mom gave you quite the welcome.” I sneak a side glance at Jay.
“She apologized for not stepping in more and addressing the situation with my mom. I know I asked them not to, because I didn’t want to go into foster care, but she said they should have tried harder to figure out something else. And she said she was sorry you guys left so suddenly.” He clears his throat. “It was exactly what I wanted to hear. And I couldn’t say anything, so I just…hugged her. And she started crying. Do you think she’ll be okay?”
“I think she’ll be just fine.” I squeeze his shoulder briefly, and he looks over at me.
Humor sparks in his eyes. “Interesting choice of outfit. You look like a tasty little blood snack.”
“That’s what I said! But stupid Nick made me wear it.”
“Ah, the old ‘Nick made me do it’ excuse. I’m starting to hear that a lot from Cody, too.” Jay’s lips twitch up at the corner.
With a gusty sigh, I lean back in my seat. “Outfit aside, are you sure this is okay? I mean, I’m not a vampire yet. This group might not want me hearing their little vampire secrets and knowing their faces.”
“When I emailed them about it, they said, and I quote: ‘We’d be thrilled to have you and your girlfriend at the meeting.’”
Inside I’m squealing because he told them I’m his girlfriend. I’m Jay Gatsby’s girlfriend.
But I say coolly, “That could just be politeness.”
“But it’s not. They all love me. When I go to these things, they give me the best snacks.”
“Ah, so that’s why you attend.”
“Daisy. I have, like, a billion dollars. I can buy any snacks I want, or have Hestia order them online, or ask Henry to run out and buy them, or hire a personal chef to make them—”
“Okay, I get it. You’re super rich, and you’re also kind of a cult leader.”
A passing car’s headlights flash over his face. He looks deeply revolted and offended, and I can’t help giggling.
“I know you think you’re being funny,” he says slowly, “but that’s one reason I don’t always participate in my own parties. I don’t want that kind of treatment. It’s weird. And if you knew how the First Gens act—Wolfsheim in particular—you’d understand the difference. He demands complete obedience and unquestioning worship. He views himself as a messiah or a prophet, a divinely appointed emissary to the chosen few.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s so cliché.”
“Maybe so, but Wolfsheim actually believes it. And his followers—the other First Gens and their Progeny—are intensely fanatical.”
A trickle of fear runs through my heart. “And these are the people you and Cody pissed off? The ones you keep defying over and over?”
He winces. “Yeah. But Wolfsheim is in Colorado, and he’s got his own business to handle. He might fuss, but he won’t bother us. And even if he does pay us a visit, we’ll just show him our operation and tell him about the precautions we’re taking. I mean, it’s not like he and his people don’t turn humans into vampires, too. They just do it on a very limited scale, and they don’t charge money for it. Each First Gen is allowed to turn one human every five years. The candidates for Progeny are carefully selected, and they must serve their progenitor for five years after their transformation—if they survive.”
“And the First Gens use the more brutal method. The one with all the agony.”
“The drinking of the vampire’s blood.” He nods. “They believe old vampire legends are actually prophecies to be followed in the present. To them, transformation by drinking raw blood is the only pure way to create a new vampire. Like a test of the human’s worthiness.”
“That’s total bull.”
“Of course it is. A lot of religious traditions are. You’ve got to cut away all the extra crap people have added to get anywhere near the truth.” He takes a sharp turn on the dark mountainside, and I gasp as the trees fall away on the right side of the car. A few feet from my window, the road drops into a deep gorge. There’s no guardrail here.
“This is really dangerous. I should have let you turn me already,” I mumble.
“I’m being careful. I’ll go slower if you want.”
“Yes, please.”
He decelerates, taking the next hairpin curve with a precision that eases my nerves a little.
“You really are the best boyfriend.” I stroke his thigh lightly.
He sucks in a quick breath. “Are you trying to distract me? I thought you wanted safe driving.”
“Sorry.” I withdraw my hand. “How close are we?”
“Nearly there.”
The car lurches to the left again, up a dirt road I couldn’t even see in the dark. “Do you have better night vision than a human?”
“Nope. But I’ve been here before.”
“They must have really good snacks.” Or someone hot he likes to see. No, I shouldn’t even be thinking that way. That’s the Tom baggage talking. Jay loves me; he’s proved it time and time again. Still, I can’t help myself. I try not to ask but it slips out, way more pathetic-sounding than I intended. “There’s no other attraction, right? No hot little vampire girl, or guy…”
“You know I’m straight. And you also know I’m yours. Helplessly, devotedly yours.” The car grinds to a stop in front of a house so nestled in trees and darkness that I can’t tell its size. Orange light glows from the windows, warm and welcoming.
“You sound like a book again,” I say wryly, releasing the latch of my seat belt.
“Fine. You want it straight up? I’m your damn slave, Daisy. And that’s not going to change. It wouldn’t change, even if you stayed human and got old and soft and whiskery and white-haired. You’d still be beautiful to me. It wouldn’t change even if the hottest woman on earth strutted in front of me naked and begged me to sleep with her—I’d say no, and I’d go find you instead. No one else will ever be to me what you are. No matter how sick or sad or mad you get, no matter how bad you mess up or where you go, it’s only you, and that’s it. You never, ever have to be afraid that I’ll stop loving you. Okay?”
