“I see.”
“That makes me crazy, doesn’t it?”
“I’m afraid it does, miss.”
“Anderson!”
“A joke, miss, just a joke.”
Her gaze narrowed. “You didn’t sound like you were joking.”
It was Anderson’s turn to change the subject, saying, “Please excuse me, miss. I believe I’m needed in the kitchen.”
“You’re the butler, not the cook.”
But the older man had already beaten a quick retreat, and she could only glower at the sight of the butler’s retreating back. Coward.
Left to her own devices in Etienne’s nerdy bat cave, she reached for the book on the top of the pile, wondering absently if perhaps Caros turned into bats the way vampires were supposed to.
Flipping the book open, she realized soon enough that it was a history primer written for Caro middle-schoolers, and one particularly interesting thing that captured her attention was a chapter on the two main divisions of Caro society.
All old bloods are purebloods, but not all purebloods are old bloods.
Huh. That sounded too complicated for her, so she moved on to the next book, which fortunately turned out to be more to her taste. It was a primer on the different races that were unknown to human kind, and Spencer was stunned to find that there were a lot of them that had been living in secret among humans. There were shapeshifters galore, Faeries, winged creatures, and then…finally, she made it to the chapter that tackled the most distinct traits of Caros.
Blood drinkers, weak against sunlight, inherently selfish and predisposed to cultivate a possibly dangerous dependency on any person, object, or habit that can deliver a satisfying amount of gratification.
Their sense of racial loyalty is shaped by their violent history and not to be confused with bigotry,
As with other races, they possess extraordinarily heightened senses…
Spencer put the book down as something about the last line she read nagged at her.
Her mind drifted back to the night of the attack. He had been a lot stronger than what was normal, she recalled, but she didn’t think this was what was making her feel restless. It was something else, something she had forgotten…
When Etienne returned to his home, he was surprised to hear from Anderson that Spencer had already left. It wasn’t like her to do so without telling him first, and unease stirred inside of him when his call to her phone was immediately redirected to voicemail.
Something had happened. His guts told him so, and he found himself walking swiftly to where Anderson said she had spent most of her time in. Inside the secret room at the back of the library, he noticed the pile of books on the desk, and he went through them one by one.
A history book…a primer on the different non-human races…and that was when it hit him.
He was outside her apartment in record time, and after a single press of the doorbell, he was unsurprised to see Spencer herself opening the door. She had always been fearless in that sense, the type who would rather risk pain than cower and hide from any confrontation. So her coming out to face him head on was no surprise, but as for the rest…
“What the fuck are dressed like that for?”
She was all dolled up, her dramatic makeup making her eyes look bigger and her lips all rosy red like they had just finished blowing a man’s soul to Heaven. But what really had his fangs threatening to slash out was her dress, if it could be called that, with the poor fucking job it did at covering anything pertinent. Her tits looked as if they were about to pop out from her strapless excuse of a dress, and her killer heels would make any man want to push her against the wall and fuck her.
“You’re crazy,” he snarled, “if you think I’m going to let you walk out of here dressed like that—”
“I’m going to do more than that, actually,” Spencer interrupted coolly. “I’m going to head to a place where I sold my virginity to and ask for a Round Two!” She saw Etienne stiffen, and her lips stretched into a smile that failed to reach her eyes. “So if you’ll excuse me…” She stalked past him, head held high, and did her best to ignore the pitiful little voice inside her head that was begging her to look back.
But I won’t. I won’t look back. I won’t.
It had crushed her when she found out Etienne knew about her feelings, and although she could understand why he hadn’t said anything, it didn’t make a difference. It still felt humiliating, and her first instinct had been to hide under the covers and bawl her eyes out for days. But to do that was yield what little pride she had left, and that was when her mind had taken on a crazy bent.
Etienne mentally swore as he watched Spencer walk past him. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. If Spencer was going to VIP Productions, one call was all it would take for him to once again slip into the role of her anonymous lover, but if he did that, it would also mean deceiving her for the second time, and even he drew a line at that. He might not be that knowledgeable about affairs of the heart, but even he knew that would be unforgivable. And so the only way that was left….