“It’s just so bad at home, Beth!” Jen said, her voice breaking. “Dad—”

“So leave!”

“I can’t!”

Bethany huddled into herself, crossing her forearms and hugging her elbows. “Yeah, you can! I did.”

“For what?” Jen gestured futilely at the manor. “This?”

Her sister glared at her. “It’s better than—”

“Than what?” Jen touched the puncture wounds on her sister’s throat. “This? It’s just another addiction. Just like Dad and his drinking.”

“You don’t understand!”

“The hell I don’t!”

“You don’t.”

I cleared my throat. Both of them fell silent and looked up at me. “You’re both right,” I said to them. “Jen, I think we underestimated the allure.” I rubbed the side of my neck where my pulse still beat hard, my skin yearning to be pierced. “A lot. But, Bethany, I think Jen’s right. It is an addiction. And I bet it’s one that can be beaten.”

She gave me a stony look. “How many addictions grant you eternal life, devil girl? Geoffrey’s promised to change me.”

“Your goddamn bloodsucking boyfriend’s been promising to change you for eight years!” Jen said grimly. “Wake up and smell the plasma, Beth!”

“He’s waiting for me to reach my prime!” she retorted.

I gazed at her emaciated figure with sorrow. “Honey, the way you’re going, you’ve already passed it. He’s not going to change you; he’s going to trade you in for a younger, healthier model.”

That kindled a spark of alarm in her hollow eyes. “He wouldn’t do that. He loves me!”

“Yeah, and I love a good bottle of scotch, too,” I said. “But when it’s empty, I throw the bottle away.”

She looked confused. “You don’t recycle?”

Jen rolled her eyes.

I sighed. “Yes, I recycle! It’s a metaphor, okay? Listen . . . you know how they say absence makes the heart grow fonder? Why not put it to the test?” I patted the LeBaron’s folded top. “Come home for a few days. Rest up, get some beauty sleep, eat your mom’s good home cooking.” I’d never actually eaten Mrs. Cassopolis’s cooking, but I assumed it was good. Her husband probably wouldn’t stand for anything less. “Give Geoffrey a chance to realize what he’s missing.”

Bethany eyed me suspiciously. “If you’re right, he’ll just choose someone else for the blood-bond.”

I shook my head. “Not right now, he won’t. Lady Eris just issued a no-hunting decree. Believe me, there’ll never be a better time.”

Her gaze shifted back and forth between Jen and me. “Is this a trick?”

“No trick,” I promised.

“Cross our hearts and hope to die,” Jen said wryly. “Bethany, please? Just for a few days?”

A deeply buried longing surfaced behind her eyes. “I’ll . . . Okay, maybe I’ll ask Geoffrey about it.”