When she stepped into the car, she said, “Mademoiselle Witch, you are just what I need…”

* * *

Amelia had to walk twenty minutes to get to where Sera said Byron had headed. “If only I had super vampire speed as well as immortality.”

She spotted Byron standing on the beach at the back of the castle. It was an idyllic spot looking over the loch, and to the side was a little wooden harbour that led into a small boathouse.

As soon as Byron walked out on her, she knew she had to make this right. She loved Byron and that was all that mattered. Byron had already been hungry after the fight and Lucia’s death, but after all the high emotion of their argument she could feel Byron’s hunger becoming desperate.

The bond they shared made Amelia feel everything that Byron did, in her blood, in her bones, and in her heart, and that made her love for Byron all the more intense.

She stood beside Byron at the shore, but Byron never acknowledged her presence. Amelia sighed and looked down at the small waves of the beautifully clear loch water rolling up to her toes.

Amelia couldn’t stand the silence any more. “Byron I—”

Byron turned her head and gave her a stony look. “You don’t have to say anything. I will have someone take you back to London.”

“Don’t give me that stoic, controlled Byron rubbish,” Amelia said with annoyance. She took Byron’s hand and turned it over, and placed their wrists side by side. Their palms showed the scars of their blood bond. “We are in each other’s blood. I can feel your hunger, your passion, your joy, and your pain. You can’t hide from me any more.”

“Oh, really?” Byron said coolly.

“Yes, and I know I hurt you with what I said. I was confused, hurt, and angry at everything. My life’s been turned upside down, Byron, but I know I was not forced into anything. You were right—I did come to you in London, and not just because I didn’t want to see you in pain, but because I wanted to be the one who gave you what you needed.”

Byron let out a sigh and entwined their fingers. “But it’s true—you had no say in our blood bond. It was my mistake in the heat of passion. I wasn’t careful.”

Amelia reached up and cupped her cheek. “Listen, if I knew that you were all vampires then, and you’d asked me that night to bond by blood with you, I would have said yes.”

“You would?” Amelia could see the hope returning to Byron, and the red in her eyes intensifying.