“Hmm…she is a super scary vamp with everyone, but she really seems to get under your skin. Does she make you angry?”

“Infuriated, mostly. I think because she disappointed me. Can you keep a secret?”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “I’m a paranormal hunter who has discovered the paranormal world and can’t tell anyone. I think you can trust me.”

“True—well, the secret that I never told anyone was that I had a crush on Alexis Villiers ever since I can remember. Even before I understood why I found another woman so interesting. She strode through the Debrek estate, all-powerful and telling people what to do. She was exciting.”

Daisy leaned in closer. “Oh, this is getting interesting. What happened next?”

Katie sighed. “People rarely live up to the pedestal you put them on, do they? I went off to university, then came back to work with the Debreks, and I was put on the blood rota.”

“The blood rota?” Daisy questioned.

“All the humans who work for the Debreks provide blood for the clan’s vampires. We are well rewarded, and we always have the right to leave or refuse. Blood rights are always about consent for the Debreks.”

“Weird, but if it works for you, then great.”

“I was called down to the blood room, and it was going to be my first time, and Alexis walked in,” Katie said.

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Just your luck to get scary features.”

“I was so nervous and yet so excited at the same time. The vampire who’d been my crush all my life was here to be my first.”

Daisy took a drink and said, “I can imagine she behaved like an arsehole about the whole thing.”

“That’s the strange thing. She was so gentle, so caring, walking me through every step of my first time. It was like a dream. Then—”

“Then?”

A feeling of utter sadness descended on Katie. “Then she tasted me, tasted my blood, and was so disgusted that she tore her teeth away and ran out of the room, just leaving me there.”

“She did that? I was right—she is a bloody arsehole, Katie,” Daisy said.

“To this day I don’t know what was wrong with my blood.”

“There’s nothing wrong. If I were a vampire, I’d happily feed on you.”

Katie laughed. “Thanks, friend. At least I found out who she was. A cold, heartless vampire. Not worthy of my teenage crush.”

She looked back round at Alexis. What she didn’t tell Daisy was that in the brief moment Alexis was feeding from her, it felt better than any fantasy she’d ever had. She felt her everywhere. In her mind, her soul, her sex, everywhere. Katie remembered being so overcome with the need to touch and be touched that she’d reached back and grasped Alexis’s dark hair.

But then Alexis ran like she was some cheap one-night stand. What was so wrong with her?

* * *

“How long before we can slip away, mia cara?” Byron whispered into her wife’s ear as they swayed to the music.