“Byron and I had been called away on some business that evening. We were supposed to be having a dinner party with friends, and I was going to propose to Anna.”

“You?” Katie said with shock. “Get married?”

“Yes, well, I was still passing as a man in those days, and Byron was going to slip the vicar a few quid in case he was suspicious. But it never got that far. We returned back to the London house and found it had been attacked. Byron lost her lover, and I found Anna with her throat ripped out.”

Katie gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Oh God. Like that night when the London house was attacked and my friends killed when we were at The Sanctuary?”

Alexis nodded. “I didn’t want to take the chance that would happen again.”

Katie took Alexis’s hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have argued and behaved like a brat.”

“You didn’t. I should have explained myself, instead of ordering you like one of my vampires,” Alexis said.

Alexis loved the feel of Katie’s fingers caressing the back of her hand. She realized being truthful was their only way forward.

“That night when I held Anna’s dead body in my arms, I promised myself I’d never let myself fall in love or have a relationship with a mortal again.”

Katie stopped caressing her hand and went stiff. She’d clearly said the wrong thing.

Katie let go of Alexis’s hand and stood slowly. “I’m really tired. I think I’ll go to bed.”

* * *

Alexis paced up and down in front of the fire, her hunger for fresh blood gnawing at her nerves like a million rats.

She downed the glass of blood she had poured herself and prepared another from the bottle on the mantelpiece. Going without fresh blood wasn’t pleasant, but she could normally cope for this short a period, but this wasn’t a normal situation.

Being in such close proximity to the woman she loved, the woman who fuelled her thoughts, her fantasies, her needs, was driving her hunger. Now she knew how Byron had felt when she fell for Amelia.

Alexis was trying to keep it together for Katie’s sake, but she was stumbling with every word and had hurt Katie.

It was clear Katie had feelings for her. That had become especially clear in light of Katie’s admission that she’d had a crush on her as a young woman.

And instead of telling Katie the truth about her own feelings, she’d done her best to convince Katie that she wouldn’t be interested in love or a relationship again. Alexis leaned against the mantelpiece and glared at herself in the mirror.

“You’re a bloody fool.”