Chapter 21
Jade
I took my time in the bathroom, partly because I needed a minute to absorb the fact that Luther was apparently my…
mate. Partly because I was wearing the green silk lingerie, the one he’d left for me, and I was trying very, very hard not to admit how much I liked it.
It fit perfectly—too perfectly—like it had been commissioned with a measuring tape and sorcery.
It was comfortable, too, damn it, offensively so.
“Fine,” I muttered to my reflection, tugging the matching underwear a little higher on my hip.
“I’ll count it as a replacement for the bra he murdered.
I’ll accept that much.” But as I slipped back into yesterday’s jeans and shirt, my gaze kept flicking, traitorously, to the shimmering, moonlit pattern curling along my ribs.
The soulmate mark, my soulmate mark. Nope, I was not thinking about that, not until after I had some caffeine.
The bracelet box sat accusingly on the counter, lid shut tight.
I still refused to put the thing on, but I couldn’t seem to leave it behind, either.
I carried it with me when I left the bathroom, cradling it like fragile evidence in a murder case.
Belfry hovered near the ceiling, tiny wings flapping.
You look lovely, he said brightly. Perhaps he was kindly choosing to ignore the utterly harried look I knew I was wearing.
Mates, marriage, true love, it didn’t come gift-wrapped in a vampire package.
This couldn’t be happening. I felt like I was back on that ledge, wondering whether I was having a mental breakdown.
The only solution at a time like this was a fact-finding mission, so I turned to Belfry.
“Explain,” I said, pointing at my ribs. “All of it. Now.”
The bat flitted ahead of me to the kitchen nook, finding an upside-down perch dangling from an overhead rack of pots and pans.
Oh! The mating thing? Easy, he began, like it was nothing, like we were just making small talk.
My hands went to my sides, to my ribs, and to the edges of the jade lace I could feel against my skin.
Supernaturals like Luther recognize their soulmate instantly.
And when both people, you know, do what you two did, it seals the bond. Mated for life.
“For life?” I echoed, my voice rising sharply in pitch again.
I’d nearly fainted earlier, before I’d made my escape to the bathroom.
Now it felt close to happening again. “Life-life? Eternal vows? That sort of thing?” I stood blinking, gaping in the shadowed kitchen at a dangling bat wearing a dapper red vest and a gold chain around his neck.
My life was bizarre, utterly crazy. I needed to call Maggie again; she’d get a kick out of this, except…
she wouldn’t believe me. Perhaps I needed to talk to Gwen instead. She lived here; surely she knew?
Belfry tapped a wing against a pan, creating a gentle chiming noise that was surprisingly soothing. It made me yank my eyes up to him and stare at him expectantly. Exactly! Belfry beamed. Only, it never actually happens. Almost never. But it did! For you! You’re the sixth!
“Sixth! Sixth what, exactly? Sixth girlfriend he’s pulled this on?
Sixth eternal bride? Sixth…” I sputtered, struggling to find words for the mounting outrage that filled me.
I had thought he really was trying to make me feel special, but no, this was just a creepy trick.
Betrayed by his bat companion. My fingers curled tight around the box with the bracelet.
His tiny face went horrified, and I drew in a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down.
NO! Six couples in town! Luther does not have a harem!
He had no clue how incredibly relieved I was to hear that statement.
Phew, okay, no other brides waiting around.
That still left me with the problem of supposedly having attached myself, eternally, to a vampire without my knowledge.
My memory vaguely stirred with a thing he’d said, something I thought was just the heat of passion: There is no going back from this.
I didn’t realize he meant that literally.
He’s like, eternally lonely, all the time, Belfry said, unaware of the sudden revelation I had about last night. No, you and he are the sixth couple, and that’s a really big deal. Jackson and Gwen are soulmates too, obviously.
I blinked hard and tried to put that in perspective.
It actually made sense. They were so in love with each other that it felt like they’d been together forever, and at the same time, they were still stuck in that honeymoon phase.
“Gwen did call Jackson her mate by accident,” I recalled aloud.
It had been such a weird mistake to make that I’d pondered it for quite some time.
Not an accident, Belfry chirped helpfully.
Just a slip. Okay, but… I was pretty sure that Gwen was human, like me.
Did that mean Jackson was a vampire, too?
I tried to picture the blond-haired, straight-laced sheriff as such and simply couldn’t.
Luther was so elegant and sophisticated, while Jackson had something feral slumbering beneath the civil facade.
I sat heavily on the edge of the nearest chair.
My brain tried to organize the last twenty-four hours: vampire, talking bat, soulmate marks, expensive gifts, eternal bonds…
and passion so intense I still felt the throb of it between my thighs.
“Okay,” I said faintly. “I need… food. Something edible. Something normal.”
Within minutes, I was rummaging through Luther’s kitchen cabinets while Belfry offered extremely unhelpful commentary about which cereal paired best with immortal angst. I kept trying to pry out of him where Luther had actually gone, but Belfry remained suspiciously tight-lipped.
He’ll be back, was all he’d say, far too cheerfully.
It was beginning to get on my nerves. The bat was not the best at explaining anything, I needed someone more solid to explain all this to me.
I ate standing at the counter, the bracelet box sitting beside my bowl like a silent dare.
Even though I absolutely was not putting it on, I still carried it with me when I left.
“I’m going next door to work,” I announced.
Perhaps the books in the library would have answers.
Perhaps I’d head across the street to Gwen’s B I knew I should be more curious, but each time I looked at the jewelry box or remembered the mark, I wanted to stick my head in the sand. So I did.
I spent the next half hour checking humidity levels, adjusting fans and humidifiers, and wandering the stacks for books that needed the most immediate TLC.
And while I wandered… I looked. For the hidden basement.
That I definitely couldn’t stop myself from doing.
A hidden library, hidden books, I had to find them.
Perhaps once I was confronted with shelves of magical tomes, I’d truly, fully believe.
Okay, I already did. That’s why I was such a mess right now.