Nightwolf

Wolf and I have a good friendship. Sometimes I think of him as my best friend. But it’s not because I know him all that well in a literal sense. We’ve always connected in some deep way that’s never needed any analysis. I guess with him I just felt like I knew him and understood him from the moment I laid eyes on him. More than that, I felt he understood me. That’s something I’ve searched for my whole life, to find someone who saw me for me, past all the shit my life has thrown at me, and I feel like I’ve found that in him. Whether he realizes it or not.

Anyway, it’s not like I’ve got a lot of friends anyway to compare Wolf to. I’m extremely close to my mother, no surprise there since we’ve been joined at the hip in survival ever since my father left us, and I have a friend, Shannon, who has been in my life since high school (she actually introduced me to the vampire world) but she now lives in Iowa, married with two kids. She doesn’t ask about the vampires anymore. Like that part of her life never happened, and in that sense, it’s like I’m not part of her life either.

Then there is Lenore. I met her just as she became a vampire, a rite of passage that females go through at age twenty-one. The only problem for Lenore was that she had no idea she was a vampire. Or a witch (she’s a half-breed). Her whole life had been a lie up until recently. And what a way to find out, when you’ve been abducted by Solon, brought into this house, and suddenly craving human blood. Despite her rocky start here, though, we’ve grown really close and I’m lucky to have her in my life. Her witch (human) side tempers her vampire side too, so I can relate to her a lot more.

“Are you okay?” Wolf asks, looking over his shoulder at me as he finishes putting up the pumpkins.

I blink and give my head a quick shake to snap out of it. “Yeah. Sorry. Just trapped in ye ol’ brain here.”

“Oh, I thought you were checking me out,” he says with a playful grin that knocks the air from my lungs. “You might be a human, but I can feel your eyes on me just the same.”

I stare at him dumbly, my cheeks going hot.

“I wasn’t checking you out,” I say, flustered.

The corner of his wide mouth quirks up. I’m rarely flustered and he’s clearly enjoying this.

I quickly clear my throat and attempt an easy smile. “I mean, I wasn’t at that moment.”

There. Back to my flirty, casual self.

He stares at me for a moment, holding me in his golden green gaze in such an intense way that I feel his eyes in the depths of me, searching inside. For what, I don’t know. When I first met Wolf, he told me he’d never compel me—if he wanted something, he would just ask. And while I think he’s kept his word, I also know he compels me without meaning to. With most vampires it’s a natural skill, something you can turn on and off. With Wolf, when it comes to me, well…sometimes I wonder if there’s a difference between being compelled and being in love. It’s got to be the same thing.

Not that I’m in love with him.

I feel my cheeks go warm again and I’m forever grateful that Wolf doesn’t possess the same mind-reading powers that Solon does.

Wolf turns around, folds his massive veiny arms across his chest, and tilts his head at me as he looks me over. “What’s your costume, by the way?”

“Oh, that’s a secret,” I tell him, grateful for the change of subject. “You’ll see soon enough.”

He raises his brow in curiosity, and we go back to work.

Chapter 2

Amethyst

When I was in my early twenties, my friend Shannon told me she’d met a guy named Ezra who lived in the famed Westerfeld House at Alamo Square. She was besotted with this mysterious dude and since Shannon was shy and mousy, back then anyway, I wanted to meet the guy who captured her attention like no one else ever seemed to.

So, with Ezra’s permission, she brought me to this storied Victorian house, to the private club called Dark Eyes that operated in the ballroom in the basement. Wolf came to the back door, invited me in, and the rest was history. I was captivated by Wolf and Solon from the start, enthralled by the way the club operated, and absolutely mind-blown at the fact that they were all vampires. Being in Dark Eyes with them made the world seem limitless and magical, made me look at everything through new eyes. The fact that vampires were real and could theoretically live across time was like discovering a whole new world for myself.