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  Even without the lesson, it was every bit as good as every ballroom dance fantasy I’d ever had. He was tall and gorgeous. His eyes, mysterious with their slight reddish hue, were regarding me with unmistakable interest. All the other girls were staring like, How did she end up getting him to dance with her first? I heard someone say, ”Oh, they’re roommates.”

  I started thinking about the dream again. I couldn’t help it. Plus the contents of his pants. I felt a compulsion to name it. The Big Rig. Nah, I can get more personalized than that. The Semen Demon. A little too eww. The Incubuster. Incubuster 2000. Maybe 3000? 5000?

  He was looking at me more seriously, with what could best be described as the concern of a normal person, while I was trying to name his penis. “I’m just glad you’re holding up. I keep thinking about you saying you can’t go home for Christmas. That’s such shit. I would invite you home with me if there was any hope of that being a good idea.”

  Warmth swept through me. “Thanks…just…that you would think of it. That’s nice.”

  “It doesn’t help. But at least you guys can play your game all you want without me around. You have more kobold hides to get, right?”

  “We’re done with that now. But we have a goblin village to destroy.”

  “Mm,” he said.

  I’m sure he just meant like, mm, that’s interesting. But it came across like the thought of me killing goblins turned him on and that once I was done, he would destroy me in a different way. Oh, yeah. The incubus magic goes both ways, I thought. I wonder if he’s given names to my boobs.

  That dance was over all too fast. When the music stopped my instincts wanted to cling to him, but since we couldn’t even touch, we lowered our hands right away. Alec might have been putting out the vibes of a sex god, but his human side also seemed like a genuinely decent person who was worried about me and wanted to protect me from loneliness and danger.

  I’m not sure which part of him was getting me more hot and bothered, but by now I was definitely sweatier than I should be.

  “Monty’s turn,” he said. “I hope your evening is looking up.”

  “Yeah…it is,” I said, as Montague’s hand met mine.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Charlotte

  “Can I start calling you Monty?” I asked. “Everyone else seems to.”

  He paused. “I think I like you calling me Montague. Because no one else seems to.”

  “Okay.” I smiled. “I like that, then. Montague is definitely more…” Don’t say romantic. Don’t say romantic.

  “Princess Bride?”

  “Yeah!”

  Unlike Alec, who couldn’t touch me, Montague was free to put his arms in all the spots arms should comfortably go, and the music had slowed down a little to something more delicate but slightly jazzy. After a moment I recognized it as a variation of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’.

  It felt like the low lights and the spiked punch and the dress and the music were all trying to push me into a moment. Which, I guess, is exactly what balls had been doing since they were invented.

  “What do you prefer? Roller skating, or this?” he asked me.

  “That’s a hard one. They’re both different. And I’m bad at them both, as I told Alec.”

  “Not bad. Unpracticed.” He said softly, “I like this more than I should.”

  “M—me too.” Girls were still giving me their bitch faces as we slipped by them, and I saw Ronan Locke talking to someone and then jabbing a finger in my direction. But as long as I was in the guys’ arms, I felt insulated. “I feel safe with you and Alec…”

  “Good.” His grip tightened at my waist a little. “I want to apologize for avoiding you lately. I don’t want to hurt you, but…” He frowned. “This vampire thing is very new to me. Would it hurt a witch to be with me? I don’t actually know. I have it mostly under control, but I’m also glad you’re quick to burn things. That is to say…”

  “We can…take it slow,” I said. “Not be too quick to rush anything. But I’ve enjoyed our semi-dates. A lot. And it…has kinda hurt me more to be alone here.”

  “I wish I could bring you to St. Augustine for Christmas… My family is, as old magical families go, fairly good company.”

  I smiled. “That’s the same thing Alec said. I mean, to bring me home with him.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You had better not have agreed to that.”

  “Of course not! I can’t go home with a boy. I mean…boys are everywhere. I share a room with him already…” I mean, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why I couldn’t go home with him.

  “What if I stayed here for Christmas break?” Montague asked. “Maybe we both could.”

  “Well…I want to use Alec’s outlet.”

  “He could sleep in my room,” Montague said. “Harris will be gone. But then we could do something for Christmas. You do celebrate Christmas, right?”

  “I do,” I said, a lump in my throat as I thought about Dad and Grandma just eating alone. What would they even do with the food? I knew they’d make all that food anyway. Maybe Dad would invite some guys from work or something. Grandma was already missing my grandpa who died three years ago. Dad and I always went and cut a tree at Hooper Farm a couple weeks before, and on Christmas Day we had the official Dad Christmas movie lineup of Die Hard, The Ref, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I always did an entire 1000 piece puzzle while we watched them together and he made gently spiked nog shakes since the year I turned sixteen.

  Montague saw my face in Stage 1 Collapse and said, “That’s it. We’re staying. I’ll talk to Alec about it later.”

  “That’s so nice of you…”

  It still wasn’t seeing Dad.

  But maybe I could at least survive this.

  What will Firian say about this, though?

  “It’s my pleasure,” Montague said, and he held me a little closer still, so that for the first time in my whole life I felt what it was like to really be held by a guy, like—I felt his cock twitch as I brushed him. I didn’t pull back. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. Was I leading Montague on? Alec? Firian?

  I don’t know how to juggle this. I don’t really want to lose any of them.

  Montague’s hand caressed gently through the loose curls of my hair. I shivered at the sensation. I craved still more. When his hand went all the way down my back, I pressed closer to him. Just a little, but it made his cock throb again. My breath hitched as if in response. I knew the dance would soon be over and I probably shouldn’t leave him with a boner, but…I looked up at him and he was already looking at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen…and he wanted to eat me.

  I probably should have run straight for Firian, because he looked at me similarly without the hunger, but…

  “Lisbeth,” he whispered.

  “Who is Lisbeth?”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Montague

  It had happened again. I just…lost myself for a second.

  I was seeing the memories. Lisbeth’s face, worried about her fate, but wanting so much to trust the man she loved. Even if he had turned into something else.

  I took a step back. “I’m—sorry. Crap. I know who you are.”

  “Is that a memory?” Charlotte asked in a whisper.

  I collected myself quickly, before Alec or Harris noticed. “I’m fine.”

  “A vampire memory?” she pressed. “Like what Alec was talking about?”

  “Yeah,” I said tightly. “I know who you are. I like you. I don’t know who Lisbeth is, except that he loved her in the 1600s or something. It’s just that sometimes I get—like—his memories. He loved Lisbeth a lot, so if I call you that it’s—it’s a compliment.” I winced. “That was a half-assed excuse.”

  “I’m not jealous of a girl from the 1600s,” she said. “I’m worried about you.”

  I tried to take a few deep breaths. Breathing was weird nowadays. My body sort of functioned like itself, like I h
ad to breathe to talk, but it could stop dead. Sometimes when I was shocked I just…didn’t breathe. “The ball is kind of…triggering some stuff. This was a bad idea.”

  “You want to step out for a sec?”

  “Yeah.”

  She took my hand and led me out the door. I felt a lot of eyes on us, including Firian, Alec, and Harris. But no one got in our way. Good thing. I wasn’t trying to get Charlotte alone by some master plan, but if that was a side effect of all this…

  But then, you just confused her for Lisbeth, dumbass.

  “Tell me what’s going on in your head,” she said, as we stepped into the night air. The chill of the winter mountain air seeped into me immediately, but it no longer bothered me like it would have when I was alive. Charlotte must have been hot enough from the dance that she wasn’t feeling it yet. She was glowing in her pink dress.

  “Sometimes I have memories of this girl, Lisbeth. She was the girl that he loved. The first vampire in my line.”

  “The first vampire in your line?”

  “In the vampire world, he would be considered my…lord. All the vampires in his ‘line’ would be drawn to him and follow him. But since I’m a warlock, I can use spells to suppress it. It’s when I’m looking at you that…I think of her. The emotions must be the same.”

  I saw Lisbeth’s smile finally emerge as she said, London…it seems a very exciting city.

  “She went with him…,” I said. “To London. She was just a normal human girl who was supposed to marry someone else, and she left her life behind and followed this vampire she loved to London in the 1600s.”

  Charlotte’s expression was interested. “You can see all that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Were they happy?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see the whole thing. It’s just bits and pieces.”

  “Did she become a vampire?”

  Something about the look on Charlotte’s face seemed innocent and curious, and it made me feel protective of her. I never wanted to cause her any pain, but I also didn’t want to let her go. And if those things were impossible to juggle, then I had to keep her like Rayner kept the woman he loved.

  I knew Rayner felt the same about Lisbeth.

  I wanted to kiss her so fucking much. I’d never felt this way before. I mean, not that I’d never wanted to kiss a girl before, but…

  It was different this time. Serious.

  I leaned a little closer to her. Her eyes followed my every move. Her body language was definitely…receptive. Her scent didn’t betray any fear.

  “I don’t remember,” I said. “But he always loved her. I—I feel like I know that for sure.”

  “It’s…romantic,” she said. “To think of her following him.”

  “Maybe he’s not so bad,” I said. “We might have something in common.”

  I felt her pulse quicken. That was a nice side effect of my hyper-awareness of the blood pumping through her veins. I leaned down and kissed her.

  She let out a little sigh like she’d been wanting me to kiss her forever. That sigh turned me on as much as anything ever had. I kissed her softly but firmly, and didn’t linger, in case she tried to stop me. But she didn’t. She slipped a hand around me, under my jacket.

  “Montague…”

  I held her closer with one arm while I tangled my hand in her hair. Man, had I been wanting to feel her like this. Taste her like this. I’d never kissed anyone as a vampire before, and it was better. Heightened. I could smell her skin. I could smell her blood. I could smell her musk. It was the best kind of torture and my body responded hard. I had enough human sense to stick to the proper pace of a relationship. I knew how to be a gentleman. But—it took more restraint than before, that was for sure.

  I didn’t really mind.

  As long as I get there…I can wait.

  “This…wasn’t my first kiss,” she said. “But it sure feels like the first one that ever counted.”

  “Good. That’s all that matters.”

  Behind us, one of the tall wooden doors of Guinevere Hall creaked open.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Charlotte

  I snapped back from Montague the second I heard the latch of the door clicking and then the Victorian-era hinges creaking. Thank goodness for ye olden doors. I could still feel the imprint of Montague’s lips on mine, could still taste him. He had an odd but delicious sort of smell and taste. He didn’t seem human. He was kind of cold but somehow it wasn’t gross. There was almost a hint of licorice or something. Or some strange incense or exotic garden.

  I knew without asking that this was the vampire allure, reeling me in.

  But I also felt sure that the vampire allure was irrelevant. I liked Montague the human, and there was plenty of him left.

  “Is everything all right?” Firian asked, with a hint of challenge.

  Actually, more than a hint.

  “Yes. It got stuffy in there for a minute,” Montague said.

  “Charlotte is shivering,” Firian said.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Let’s go back inside,” Firian said.

  “Actually, we could just…call it a night and play some Fortune’s Favor while Alec is busy,” I said. “I think I’ve completed my ball checklist. Montague, you can go back in.”

  He looked a little displeased to leave me. “I could walk you back.”

  “Nah. Firian’s here.”

  He went back in, and I watched every inch of him all sexy in his suit before I realized I was chewing my lip and probably looked guilty. I needed to smooth things over with Firian and brush this night off. “I’m getting tired of maintaining my sparkle, anyway. And—like—I wanted to see a witch ball, but things are never as good as you expect. I’d rather just veg with you tonight.”

  He thrust his hands in his pockets and started walking with me down the path. We both started walking at the same moment. I was very aware of the difference between Alec, Montague and Firian. Alec, quiet and steady, his presence very reassuring even as he was simmering with suppressed lust. Montague burned hotter, and seemed like he really wanted to make me happy. Firian was in tune with me; he always knew what I needed even more than trying to figure out what I wanted.

  I also felt like he knew what had happened.

  We walked until we were in the lonely part of the path between Guinevere Hall and Lancelot House, under the skeletal trees that had just lost their leaves. I got a little nervous. It was so quiet. So dark. And when the wind blew, the trees made this dry rattly sound.

  So I was just talking and talking. “I guess it could have been worse. I’m not sure about Daisy. I think she liked me. Maybe? It’s hard to read girls like that. I don’t know about her and Harris though, huh? I can’t tell if she drove him nuts or if it was an opposite attract, sparks flying kind of thing.” I didn’t like thinking of Harris dancing with Daisy either, which was just adding to the confusion in my head. “Dancing to that kind of music is pretty boring anyway, so…well, I realized I’m more of a hermit anyway.”

  I glanced at Firian, trying to gauge if he wasn’t talking because he liked listening to my ramblings, or if he was angry at me.

  Even in the shadows I could see the tension in his mouth.

  “Firian…you know if things weren’t so…weird with familiars, I would have—“

  “Enough,” he said. He took my hand and then his other hand went around my waist and he pulled me to him and kissed me.

  My eyes widened.

  Montague was gentle yet sensual when he kissed me.

  Firian kissed me like he was furious and he would never let me go. Lips parting, plucking at mine, hot breath, pressed foreheads, grip tight.

  At first I was startled but I quickly melted.

  It felt so right.

  “Oh…” I shivered, emotions rocking me where I stood. “But…”

  “I can’t pretend anymore,” he said. “I might be the first familiar to defy his witch. Because I want you. And I can�
�t just keep standing by to watch while other men are allowed to dance with you and not me.”

  “Firian…”

  “Please.” He shut his eyes. “You feel the same. I know you do. I couldn’t feel this way about you if you didn’t feel it too.”

  “I do. I mean, I might. I don’t know! I feel something. For you. Definitely. But I also feel things for…Alec and Montague and…well—I don’t know what’s happening to me!” My fingernails dug into my palms as I realized my hands had formed fists of tension. “I’m scared. Everyone is reminding us constantly that this is taboo. Friendship, even. I’m all for like, damn the man. But in this world I don’t even know what ‘the man’ means. Like, I don’t care if Grandma is upset because she still thinks all anime is porn. But I don’t like, shoplift. Or date my brother. I’m not sure where you and I fall on the rebellion scale.”

  “I am not your brother,” he said.

  “I—I don’t know what you are!”

  “I’m not sure I know either.” His hands dropped to his sides. “I just know how I feel. I want to protect you…with my body and my soul.”

  A shiver went through me, not an entirely unpleasant one. Although it was cold out.

  “What do we do?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  We started walking again. Firian had this resolved look on his face. I wondered what that meant. Did he expect something bad would happen and he didn’t care?

  I didn’t want to lose him.

  “Look,” I said. “Um…I want to learn magic from you. The good stuff that no one wants to teach me. I need some answers about what’s going on. Why and how did Samuel die, and what is Master Blair hiding, and who is the demon who seems to be defending me?”

  “Yes,” Firian said. “I can help with that.”

  “I’m sure we can find a lonely place somewhere on campus to study and practice after classes are done,” I said. “But maybe…in public…you should stay away more often. I don’t need you when I sleep, or in class, or at lunch. I can protect myself.”