On the sixteenth night, in the brief seconds before sleep took me, I thought, This might actually work.

It might actually work.

And maybe—maybe—I even liked it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It had been several days since Raihn and I had gone to the human districts, so when Mische holed herself up in her room working on some new spell, we took the opportunity to return. I expected that the districts would be full of vampires treating it as a hunting ground, given our absence. But instead, Raihn and I disposed of only two very drunk vampires attempting to pick off a couple of children and then found ourselves roaming aimlessly around the empty streets.

“Hm,” Raihn said, after an hour of fruitless wandering. “Maybe we’ve built more of a reputation for ourselves than we expected.”

“Even more terrifying than we thought,” I said. “We’re doing our jobs too well.”

My cheeks tightened. I was so satisfied that it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice Raihn staring at me.

My smile disappeared, and he laughed. “There she is.”

“What?” I snapped.

“You just looked so pleased with yourself.”

I shrugged.

Fine. I was pleased with myself.

“We could go to the western quarter,” I suggested.

“Mmm.” He slid his hands into his coat pockets and looked around, as if with sudden realization of where we were.

“Is that agreement?”

“I have a better idea.”

He set off down a side street, leaving me in the middle of the road.

“Where are you going?” I called after him.

He glanced over his shoulder, eyes crinkled. “I’m getting a drink. You coming?”

“You mean to tell me that you—a human—come to this district almost every night, stab whatever poor vampire bastards you come across, become mysterious savior to the innocent human civilians, and yet, despite spending almost half your fucking life here, you’ve never interacted with these people? Never gone to a pub? Never said a quick hello to one of your rescue-ees? Nothing?”

He said it like it was ridiculous, and that offended me.

“I wasn’t here for that.” I glowered at him. The effect of the glare was somewhat diminished by the fact that he was so much taller than me and walking so fast that I had to awkwardly half-run to keep up with him. “We’re not here for that.”

“Oh, hush, princess. We’ve been working so hard there’s no one left to kill.”

“Then we should go back to the Moon Palace.”

“I don’t want to go back to the Moon Palace. I want the most absolutely fucking disgusting beer in town. I want foamy, sour, piss beer. And the place to get it is less than a block away. Ah ha!” His face lit up, and he jabbed his finger across the street as we rounded a corner, pointing to a rickety, half-rotted wooden sign that seemed to have once read “Sandra’s,” but now looked more like “Sa d r ’s.”

“This place,” he said, striding towards it, “has been here for almost a century, and—”

“Wait.”

I grabbed his arm just as he was about to open the door. The movement was much rougher than I’d intended, a weak puff of shadow unfurling from my fingertips, my nails digging into the leather of his coat.

He stopped, brow furrowed, and looked down at my white-knuckled hand. Then at my face. His expression changed… softened.

“What’s wrong, Oraya?”

“I—”

I didn’t even know how to answer that question. I let go of him, clamping my hands together in front of me so he wouldn’t see that they trembled.

I leveled my voice. “This is a building full of humans.”

“Yes. And?”

And you are made to kill them.

And if you lose control, I don’t know if I could stop you alone.

“I’m not putting them at risk so you can drink some garbage beer,” I said coldly.

He let out a short laugh. “I want beer, not blood. Besides, why would I go on a hunting rampage after spending the last week and a half with you killing everyone who did just that?”

So fucking dismissive. “It isn’t that simple.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because if we put someone like you in a packed room of humans, it might not be a matter of you deciding anything,” I spat. “I know what bloodlust looks like, Raihn.”

A momentary wave of something I couldn’t decipher—something that almost, almost resembled compassion—flitted across his face, quickly replaced once again with amusement.

“You’re worried about my self-control? How sweet.” He leaned close enough that I felt his words skitter over my cheek. I didn’t know why I didn’t move.

“I have plenty of self-control, Oraya,” he murmured. “Don’t you worry about me.”

Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck.

Yet the shiver that rolled over my flesh wasn’t the familiar shiver of fear. That, at least, was a physical response I knew how to regulate. This… this startled me. My instinctual desire wasn’t to back away, but to pull closer. I froze. My body didn’t know how to react to this, reaching for fear and finding something else entirely—something much more dangerous.

A long moment passed—or maybe it had just been a second or two—and I stepped away, shooting him a glare.

“That doesn’t matter. Besides, what if they recognize what you are?”

“I won’t be flashing any dazzling grins, and they’ll be none the wiser.”

“No,” I hissed. “It’s a stupid idea.”

The wrinkle between his brows deepened, then disappeared as he gave me a sly smirk.

“Oh. I see.”

I blinked at him, already offended by whatever he was about to say next.

The smirk broadened to a grin. “You’re scared. You’re scared of a bunch of humans.”

“No I’m not.” I said it just too-loud and too-quickly enough to confirm his suspicions.

I wasn’t scared. Scared wasn’t the right word. It was just… wrong. I belonged out here, hidden—not in there, with them. Maybe my blood was human, but I’d abandoned that part of myself a long time ago. Raihn seemed confident that he could pass as one of them, but hell, I didn’t know if I could.

“What are you so nervous about?” he said. “You’re human too, for fuck’s sake.”

I scowled. “Not really.”

He made a face. “Ix’s tits. I wish you could have seen your expression just then. I’m glad you’re so proud of your heritage.”

Before I could stop him, he threw open the pub door and dragged me inside.

The pub was in the basement, and wobbly stairs directly within the door led us down into the dim throng. Humans gathered at mismatched wooden tables on mismatched wooden stools, leaning close and chatting bawdily over games of cards or mugs of mead. The walls were made of stone and clay, tiny windows at the top revealing peeks of the streets. Lanterns along the walls drenched the whole room in warm orange light. At the pub’s center was a square counter, where a barkeep poured drinks and slid food to waiting patrons. The air was thick with a unique scent that blended beer, sweat, and bread.

It was dark and crowded inside. I wondered whether business had picked up considerably since Raihn and I started patrolling the streets again, because it seemed unthinkable to me that this many people had felt comfortable being out after dark when such dangers loomed within those shadows. Or maybe they just no longer cared. These people didn’t even seem afraid.

It was so… so wildly different than anywhere I’d ever been before. I had spent a little time in vampire pubs in the inner city, briefly and out of nothing more than stupid teenage curiosity. They were plenty grimy and depraved, but everyone was so much more restrained, even in the throes of debauchery. Vampires behaved as if every emotion, every impulse, took a bit longer to reach the surface of their skin. But humans? Humans laid it bare. They were loud and expressive and unapologetic.