“Apparently he and David were mates while I was dying.”

“Hm.”

“What’s hm?”

“I just—it’s not like Councilman David to... ‘confide’.”

I shrugged. “Us humans knew him better than you vampires.”

Eric seemed satisfied with that. “Whatever. Anyway. Turns out he waltzed in there after you were attacked as well, without an approved meeting.”

“Really?” That was dangerous.

“Yep. And, do you wanna know what they said?”

“Get out!”

The vampire laughed. “Nope. Better. They gave him approval to seek help from the Lilithian Order.”

“Who are they?”

“Coffee?” Eric grinned, raising his eyebrows.

“They’re coffee?” I asked sarcastically.

“You know, you’re not funny, Amara—that’s just annoying.” He grimaced.

I looked into my lap.

“Come on.” He stood up. “Let’s go for coffee.”

“Coffee? Or are you going to force me to drink your blood again?”

“Coffee, and I don’t have to force you—I can see your mouth watering.” He laughed and bit his lip, studying mine.

“Fine. My house. Ten minutes.”

“For coffee, or...?”

I stood up, deciding then and there that I really needed to get some new friends as I said, “Or.”

I felt his elation bearing down on me with his stare. The addiction was rearing up in me like smoke from a flame, and I couldn’t douse it. Couldn’t even want to douse it. It was as if I could smell it in him, pulsing through his veins like liquid drugs.

In my mind, I hadn’t decided I was going to drink his blood, but apparently, my body had.

He stood with his hands in his pockets, laughing, while I hopped in my car and started the engine.

“See you soon, Amara.”

Trying not to laugh at him laughing at me, I shook my head, pulled out of the parking spot without checking for traffic and sped home—above the speed limit.

“Mike?” I called, but stopped in my haste to get to the privacy of my bedroom, and slowly, wishing I’d not made my presence known, wandered into the dining area and watched the two by the window; Emily, with a sheepish grin, sat beside Mike, who played a song we used to play together—slamming the notes with a kind of raw passion that wasn’t taught in a music class. The very feel in the whole room made me miss him, miss being the way we used to be. I smiled, leaning on the wall.

“And...” he said, slowing the song down, leaning forward with each high note he struck. “That’s how we play the outro.”

Emily clapped softly, angling her whole body to face him.

“Did you have fun, baby?” Mike said to me before turning around, closing the piano cover as he did.

“Yeah, but I’ve got a few things to take care of for my students next week, so I’ll just be in my room making some calls. Okay?”

“Kay.” He shrugged then lifted the cover again. “Hey, Em, wanna learn Heart and Soul?”

My own soul raced backward on a time machine, taking me to the first day I met David, when he challenged me to a duet in the music room at school—so, so long ago. It felt like a decade, even though it’d barely been a year and a half.

I left Emily and Mike to their piano lessons and practically snuck into my room, happy I’d used the diversion of a phone call as the reason they might hear voices in there.

Before my door even closed, Eric appeared, stretched out across the foot of my bed. “Eric—you scared me. And stop looking so sexy.” I slapped his feet off my quilt.

“Sorry.” He sat up and leaned his elbows on his knees.

“So? What is a Lilithian order?” I asked, plonking down, right beside him.

“It’s a group of vampires—well, sort of.”

“Okay. That makes no sense.”

He smiled down at my leg against his and placed a gentle hand to my knee. “Why don’t I tell you after?”

“After what?”

With a quirk of his mouth on the corner, his smile suggested it all.

Be strong, Ara-Rose. Be strong. “Info first. Then blood.”

He tugged his sleeve up and held his wrist in front of my watering mouth. “Are you sure?”

No, I’m not. “Yes. I’m sure. Now, spill...” I paused. “Er, I mean, spill info, not blood.”

“Fine.” He rolled his sleeve back down. “Lilithians are a race of vampires spawned by one who had been bitten by the direct descendant of the original vampire.”

“Huh?”

“Okay. Cane and Lilith had a child who thirsted blood and was immortal. Vampirie.”

“Vampirie?”

“Yes. Vampirie. I don’t make up the names, Amara, I’m just telling the story.”

“Okay, fine. Ridiculous, but whatever.”

“Anyway. He left a woman alive one day after he bit her, and she became like him—the first created vampire.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

“Then, she went on to bite a man, who fell in love with a human.” Eric smiled. “Are you with me so far?”

“Uh, I think so. So, the second created vampire, the man, fell in love with a human woman?”

“Right. And he had a child with her—a girl. The first half-blood-mortal.”

“Like what David told me—about male vampires still being able to make babies?”

“Exactly. So, this half-human-half-vampire grew up, and guess who she fell for.”

“No clue.”

“The original vampire.”

“Vampirie?”

“Yep. So, they then had a baby, Drake, a noble and powerful immortal. Then, Vampirie went on to have a child with a completely human girl as well. That baby was named Lilith—after Vampirie’s mother. But she was different. More human than vampire. She was the only female vampire ever to bear children.”

“How?”

“We don’t know. Might be something to do with her heartbeat.”

“What? Heartbeat? In a vampire?”

“Yeah, well, a sort-of vampire.” His tone carried an awful lot of insult. “So, Lilith’s heartbeat remained, even after immortality took place in her early twenties.”