The next night, a cold drizzle coated everything with a fine layer of moisture that made everything slick, including my grip on my stake. My boots cracked only slightly over the gravel path, the ground too wet to roll loose stones under my feet. The night held quiet except for the occasional rattle of tree leaves overhead and a car passing in the distance. I swept my gaze around headstones, cherub and angel statues, and hedges as I went, searching for any sign of movement.

And trying desperately to keep my head in the game. Last night with Eddie had electrified me. His lips, his tongue, the carnal way he looked at me... It had been a hard struggle to keep my mind on anything but him. Even now, his bite between my legs tingled, a not-so-subtle reminder of what I could have again in the next few hours. As if I could forget.

I didn’t mind his no-touching rule, but I did wonder about it, as I did about the scars on Jacek’s back. Maybe someone from their pasts had caused these things, but I hated the thought of either of them being hurt physically, psychologically, or any –lly. True, I didn’t know them all that well, but I knew enough to know they didn’t deserve to suffer. They were too good. I knew that as well as my own name.

Up ahead, something squeaked, low and long, muffled by the veil of mist. My heartbeat spiked and my ears perked. I slowed, trying to zero in on where the sound had come from. There was only one entrance to the cemetery, and that was behind me, not in front. The sound hadn’t come from a gate. A coffin opening in an unfilled grave? Maybe I was about to have company of the undead variety.

Or maybe it was the mausoleum door flapping open in the slight breeze. The squat, stone structure sat tucked in the far corner of the cemetery, on the opposite side as the grounds man’s work shed.  A large gnarled tree bent over it and tapped a few branches on the roof as if to see if anyone was home. Was there?

I was about to find out.

I crossed toward it on silent feet. The name Alpert was spelled out over the single door, and I nudged it open with my boot. Damp, stale air rolled from inside. Darkness had swallowed the space, so I dug for my cell in my pocket, keeping a tight grip on my stake with my other hand. Once the flashlight app glowed from my phone, I thrust it forward and followed the meager light inside. Steep stairs led downward, and I stepped carefully to avoid a face-plant. On the opposite wall, a large stained-glass window allowed only faint traces of moonlight through its complicated design. A steady knock echoed throughout the stone walls, making it hard to tell if it came from the tree branches on the rooftop or the inside of the stone coffin in the middle of the floor. The sound came from everywhere, making it hard to discern all other noises.

I didn’t dare go too far down the stairs in case some vampire prankster slammed the door shut behind me, but from my viewpoint, there was nothing in here but death. Thankfully, not mine. I turned to leave.

And ran straight into a mouthful of fangs.

My blood thundering, I leaped back, caught off guard for a split second. Over the tree branches’ thumps, I hadn’t heard the vampire sneaking up behind me.

She lunged at my throat. I adjusted my grip on the slick column of my stake, and she ran right into it, the sucker. That was bloody punny. I’ll stop now.

She disintegrated into a pile of blood on the steps, and I stepped over what remained of her. As I shut the door firmly behind me, a prickle chased up my exposed back. I whirled around, my gaze jerking around the rest of the cemetery. A sigh that sounded almost like a low chuckle rattled through the breeze and slammed my heart into my ribs. The hair along my arms stood on end, and I had the distinct feeling that someone was watching me. Someone who vibrated with power. Waiting. Possibly the devil himself, but I didn’t smell brimstone. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, though.

Regardless, I refused to be anyone’s play toy. Even so, my breaths hitched as I rounded every corner in the path, and my knuckles ached with the grip I kept around my stake because this didn’t feel right. At all.

After two more rounds of the cemetery, I dispatched one more vampire, all the while feeling the power of a penetrating stare scraping up and down my body. Studying me? Searching for weaknesses? I had too many to count, but whatever it was didn’t need to know that.

On my way out, I locked the gate and headed to what was becoming my second home to return another pile of Eddie’s books I’d borrowed.

That same static noise I’d heard outside The Bean Dream buzzed though the air. It grew loud enough to scrape at the inside of my skull. I looked around just outside the cemetery gate, my fingers locked tight around a stake and wincing at the sound. There was no logical explanation for where it was coming from.

“Lovely...night...” That same rusty, disembodied voice floated through the darkness.

Unease seeped deep into my bones. This felt far out of my range of expertise, and I didn’t like it one bit. I got out of there fast.

More than anything, I wanted the soothing balm of the house next door and its inhabitants. Who knew that a vampire nest could feel so much like home?

The front door swung inward before I even knocked, and I practically liquefied inside, my stress and worries already peeling away. I shut the door firmly behind me, though, and locked it.

Jacek stood in the living room just as he had last night—shirtless, thank goodness—and standing barefoot on the blue mat. Sweat glistened on his skin and dripped from his short dark hair. Eddie and Sawyer were nowhere to be seen.

“How’s my favorite slayer tonight?” Jacek asked with his signature grin.

“Oh, the usual,” I said, enjoying the view. “Trying not to become the devil’s bride and looking cute while I do so.”

“We’ll figure out the former, and mission accomplished on the latter.” He winked, and my heart stuttered. But his good humor faded the longer he looked at me. “Are you all right? You look a little pale.”

“Yeah, never better. I just...” I shrugged, trying to form words around what exactly had made me feel so unsettled at the cemetery. “I keep hearing these static noises and a voice, and...I don’t know... It doesn’t feel right.”

Jacek frowned and crossed his arms, making his muscles flex. “Does this voice say anything in particular or...?”

“‘Lovely night.’” The static noise came to me again, sort of like an echo from a great distance. I rubbed at my forehead as if to scour it and the memory away. “That’s it. It seems so silly now that I actually say it.” Yet it felt good to get it off my chest, too.

He shook his head, not a trace of judgement on his face. “You’re the slayer. If it feels wrong, then it’s wrong.”

I took a cleansing breath and nodded as I set down my duffel bag by the door. “You’re right. Which is why I came here, because it feels...right.” I smiled, and his answering grin could’ve rivaled the sun in its cheery brilliance.

He waved me onto the mat. “I could show you some fighting moves really quick. If it feels right.”

Did I dare pass up on an offer for free training from a guy who knew judo? Of course not. The experts who had trained me were myself, YouTube, and action movies. Podunk City didn’t have an official martial arts school.

“It just so happens that it does feel right,” I said.

His amber eyes lit up even more as he backed up onto the mats, and he curled his finger for me to follow. I did, although somewhat reluctantly. Even as the slayer, this was hardly a fair fight, even if it wasn’t technically real. Despite my slayer healing ability, I didn’t have time to nurse more wounds, and if I were being honest with myself, I wasn’t totally sure I could trust my body with shirtless Jacek within touching distance, especially with this house and its rightness heightening all of my senses. Not after last night with Eddie when I’d lost complete control and had loved every second of it.

“Judging from the vampire blood you had all over you the night we met, I would suspect one fought back,” he said, widening his stance.

“You would be right.” A sudden thought jolted me to a stop. “Was it someone you trained in judo?”

He chuckled, and the sound immediately relaxed me. “The vampires I teach are old and smart enough to avoid the slayer. They fear you, and not just because you could stake them.”

“If you say so,” I muttered and stepped onto the mat with him.

“I bet you focus most of your fighting on the offensive, which is good since you’re the slayer, but it wouldn’t hurt to practice your defensive moves. There are two ways to block punches. Elbows up or bob and weave your head to throw your attacker off balance. Like this.” He showed me both, circling around me on the mat, then tapped his perfectly squared chin. “Try to punch me.”

I’d rather not. He was too hot to punch. But I positioned my legs in a fighting stance and lifted my fists, anyway. He dodged every attempt, raising his elbows around his head so my knuckles cracked against them, or by bobbing and weaving his head. Frankly, it was embarrassing how much I sucked at this.

“Now you try it.” He smashed his fists together and scowled, but his grin messed it up and only made me laugh. “Ready?”

I blew out a breath and nodded. He threw punches, but I couldn’t tell if he was reining himself in like I was some delicate flower or not. I danced around him and mimicked his earlier movements, never once feeling the dig of his knuckles in my face.

“Good. Now see if you can take me down,” he said, the dare lighting up his orange-yellow eyes.

“Why?” I said between pants. “I can just throw a stake at you and be done with it.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Unless I bob and weave out of the way. Just see if you can take me.”

Well, when he put it like that. I shook out my arms and stretched my neck, stalling because I knew I’d have to touch him with my whole body if I tried to take him down. As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, he smiled and stood there like a glistening-chested god. After blowing out a steadying breath, I lunged, faked right, then whipped to the left and around to the back of him to kick his feet out from underneath him. That was the plan anyway.

Somehow, it was my feet that suddenly weren’t underneath me anymore, and then I went down. My back slapped the mat, funneling the air from my lungs, before another weight landed on top. Jacek’s body covered mine, his big, sexy grin just inches from my mouth. My chest shoved against his as my breaths grew faster, more ragged the longer his muscled form molded to mine. My blood seemed to gather at every place we touched, but especially at the apex of my thighs where his hips had nestled him close. I stared into his eyes, snared by the continuous twinkling there, still not quite sure how I’d wound up on the floor instead of him.

“Well, hello there,” I said.

“You’re broadcasting your moves about ten minutes before you actually do them.”

He didn’t say it with judgement, but the hard truth behind his words crashed my back teeth together. I already knew I sucked. Now he did, too.

I took his shoulders, flipped him off of me, and stood, averting my gaze to hide my shame. “I’ll try harder.”

He took slow steps forward until he stood in front of me. Warmth, the kind that blooms from kindness, radiated out of his cool skin. He thumbed my chin and lifted my gaze to his. “I can help.”

“Shouldn’t you be afraid that I’ll kill you if I get too good at this?”

He threw back his head and laughed. “The night’s not over yet, Slayer.”

“This is just...” I broke away from him and searched the living room for answers to all my questions. “So weird. You should be afraid of me. I shouldn’t have trouble killing vampires or demons or turning down the devil’s marriage proposal. I’m the slayer. I was chosen to be a badass, and I’m inside a vampire nest with vampires who...” Light me on fire, I wanted to say. In a good, let’s-all-strut-around-naked kind of way.

“Belle?”

“What?”

“All things considered, you’re doing very well with no one helping you after all this time. Plus...” He took the bottom hem of my Spongebob T-shirt and rubbed the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. “Bob Sponge has been Employee of the Month a ton of times, so as far as role models go, you could do a lot worse.”

I gave him a skeptical frown that was tinged with a smile. “It’s Spongebob, and how do you know he was Employee of the Month?”

“I know things by accident sometimes, but I will never look at yellow sponges the same again.” His fingers at my shirt grazed the skin underneath, thrilling the blood through my veins faster. “Want me to show you how I took you down?”

“Yes,” I said, amazed that the word didn’t shiver from my lips like the rest of me was.

With his hands guiding my body, he showed me where to put my feet, how to position myself, how to move. Under his touch, I imagined myself having the same liquid grace he did as it ebbed and flowed between us.

“Now, try it,” he ordered.

“Shouldn’t I do a sneak attack? You’ll see it coming.”

“Sneak attacks won’t work when you smell like you do.”

“Like sunshine and...” Desire. Was I that obvious? All signs pointed to yes. I cleared my throat. “Okay. Well, pretend you can’t smell me.”

He nodded as I stepped in close. Without overthinking it, I flew into action, mimicking his movements and grace. He smacked the mat hard.

Boom, sucker. I’d done it. I fist-pumped the air, but then for the second time that night, he whipped my feet out from underneath me. My legs no longer supported me, and I went down on all fours, crouched over Jacek like a wild animal, my pelvis tucked into his.

“Damn it,” I said, but it was surrounded with my laugh.

He chuckled, too. “You’ll get better. You’ll see my sneak attacks coming.”

Would I, though? Every single one of them? I hadn’t seen him or Eddie coming into my life, that was for sure.

My knees bracketed his perfectly honed torso, and I enjoyed the thrill of him between my thighs a little too much. Eddie’s head had been there just last night, and I was starting to feel a little selfish. Not much. But a little. But it wouldn’t be fair to Eddie if I fucked his roommate.

Because that was exactly what I was thinking about.

Hey, we all had our vices. Mine just happened to have fangs.

“You moved your body well.” Jacek brushed stray hairs off my forehead and behind my ear, his fingertips trailing through the strands and catching as if to hold me close.

And close we were. Crouched as I was, my bottom lip almost skimmed his. My breasts, mostly contained in my sports bra and T-shirt, were crushed to his bare chest. Heat gathered between my spread legs, triggering a throb that drowned out my raging heartbeat.

What was happening to me? Why couldn’t I just shut everything down inside me? Was it this house or the smoldering hot vampires who lived here? Because Eddie wasn’t enough. I wanted Jacek, too, so much that it boiled out all reason.

Almost. I slid off of him, although reluctantly, as he gazed up at me from shuttered eyes.

“Is Eddie here?” I asked, my voice trembling.

Jacek stood, looking as graceful as rushing water and not at all pained from the scars on his back. “He’s out, said he had a book emergency. But he said he translated something you should see upstairs.”

“Okay.”

We stared at each other for several beats while I tried to find the will to tear myself from the room. He wasn’t making it any easier with the mischievous quirk of his mouth.

“And Sawyer? I still haven’t had a proper conversation with him yet.”

Jacek nodded. “Maybe you’ll see him on your way upstairs.”

Even if that wasn’t meant to be a dismissal, I took it as one. I turned and trotted up the steps to the library, though I suppose I could’ve tried to climb the pole from the first floor. Maybe next time.

The upstairs hallway lights had been dimmed to a warm, soothing glow, and the scent of apple pie and coffee reached me before the heavenly sight did. A smaller piece, though not any less mouth-watering, sat on a little plate next to a mug of steaming coffee at the table Eddie and I had sat at last night. If Eddie was gone and Jacek was still downstairs, then this had be Sawyer wanting to ruin my waistline.

“Sawyer?” I whispered while following my nose. “You’re the one who bites, so I’m not sure why you won’t talk to me.”

A gentle breeze kissed past my face, intimate and somehow familiar. Invisible fingertips skimmed over my cheek, brushing the corner of my lips. I sighed into the pleasant touch and then turned to see its source whisk by me. Nothing but empty hallway. Was he a ghost? A shy vampire? Either way, I was intrigued, and slightly breathless.

“Thank you,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure exactly what I thanked him for. Everything, I supposed, though I had no idea what all that might entail.

Boy, these vamps were messing with my mind. And I fucking loved it.

I beelined for the pie and coffee so they would drown out everything else. While I stuffed my face, I read a note from Eddie that he’d tucked inside an open book, its pages as brittle as dead leaves.

Sunshine,

I’ve been brushing up on my ancient Sumerian.

I snorted and almost shot pie out my nose. Sure, brushing up on ancient Sumerian, as anyone normal tended to do.

I picked up this book and realized I translated a part about slayers wrong several years back. Here’s the real translation: ‘And so the slayer shall seek solace with the devil. Then, and only then, will she live, hell’s rules notwithstanding. For otherwise, she will not survive past the year one and twenty. Darkness will come for her, and it is not known. Heretofore, no slayer has ever lived without the devil and escaped the dark.’

We’ll talk soon. Don’t give up hope.

Eddie.

I loosened a breath, shaky with the threat of tears, and read the note again. And again. Each time hoping the words would rearrange themselves into something less horrific.

Year one and twenty. Twenty-one. My twentieth birthday was in just a few days. So if I refused to become the devil’s bride, I wouldn’t make it to my twenty-first?

Something dark, the demon had warned.

It is not known.

...no slayer has ever lived without the devil and escaped the dark.

I slumped back in the chair, the few bites of pie I’d eaten sitting uncomfortably high in my throat. If I refused the devil, the darkness would come for me within a year, if not sooner.

If not already.