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  Jill, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem with our current situation. “You heard how the Kappa party went. I asked Tokyo to take me somewhere else. We went to a party at a friend of hers, Moreland.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut as the name left her mouth. Camila actually started to growl.

  “And I don’t understand why that’s a problem,” Jill went on. “Moreland was very kind to me, and I really like her feeders. They were nice to me too.”

  “Did Moreland try anything with you?” Camila asked.

  “No!” Jill and I said at the same time.

  “Okay, what’s the deal with this Moreland woman, and why do you and Ginger insist on hating her so much?”

  “Moreland was raised well before reconstruction, and I think she’s held on to a lot of beliefs around slavery. She thinks that our feeders are tools for her pleasure, and I—”

  “Oh my God! That is not fucking true!” I turned to Jill. “Like a million years ago, Camila and Moreland had a really awkward sexual encounter, and Camila never forgave her for it, and then somehow their minor differences in opinion regarding sex and feeders blew up into this huge convoluted thing. Ginger doesn’t even know Moreland beyond like two conversations, and her hatred is one hundred percent based on how Camila feels about her.”

  “Did she try to force herself on you?” Jill asked Camila. Her voice was shaking, which really pissed me off because she had every right to be concerned if that was actually the case. Which it wasn’t.

  Camila took her sweet ass time answering, but at least she told the truth. “No. She didn’t. I simply don’t—”

  “You just don’t like her,” Jill said. “Yeah, I know how that goes. We had fun last night, and Moreland’s feeders are happy. Very happy. She’s good to them.”

  “And she’s good to me. She’s been good to us, or are we forgetting how she came through when Cleo died? I would never associate with someone who tried to hurt one of my sisters. Never.” And Camila knew that. I wasn’t so sure about Ginger. I ignored the knot in my throat and focused on my hand. What had happened to us?

  “I thought you said you were going to trust me and Tokyo?” Jill said to Ginger.

  “I do.”

  “No, you don’t. I got home last night before half of the girls. I didn’t drink. I didn’t do drugs. Tokyo was by my side the whole night. I asked her to take me somewhere off campus, but somehow she’s in trouble. But for what?”

  “Why are you two together?” Ginger asked, but the truth had already dawned on Camila.

  “’Cause they’re sleeping together.”

  “What? But you told me the relationship was pretend, for her project,” Ginger blabbed.

  “You told her that?” I couldn’t stand the hurt in Jill’s voice.

  “So she wouldn’t question who the fuck this Bridgette person was and why she was suddenly around and why she had history.”

  “So you two are sleeping together?” Ginger asked.

  “Yes,” Jill replied.

  “I’m only going to say this once.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” I muttered.

  “You shut up. Jill, I think about who you are and what you want for your future and who she is and her past and her future, and I think this is a bad idea, okay? This might seem like fun now, but I know you, Jill, and I know you’ve been hurt and I know how big your heart is. No matter how you slice it this shit show spells disaster for me.”

  “How are you this much of a hypocrite?” Jill said so matter-of-factly I actually snorted. “You were younger than me when you turned and married Camila. You knew her just as much, actually less than I know Tokyo now. Amy told me, it was like what, three months? I’ve been around Tokyo for almost two years now.

  “Yeah, she’s sarcastic and doesn’t always do things exactly the way you want her to, but her girls love her, and even during all that mess with Cleo and Benny she was still nice to me. She has always been nice to me. So yes, we are sleeping together and kind of dating, I think. I’m not sure, and maybe that will end and I’ll be heartbroken or maybe she will, but it’s not fair for you two of all people to say that we can’t just because you think you’re trying to protect me.”

  “Did Amy tell you I was never human? Did Amy tell you that I hadn’t even finished puberty when I was changed, but that I was born with so much vampire blood in my system that I had dormant powers, that there was a possibility I was already immortal?”

  “Well, no. But—”

  “That’s the difference between you and me. You have your whole, short human life before you and I want you to live it.”

  Jill squared her shoulders and pulled in a deep breath. “So do I, and during that life I want to say that I had a relationship with a vampire named Tokyo and that relationship played out naturally with no interference from the vampire that I feed.”

  Ginger looked at Jill for a long time. I wanted to scoop her up and kiss the shit out of her. Finally, Ginger looked at Camila, the other half of her brain, where sense lived. Camila kissed Ginger on her forehead, and what was done was done.

  “Fine. Jill, please stay. I do need to feed. You can go,” Ginger said to me. “But you still have to be there for your girls. Jill doesn’t take precedence over them.”

  “That’s how it’s been. I haven’t been neglecting them at all.”

  “And you’re okay with that, Jill?”

  “Again, almost three years. I’m not blind or naive.”

  “Fine.”

  I stood and almost kissed Jill, but I thought better of it.

  “And, Tokyo?” Ginger said just before I vanished.

  “Yeah?”

  “Maybe when you get a chance you can tell Jill your real name.”

  I wanted to jump over the table and claw her eyes out, but I settled for a smile and a nod. I walked over to Jill and was glad when she let me kiss her soundly on the lips. And then I vanished. I could hit up our government contacts in D.C. before I had to get back to meet with the girls.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jill

  I was really angry with Ginger. I couldn’t understand why she thought Tokyo and I were so stupid. Of course I didn’t think Tokyo was her real name, but that was the name she liked to be called, so that’s what I called her. And yes, I understood that Camila wasn’t exactly comfortable with the way Moreland lived her life.

  But at the end of the day, the time I spent with Tokyo had nothing to do with Moreland, and as long as Tokyo and I held up our ends of our respective blood pacts with the respective parties under the ABO roof, Ginger had no right to be so cruel about us being together.

  I had not expected to develop feelings for Tokyo during our little experiment, but now the feelings were there. Was it forever love? Probably not, but that wasn’t always the point. She would be my first girlfriend, not my last, and that was okay. I wanted to enjoy the time we had together, without Ginger’s and Camila’s supremely biased opinions getting in the way.

  I did feed her though, accepted several orgasms as payment, which also worked against Ginger’s master to plan to ensure my loneliness because the whole time she was at my neck I was thinking of Tokyo and how badly I wanted to be with her.

  We wrapped things up just in time for our emergency meeting. I was so angry, I didn’t think to ask Ginger or Camila what the meeting was about while we were still in private. I left them to have their own conversation and headed for the TV room. On my way, Tokyo sent me a text.

  Are you okay?

  I texted her back right away. Yeah, I’m okay. Ginger didn’t suck me dry for my insolence.

  Lol, that’s not what I meant, but I’m glad you’re not dead.

  I’m sorry about what she said.

  Can we talk later tonight?

  Yes, I was hoping we would.

  Find you later.

  She added a few heart emoticons. I fought the urge to text back exactly what I was feeling and settled for a few emoticons of my own.

  ❖
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  Most of the girls were already in the TV room when I got upstairs. I took up a post by the window next to Portia.

  “You want me to send you these?” She held out her phone and showed me a picture of a bunch of us dressed as food products from the night before. “Swipe left.”

  I did and there were two pictures of me and Tokyo. Grape soda. We were kissing.

  “Bridgette’s cute,” Portia said.

  “Yes, I think so too. Please send these to me.” I handed her phone back, and a moment later, it vibrated in my lap.

  “No problem.”

  My phone vibrated again and once more just as our sister-queens arrived. I tried not to focus too much on Tokyo. She joined her girls in the corner, leaning one arm on D’Monique’s shoulder. I couldn’t say or do what I wanted, now that she was in the same room, but I could send her something. I texted her the pictures Portia had just given me.

  She looked at her phone for a moment as Ginger was calling our meeting to order. A small smile touched her lips, and I had to force myself to look away. No one cared about us, except for maybe Ginger, but I felt like every time I even thought about her, I was giving myself away.

  My phone vibrated again. I looked down and immediately slammed the screen against my chest. I shot daggers at Tokyo who had the nerve to look off in the distance like she hadn’t just sent me a picture of the two of us sitting on the floor at Moreland’s. We were both smiling, but her hand was definitely inside those bloomers. I risked another glance at the image and quickly saved it. I wondered who took it. I wanted to thank them.

  “I’m going to let Camila explain what’s going on. I think it’s going to make things worse if I do the talking,” Ginger said.

  “I doubt that, Red, but here we go. There is no easy or good way to say this so I’ll just lay it out there. There is something, we’ll call it a demon, an evil entity that appears to be targeting our feeders. And when I mean our feeders, I mean feeders from different campuses.” Camila went on to explain that two students had been kidnapped and possessed in the last few weeks. One had survived. The other hadn’t.

  “Whatever these things are, they seem to be determined and on the move. If they decide to try this campus, you girls and our boys across the street, we want you to be ready.”

  Ginger seemed to find her voice again. “They’ve been attacking during the day so it makes it difficult for us to track them, but we think if you all are together—”

  “What, like all the time?” Chelsea asked.

  “Yes, all the time.”

  That sent a collective groan around the room. Nobody wanted that.

  “Girls, please,” Omi said. “Let them finish.”

  “We’re trying our best to figure out what’s going on, but we can’t say the coast is clear until we do, and until then we want you all to keep an eye on each other.”

  “So if I go on a date with my man, one of the girls has to come with me?” Portia asked.

  “I know it’s not ideal, but the young man who was killed was picked up by his parents. They could be using people you trust to lure you away from campus.”

  “Better watch out for your new girlfriend, Jill. She might be possessed—”

  “Hollis!” Ginger’s voice made us all jump. “Cut the shit! This is not funny!”

  “Sorry.”

  “This thing is trying to get to something, to someone, and I’m pretty sure it’s not stopping until it does. I’ll be damned if it takes one of you with it.” Ginger was practically shaking. I felt bad for being so angry with her. She was always trying to protect us.

  “Check your e-mail right after we end here,” Camila said. “Natasha and Rodrick have worked out who you should be with and when. We’re including the boys too. Walk to classes in groups or at least in pairs, and if you have night engagements, one of us is coming with you.”

  No one seemed pleased, there was still some grumbling, but we understood. I was appropriately afraid.

  “That’s it for now. When we know more you’ll know more,” Camila said.

  That ended our impromptu get-together. Some of the girls stormed off in a huff. I had some easy assignments to get out of the way, and I wanted to chat with Brayley about our plan for the week, but I texted James first.

  Walking buddies?

  I stopped by the kitchen for something to drink and munch on while I worked. On my way upstairs my phone vibrated with his text back.

  Yeah, LOL Walking buddies.

  ❖

  The way things were going, I expected to be up to the wee hours waiting for a text from Tokyo telling me that she was caught up doing something for the house, or for Dalhem. I couldn’t be even the slightest bit upset. Something was trying to kill us. Or possess us to make us do their bidding, whatever that might be.

  But not even ten minutes after Portia hopped into bed, Tokyo sent me a text saying she would be up to see me in just a moment.

  I started to put away my books, too distracted to study, too worried, nervous, horny, anxious, you name it, to even bother.

  Tokyo appeared before I’d even zipped up my book bag. She looked nice fully dressed. Tight black jeans, tiny black crop top. Shiny black boots.

  “Finish up already?”

  I pressed my finger to my lips. Then pointed to Portia. “She just went to sleep.”

  “I know. She’ll be out until morning.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing, I just cleared her mind. She was stressing out about not being able to be alone with her boyfriend. You’d be surprised how well you sleep when you’re not stressed out.”

  “Gosh, vampires.”

  “That’s me,” she said with a smile and a shrug. “Come on. Let’s get you between the sheets.” She grabbed my covers and pulled them back for me. I wasn’t ready for bed, but I had changed. It wouldn’t hurt to try to take my mind off things for a while. A few minutes later, I was all changed for bed and was bundled up under my blankets. Tokyo pulled off her boots and climbed in bed with me.

  “Weird day, huh?”

  “Yes, quite.”

  “What is really the problem between you and Ginger? I don’t understand why she’s always mad at you.”

  “I think it’s a few things. She’s super tense all of the time ’cause she’s like fifteen years old and Dalhem put all these lives in her hands. Omi and them don’t take her authority outside of the house that seriously, but they respect her inside the house.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “It’s not that I don’t—Camila and I had our problems before Ginger came on the scene, but we also had this really great understanding. We were really close, all of us, closer than we are now.”

  I had to wonder what she meant by “close.” “Did you and Camila used to sleep together?”

  “Let’s just put it this way, there is not a vampire you know who hasn’t had sex with me or Camila, or Omi, or Natasha, or Faeth. I mean Natasha and Omi are both very committed to Rodrick and Mary, but I don’t know, maybe it’s an age thing. Things change after forty, fifty, or in Omi’s case, a hundred years of not aging or having to do stuff like raise kids. There’s a lot of sex to be had.”

  “And Ginger doesn’t like that?”

  “I don’t think Ginger fully understands it, but I wasn’t going to change my whole life because of Ginger, especially when it comes to things that aren’t hurting anyone. We all have lives outside of the house, but she acts like what she values is what should be the most important to all of us. I’m just the only one who’s vocal in disagreeing with her. Like all the time.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Yeah, it’s changed the dynamic around here a lot. It’s okay.”

  “Things change.”

  “They do.”

  “For example, look how things changed for us.”

  Tokyo moved closer and kissed my face. “Did you have fun last night?”

  “I did. Are you still pretending?”

  She shook her hea
d. “No, I’m not.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “Are you okay with that? I know this wasn’t a part of your plan. I don’t want to screw up your science experiment.”

  “I think my plan was to let things develop naturally. It just so happens that you and I naturally…”

  “Like each other? Maybe even love each other a little?”

  I nodded as she fiddled with my necklace. I couldn’t say it. I’d had strong feelings before, but this was different. With Ginger, I didn’t have a choice. With Benny, I was young and foolish, a little desperate. But with Tokyo, my emotions felt real. I didn’t know my body could run hot all over just from the thought of seeing someone. I didn’t know my stomach could actually tighten and tense all on its own at someone’s touch. I had no idea what to do.

  “I know it’s scary, but it’s okay to love people.”

  “I know it is, but—” I reached down and grabbed her hand, pressed it to my heart. “Do you feel that?”

  “Feel it? I could hear it down the hallway.”

  “No jokes. Really. Do you feel how hard my heart is beating?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “This is what happens when I get excited about things. And when I get excited about things I always ruin them.”

  “No, you don’t. You’re just surrounded by people who don’t know how to be excited with you. They make you feel like you’re ruining things when really you’re just excited. I like your enthusiasm, Jill. Your passion, because it’s real. You’re so analytical, but that means when you’re ready to get excited about something you know exactly what it means and you know it’s exactly what you want.”

  “It sounds different when you put it that way.”

  “That’s the thing that sucks about being stuck in a nest or a sorority house. You’re forced to deal with the people you’ve been placed with, whether you like them or not, but when you’re alone, or at least when you’re free, you get to choose. And I love the people I’ve chosen to be in my life.”