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  “Night.” I forced a smile and closed the door before she worked up a second wind. Then I turned on Sam. She’d rolled back over and pulled the covers back up to her head. Sam was incapable of sleeping alone. Things with her had been that way for a while. I didn’t mind helping her with her insomnia, but she had to meet me halfway when it came to my responsibilities as chapter president.

  “You should be nice to her,” I said.

  “Yeah, whatever. Hurry up. I’m cold.”

  I didn’t hurry. I took a long, hot, completely ineffective shower. My back was tight and my whole body still tense from my feeding with Camila. I didn’t have the energy to masturbate in the shower, but I played with my clit some. Made a lazy effort to scrub away the wetness from between my legs. When I came back to bed, I was clean but not relaxed. I thought of sending Sam to Amy’s room so I could stretch out, but I was too tired for another conversation. I dressed in the dark, then slid under the covers with Sam.

  Chapter Three

  Cleo

  I sat on the Montgomerys’ porch swing, watching my parents’ house, wondering what in the hell was taking Nat so long. Mama and Daddy came home from worship hours ago. Maxwell and Tina had been by and left for home. Despite the shitty, icy weather, the roads were clear. There was no reason for my little brother to be drifting around the countryside at midnight. Mama wouldn’t have let him skip out like this before I died. Lately, though, I noticed he was coming home later and later. I tried to stay out of my parents’ thoughts and their home, but I noticed other things were different. They weren’t grieving together anymore. Daddy pushed Mama away. He’d started drinking again. Mama found her refuge in the church. Not sure which option offered more comfort.

  They were still the perfect couple on the outside, made stronger by the loss of their only daughter. I saw little things, though, like he still opened doors for her, and he listened when she talked, but they didn’t touch anymore, and Daddy almost never smiled. When I watched them, that is.

  There was nothing I could do to help them. I couldn’t ease their minds to let them know that I was safe and not in a jar above Daddy’s TV. Even if I could reveal myself, I think their relationship was too far gone. Daddy was doing the right thing and sticking around. No church folk can resist the scandal of their preacher’s husband walking out on her. They’d think he was cheating, or worse—gay. He was just heartbroken. Again, there was nothing I could do about it, but I did watch them. Somehow, it made me feel better. Now, if Nat would just get his ass home, I could get on with the rest of my night.

  My phone vibrated in my hand. I looked at the text message from Tokyo and hit Ignore. I liked her, but it pissed me right off when she acted like that. There’s nothing sexy about a disobedient bitch. I pocketed my phone, then rubbed the extended length of my clit through my pants, still hard, and I thought of Benny. Hate and lust went so well together, especially when it came to her. I wanted to choke the shit out of her the moment she started talking tonight. She didn’t give a shit about Jill or Maddie’s dance team. Benny was just playing a part. Always playing a part until she got what she wanted. No fucking clue what that was these days, and I didn’t care to find out, but I still wanted to fuck her.

  I pulled up my phone again and went to Amy’s Facebook page. Benny didn’t have one, but she couldn’t duck her way out of every sorority photo, and Amy loved posting pictures of her against her will. Only a few flicks of my thumb and I found the picture I wanted—Benny with Amy and my Laura at our Christmas party. I glanced at my Laura for a second, with her jet-black hair and bleached white bangs. Her blood was so fucking sweet. I licked my fangs just thinking about it, but my gaze strayed back to Benny.

  It had been torture watching her body change over the years. I like my girls thick, and Benny had been about the thickest when I snagged her, but that was before she really developed and grew some adult curves. I looked at the red blouse and black trousers she wore in the picture. She defined tits and ass these days, and her aqua blue eyes had somehow come to be more sultry. She knew I still watched her. She knew I still wanted her, but I knew better than to mess with her again. I might have been dead, but I wasn’t stupid or heartless enough to deal with Benny’s soulless approach to life and me.

  I stroked myself harder, thinking about her bound beneath me in ways she hadn’t let me enjoy before. Gagged properly for once with no safe words or boundaries. Though it was just a fantasy, it was better than the reality we had spent together. In my fantasy, I had some say.

  People would never believe the truth about Benny if I told them. They knew now that we’d secretly dated for the first two and a half months of my junior year, the last seventy-three days of my life, but they had no clue how it had started, how one afternoon following initiation, Benny had invited me back to her room. How she’d laid out her plans for me, plain and clear. We liked each other, that much was obvious. But she wanted me to be her girlfriend, officially. She wanted me to dominate her. She offered to teach me how. And all of this, our play, our relationship, and eventually, our love, was to be kept a secret.

  “I’m not ashamed of anything I do,” she’d said. “But we have to share everything with our sorority sisters. I don’t want to share this.” I liked the idea at the time and I loved how freaky Benny turned out to be, but I should have known something was off. No eighteen-year-old should be that focused and calculating. No human being should be that cold. I was glad we were over. Still, echoes of what we were—Benny herself—haunted me everywhere. Tonight, it was definitely that tight, white sweater and how wet she got when I fed Tokyo the chocolate. It felt good to play them both, if only for a few seconds. I stopped rubbing myself. I didn’t want to come thinking about her. Not tonight.

  I looked up from my phone, feeling a certain stir in the night air. I caught Camila’s scent just before she arrived. My sister-queen appeared before me on the Montgomerys’ lawn.

  “Want some company?”

  I shrugged before I nodded to the empty spot on the swing beside me. She reappeared at my elbow and crossed her heavy boots up on the porch rail.

  “Who are we stalking tonight?”

  “Just waiting for Nat to get home.”

  “Is it insulting to say I’m proud of you?” she asked.

  “A little, ’cause it shows you still don’t trust me.” I was only half-kidding. Camila had offered me a proper good-bye with Mama shortly after I died, but Ginger died too a few days later. My family got lost in the shuffle, and I was too tired and frustrated to try to mend the breach. I regretted that decision every day. And every day since, Camila silently worried I would snap and approach my family, who thought all that was left of me was a pile of ashes. I missed them, but I wasn’t stupid. Exposure was a one-way ticket to hell, and there was no reason for me to make that trip.

  “I trust you,” Camila answered. “But I wouldn’t trust myself in your shoes.”

  “Yeah,” was all I said.

  Camila had showed me her memory of her little boys, murdered the same day she died. I pitied her loss and envied the children she’d had all at the same time. Picturing her kids, I couldn’t help but think of Benny again, how she’d ruined everything we could have had. A life. A family. It was better in the end, though. She was too selfish for both.

  Camila and I sat in silence for a long time. I didn’t have anything to say, and she knew small talk was unnecessary. I hung my head and closed my eyes, thinking of sleeping and a good time to feed again. We both looked up when the side door to my parents’ house opened and the Montgomerys’ cat, Tabby, sprinted across the street through the cold. He stopped short of the door and came to Camila’s side.

  “Hey, kitty.” She scooped him up and purred back as he rubbed his head under her chin. Being able to whisper to animals or whatever comes in handy when you’re a demon.

  “My daddy’s been feeding him,” I told her, scratching Tabby’s thick back.

  “He looks fatter.”

  I reached over
to my other side and rang the doorbell twice and again when Mr. Montgomery didn’t come to the door. “Who is it?” he yelled. Tabby jumped off Camila’s lap and meowed back. Finally, Mr. Montgomery cracked the door open and peered out. He stepped on the porch, swatting at Tabby with his foot.

  “Get in here, ya fool cat.”

  Tabby scurried inside, but Mr. Montgomery lingered just outside the door, no doubt feeling our presence, but blind to us as we hid under my cloak, our power that rendered us invisible. It was amazing how much humans could notice if they just took a moment to see, to feel.

  “Watch this,” I whispered to Camila. I shoved my feet off the railing and sent the swing flying backward. We crashed into the white siding of the house, then forward. Mr. Montgomery literally screamed like a little girl then froze, clutching his robe to his throat. Man, the way his eyes bugged out of his head. I crumpled on Camila’s shoulder, laughing hysterically. She waited until he slammed the front door behind him before she joined me.

  “Have you done that to him before?” she asked.

  “No, I swear,” I said. “But don’t feel bad. He’s cheating on his wife. He deserves a little terror in his life.”

  “Well, don’t do it again. Dalhem will not be pleased if he goes crazy.”

  “Whatever.” I laughed some more, thinking it wouldn’t be much to spare the asshole’s sanity. “He’ll be all right.”

  It took us both a few moments to calm down. I couldn’t stop laughing and Camila was having trouble controlling her own snickers. But eventually, I yawned. I tried to hold it in, but it was a big-ass yawn. I covered my mouth as it slipped out, then tried to stretch all casual like, but I wasn’t putting one over on anybody.

  Camila asked, “Have you slept recently?”

  “Nah. Not much. I will tonight.”

  “Good.” She sighed.

  My phone vibrated again. I have no idea why I checked it.

  “Lord Jesus.” I almost threw my phone in the street.

  “Who is it?”

  “Tokyo.”

  “What are you doing with her?” Camila asked as if that question wasn’t loaded as hell.

  “Man, I don’t know. She wants to go out.”

  “Tens?”

  “Yes! I like strippers. I really do, but damn. She and Kina should just buy the fucking place. They’re up in that bitch every night.”

  Camila shook her head. “Sometimes a house full of girls isn’t enough.”

  “I won’t even ask if you want to go ’cause I know Ginger isn’t having it.”

  “Wise move.” It wasn’t a jealousy thing. Ginger knew where she stood with her wife, but Ginger’s birth mother had lived and died by the pole. Ginger wasn’t a fan of any of us hitting up those types of establishments. She didn’t try to stop us, but she definitely wasn’t a fan, and Camila wasn’t the kind of woman to show just to spend time with me and Tokyo.

  Just then, Nat’s Ford came down the street, but he didn’t pull into the driveway. He stopped several dozen yards before our house.

  “Don’t,” Camila said with a hand on my knee before I could read his mind. “Just wait.” There was movement in the car and a moment where Nat’s face was lit by his phone. A gust of wind blew his scent in the opposite direction, stopping me from picking up anything but the forest behind the Montgomerys’ home.

  It looked like Nat was texting, but soon the light on his phone went off and he drove into our driveway. I waited until he was inside the house, then I turned to Camila.

  “Get back to your lady.”

  “I think I will.” Camila stood, but before she left, she gave me a long, lingering kiss on the forehead. I felt how much she cared about me in that kiss, as more than my friend. More than my maker. There was concern and understanding and the love she’d had for me since the day we were first bound together as feeder and queen. Our relationship was so different now, but better. I was too tired to hide how much the gesture moved me.

  “Get out of here,” I said, giving her a gentle shove. She winked at me and then she was gone.

  I watched Nat as he moved through the house. He stopped in the kitchen, then Daddy’s den where he’d most likely passed out with a brandy in his hand. When Nat’s bedroom light came on, I vanished across the street and double-checked that the doors were locked, stopping myself before I vanished to the roof to peer in on Mama. Back across the street, I found myself pacing, debating my next move as I did my best to ignore my exhaustion.

  With one last look at Tokyo’s pleading text, I sent a message to my brother-king Rodrick to let him know I’d be spending the night at the Omega Beta Alpha house. Tokyo would have to find someone else to fuck with tonight.

  *

  I don’t know what it is about frat houses. It doesn’t matter how clean they are, they always have that smell. Something about these boys living together, compounded by all the fucking they do. My senses were overwhelmed for the few moments I waited for Andrew to open his door. The smell of sweat, aftershave, layers of cologne and body spray, and piss had my nose burning. The new puppy—nowhere near housebroken—wasn’t helping the situation. I had no idea how my brother-kings could stand it.

  I knocked again on Andrew’s door. He liked to study with his headphones on. There was a light shuffle and the sliding of his chair across the thin carpet before he opened his door.

  “Hi,” Andrew said with his prime-time heartthrob smile that made most of his frat brothers weak. I loved that smile too. His scent was fresh, like soap from his recent shower. I didn’t wait for an invitation to step inside.

  His room was clean and the biggest in the house. He’d turned down the offices of president and vice president, but the boys insisted he take the president’s suite. He’d spent five years out of college, and at twenty-six, his frat brothers thought he deserved the biggest space. Perfect, because it gave us both someplace to spread out. I stroked his toned stomach as I passed him on the way to his desk. I glanced at the window on his laptop before I sat on the wooden surface. Andrew stepped between my legs and exhaled as I gently tugged on his nipple rings.

  I’d thought about our bond a million times. Before I died, I’m not sure we would have been friends, but now he was easily the best thing in my life. Easy on the eyes too. Andrew was tall, with brown hair, gorgeous eyes, and a big bubble butt. But I wasn’t straight and neither was he. I wasn’t human, but thanks to our blood bond, I was able to see beyond all the reasons we had no business hanging out. I could have traded him for a female feeder at any time, but I didn’t want to. We meshed together. Strange how that works. I wondered what it was about him, beyond his blood and the fact that he was a well-worn submissive, that made me trust him and crave his company. He didn’t know me before. He didn’t know what I was like without the demon. Somehow, though, the moment we were bound, he knew exactly what I needed. He knew I was broken.

  “What are you working on?” I asked.

  “Nothing. I was just messing around.”

  I breathed him in again before I sighed. I loved the smell of him and the taste of his blood. When Moreland gave him to me, Andrew reeked of leather and lube and confusion. Now he had his own scent, and of course, he carried traces of mine. I thought I’d done all right by him. He was perfectly healthy when I got him, but after I followed Camila’s instructions and gave him his human life back, gave him back to the sun, he seemed stronger. Happier.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked as he leaned into me. I shook my head. I could always feed. Always. But I fed from both of my freshmen babies before our meeting.

  “Tired?” He tried again.

  “Yeah. I’m worried about my brother.”

  “I wish I could help.”

  “I know, honey.”

  His arms wrapped around me. That was the only place I could go. His warmth was the only thing that didn’t drain me. My girls needed my support and wanted my attention. Mel and Skylar were very clingy. Laura and Hollis were insatiable. Tokyo wanted everything and didn�
�t know when to stop. Andrew was my only break in the night. The only person who didn’t want something from me. So I gave him everything I had plus some pieces I shouldn’t have spared.

  Mama wasn’t much for affection, but my daddy had this thing he used to do that I never told Andrew about. It was just another thing he picked up on. I sagged closer, letting my cheek rest on his shoulder. In response, he undid my ribbon, then ground his fingers into the base of my scalp. My hair was thick as shit, but Andrew had quickly picked up on the difference between kneading and tangling. He found the perfect spot, making me purr. My eyes squeezed shut and I groaned even louder. A vampire shouldn’t have to ache like that.

  “How many days has it been?” he asked.

  “A full night? I don’t know,” I said before I reconsidered the truth. “Five months.”

  “Dude.”

  “I know.” I felt the moisture leave my eyes and looked down just in time to see the blue drop roll down his bare chest. It was moments like this I hated Benny the most. Hated who she truly was. Why couldn’t she be like Andrew? Why couldn’t she give a shit?

  I wiped my face and then his chest. “We’ll camp out tonight. I’m ready.” I looked into his deep brown eyes and saw how worried he was. I kissed him then to silence any more questions. I enjoyed his soft mouth for all of five seconds before we were interrupted. Van, this adorable freshman from Atlanta, poked his head in the door. His family was originally from India, but they’d relocated to the States just before Van was born. He was scrawny and baby-faced and still in the closet to his parents, who were so happy he had joined a fraternity. If only they knew how much he loved my Andrew.

  “Hey—oh. Sorry. I can come back,” he said.

  “It’s fine. Come on in, man,” Andrew replied. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing. I can come back,” Van said again, but he stepped into the room anyway, eying me nervously. Most of the boys respected us sister-queens, but a few others like Van were freaked out by us.