Immortal Craving (Dark Dynasties) by Kendra Leigh Castle Page A

reproach in Ty’s voice when he spoke to Bay.
    “We’ll leave you to it, then. Enjoy your night.”
    The two of them left without another word, and Bay watched them go with a heavy heart. No matter what she did anymore, she felt like Lily was slipping away from her. Neither of them had asked for what had happened… and neither of them seemed to be able to find a way to bridge the gulf that had formed the instant Ty had turned Lily. She was a night creature now.
    And Bay didn’t think she’d ever be able to turn her face from the sunlight.
    There was the sound of the front door shutting, and then the house was silent again, pulling Bay’s focus to the issue at hand. She’d gotten exactly what she’d insisted on.
    They were alone.
    Bay’s nerves returned immediately. It should have felt emptier in here once Lily and Ty had left. Instead, Tasmin’s presence seemed to have expanded to fill every nook and cranny. Small wonder, she supposed, from aguy who professed to be able to bend people’s brains and make them hallucinate.
    “Most vampires would have killed you for that,” Tasmin said, sounding genuinely awed.
    “For what?”
    “Disobedience. You just threw a queen out of your house.”
    “I didn’t throw her out,” Bay said, frowning. “She was leaving anyway. And she wouldn’t kill me because she’s my best friend, which I’m pretty sure you already knew.”
    Tasmin shrugged, a small, impossibly graceful movement. “It can’t last. But that is something
you
already know.”
    It rankled, having this beautiful, strange vampire standing here lecturing on interspecies friendship when he’d been alone and mostly dead for hundreds of years.
    “It
will
last. It’s also none of your business,” Bay said flatly, shifting her stance so that she faced him, arms folded across her chest.
    He lifted his shoulders again, a casual gesture at odds with the intensity with which he watched her. Bay suddenly felt too warm.
    “As you wish,” Tasmin said.
    They stood staring at one another. As the silence spun out, Bay fumbled for something to say. She had some vague memory of Tasmin saying he wanted to speak to her alone. She wasn’t sure. Simply standing here looking at him was incapacitating functional brain cells at an alarming rate.
    Grimm gave a loud yawn, breaking the silence, and got slowly to his feet in front of the chair where Tasmin had been sitting. It was a welcome break in the tension.
    “Well,” Bay finally said, cringing a little inside at the overly perky sound of her voice. “I hope everything works out for you.”
    “I doubt it will, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
    For whatever reason, his pessimism irritated her. “If you want it to work out, you have to push for it. And probably have a better attitude about it. You came all this way; you made a good enough impression on Lily that she’s going to help you out. How is this not a good start?” Bay asked.
    His lashes lowered, and she noticed they were beautifully long and black. Bay had a bad feeling she could spend hours finding things about Tasmin’s looks to admire.
    “Perhaps you are right,” he finally allowed. “I will… try to keep that in mind.” His lips quirked into a half smile. “You are a surprise, encouraging a creature like me. Driving off your friend to defend me. I am no loyal beast like your Grimm.”
    At the sound of his name, the dog lumbered over to Tasmin’s side and looked hopefully up at him, wagging his immense brush of a tail. Bay chuckled despite herself. Especially because Tasmin’s expression was so bewildered when he looked from Grimm to her.
    “He likes you,” Bay said with a shrug. “Don’t ask me why. He makes up his own mind, and that’s it.”
    “He is as strange as you are,” Tasmin replied, shaking his head and rubbing one of Grimm’s ears.
    “Pretty much,” Bay agreed, and he surprised her with a soft, melodious laugh that shivered pleasantly over her skin. Where had
this
guy been