Silent Night: Vampire Holiday Romance (The Night Songs Collection Book 4) by Kristen Strassel Page A
Authors: Kristen Strassel
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much, but I didn’t want to live his lie. Why couldn’t I have picked up a book by any other author? God knows there were enough of them. Then I could be snuggled up, reading, looking forward to two lazy, carefree days in this warm house instead of wondering what the hell I was going to do next.
Since sleep was more of a fantasy at this point than Aidan’s made-up life, I picked the book back up.
“We’re going to be together forever, my darling,” I explained to Talis when her eyelids fluttered, the first sign of the afterlife. I could have watched her sleep forever. “You don’t have to work at the brothel anymore. I’m going to take care of you.”
“No!” she protested. “The girls. They need me.”
Her body came off the bed in a lithe fluid motion, graceful like a ballerina. Someone should have trained her to dance. The only thing that had changed about her were her eyes. No longer blue, they were now black and angry. She bared her newly formed fangs at me, not realizing that I was her ally, and her creator. We were bound together for eternity. Right now, she didn’t care about any of those things. She needed to feed. I’d explain later that the blood was erotic. Right now, I’d let it be a wonderful homecoming. I held her as she sunk her teeth into my neck. The little explosion made my mind melt.
“That’s enough,” I whispered and pulled her away. “It’s emotion that fuels us, not blood.”
“But I like the blood.” She wouldn’t understand the difference yet, but it was no surprise that she would be fueled by lust.
“We all do, my darling. We all do.”
I read the scene over and over, feeling guiltier every time. Just like David with Talis, Aidan was trying to save me from my rotten life. And just like Talis did to David, I insisted on attacking him. Sure, the solution wasn’t perfect, but it was better than what I had.
Then why did Aidan have to leave Marielle? Maybe happily ever after was just too good to be true.
Nine
Icicles clung to the window outside the bedroom for dear life. Last night’s mist had turned to snow in the early hours. I knelt on the window seat, trying to will myself to leave.
Aidan would be down for the count for hours still, so I could stay in bed a while longer and still make my statement.
Was it bad I hoped he got me coffee again? I could swear I smelled it. Even the floorboards groaned with the cold, so I tiptoed past Aidan’s bedroom into the kitchen. I stopped short when instead of a Styrofoam cup, I was greeted by a brewed pot attached to a coffeemaker that hadn’t been in here before.
He wanted me to stay.
But why? Here was this nice looking guy, with a great house, and a job, and he wanted to woo me? I was fourteen years younger than him and had absolutely nothing going on but a job at a panty store. And I’d just been placed on written warning there.
He’d bought cream, too, which was almost better than the coffee maker. Those little plastic creamer tubs could ruin the best cup of coffee. I leaned against the counter, savoring every sip.
Aidan was hiding something, but that wasn’t my concern. I was my concern. And today was the perfect day to start digging myself out of this hole.
Bringing a fresh cup of coffee back to the bedroom, I pulled the covers back over me and started searching for a job.
Scrolling through retail job listings on my phone, I felt my anxiety bubble just under the surface. All of these jobs sounded awful.
It’s not that I didn’t want to work, just the opposite. But all of these miserable listings demanded passion and flexibility but promised none of that in return. Anything that actually paid required for more experience than I had to offer. Or a college education. I didn’t have one of those, either.
I just wanted to do something that mattered. I didn’t care about sales goals. The world wasn’t going to end if someone didn’t buy matching panties to go with their bra. I wanted to help
Since sleep was more of a fantasy at this point than Aidan’s made-up life, I picked the book back up.
“We’re going to be together forever, my darling,” I explained to Talis when her eyelids fluttered, the first sign of the afterlife. I could have watched her sleep forever. “You don’t have to work at the brothel anymore. I’m going to take care of you.”
“No!” she protested. “The girls. They need me.”
Her body came off the bed in a lithe fluid motion, graceful like a ballerina. Someone should have trained her to dance. The only thing that had changed about her were her eyes. No longer blue, they were now black and angry. She bared her newly formed fangs at me, not realizing that I was her ally, and her creator. We were bound together for eternity. Right now, she didn’t care about any of those things. She needed to feed. I’d explain later that the blood was erotic. Right now, I’d let it be a wonderful homecoming. I held her as she sunk her teeth into my neck. The little explosion made my mind melt.
“That’s enough,” I whispered and pulled her away. “It’s emotion that fuels us, not blood.”
“But I like the blood.” She wouldn’t understand the difference yet, but it was no surprise that she would be fueled by lust.
“We all do, my darling. We all do.”
I read the scene over and over, feeling guiltier every time. Just like David with Talis, Aidan was trying to save me from my rotten life. And just like Talis did to David, I insisted on attacking him. Sure, the solution wasn’t perfect, but it was better than what I had.
Then why did Aidan have to leave Marielle? Maybe happily ever after was just too good to be true.
Nine
Icicles clung to the window outside the bedroom for dear life. Last night’s mist had turned to snow in the early hours. I knelt on the window seat, trying to will myself to leave.
Aidan would be down for the count for hours still, so I could stay in bed a while longer and still make my statement.
Was it bad I hoped he got me coffee again? I could swear I smelled it. Even the floorboards groaned with the cold, so I tiptoed past Aidan’s bedroom into the kitchen. I stopped short when instead of a Styrofoam cup, I was greeted by a brewed pot attached to a coffeemaker that hadn’t been in here before.
He wanted me to stay.
But why? Here was this nice looking guy, with a great house, and a job, and he wanted to woo me? I was fourteen years younger than him and had absolutely nothing going on but a job at a panty store. And I’d just been placed on written warning there.
He’d bought cream, too, which was almost better than the coffee maker. Those little plastic creamer tubs could ruin the best cup of coffee. I leaned against the counter, savoring every sip.
Aidan was hiding something, but that wasn’t my concern. I was my concern. And today was the perfect day to start digging myself out of this hole.
Bringing a fresh cup of coffee back to the bedroom, I pulled the covers back over me and started searching for a job.
Scrolling through retail job listings on my phone, I felt my anxiety bubble just under the surface. All of these jobs sounded awful.
It’s not that I didn’t want to work, just the opposite. But all of these miserable listings demanded passion and flexibility but promised none of that in return. Anything that actually paid required for more experience than I had to offer. Or a college education. I didn’t have one of those, either.
I just wanted to do something that mattered. I didn’t care about sales goals. The world wasn’t going to end if someone didn’t buy matching panties to go with their bra. I wanted to help
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