Eventually, we break apart, and stare into one another's eyes.
I take a deep breath, trying to steady my pounding heart. But every second I'm looking at him is another one less that I can protest.
"Do you want to come in?" I ask.
Indecision wars over his face, but I can tell what he's going to say, even before the words are out of his mouth.
"As much as I'd love to, the answer is no."
"Is there anything I can do to change your mind?" Is he worried about it because of what I do for a living? I doubt it. He's not said anything negative about it all night.
He chuckles. "It's not that I don't want to." He reaches out and strokes my cheek.
I close my eyes, enjoying his touch.
"But this started as a fake date, I don't want to take advantage of you."
I blink a couple of times, trying to make sense of what he's saying. On the one hand, I get it. This started as nothing more than a favour for a friend, but that doesn't mean it hasn't become more.
But I'm not going to argue with him. To do so would disrespect his decision, and I can't do that.
"Do I at least get to see you again?" Asking makes me feel like a girl with her first crush.
"I'd like that. I'll text you about it."
"Please, do."
He leans in and presses a kiss against my cheek. "Thank you for tonight, Bindi. I had a great time."
"Me too."
We stare at one another, neither of us wanting to be the first to leave.
But dawn is coming, and we both need to get inside before the sun burns us both.
"You need to go," I say after a moment. "Unless you change your mind about going inside."
He nods. "I know. I'll see you later." He hesitates for a moment, as if he's going to kiss me again, but decides better of it.
I watch as he disappears down the street. I wish things could end differently, but hopefully, I'll get to spend more time with him and we can change the way things stand.
When he's well out of sight, I turn and make my way back into the Black Fan.
"Ah, good, you're back," Lady Catherine says. "I was starting to get worried."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was as late as it is."
She must want to put the shutters down. They keep us safe from the sun, and anyone that can take advantage of our weakness.
"It's okay. We've all been there. Did you have a good time?"
"Is it weird to say yes?"
She'll understand. She's noble herself, even if she's disgraced. She knows what the balls are like.
"Not at all. The Yuletide ball was always my favourite."
"Maybe we should do a similar event here?" I suggest.
"I'll think about it. But you should rest, it's been a long night."
"I will. Thank you."
She smiles, then turns away to sort out the shutters.
I make my way into the next room, hearing the tell-tale whirs and clicks of the metal sliding into place.
Once I'm back in my room, I shut the door and lean against it. My fingers land on the snowflake necklace around my neck, and a small smile spreads over my face. Tonight was nothing like I expected it to be, and I'm glad of it. I hope Julian is too.
And I hope I get to see him again. There's so much more fun we can have if we spend more time together, and perhaps there's something real there too. I guess only time will tell on that front.
Luckily, we're vampires. Time is something we have plenty of.
THE END
Thank you for reading First Oath, I hope you enjoyed the glimpse into Julian and Bindi's story. There's more to come for the two of them in Bite Of The Oath, when they revisit their pact to be in a fake relationship: http://books2read.com/biteoftheoath
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You can find more from the Black Fan below, or you can sign up to my newsletter by grabbing a copy of First Bite: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/mbn2tga74s
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Bite Of The Past
Bite Of The Truth
Bite Of The Oath
More coming soon…
Drop Of Blood is also set in the City Of Blood.
About Laura Greenwood
Laura is a USA Today Bestselling Author of paranormal, fantasy, and urban fantasy romance (though she can occasionally be found writing contemporary romance). When she's not writing, she drinks a lot of tea, tries to resist French macarons, and works towards a diploma in Egyptology. She lives in the UK, where most of her books are set.
Join Laura Online
www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk
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The Paranormal Council Reader Group
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Read More of Laura’s Vampire Books
The Black Fan Series
The City Of Blood Series
The Ashryn Barker Trilogy
The Grimalkin Academy: Stakes Series
The Carnival Of Blades Series
The Vampire Detective Series, written with Arizona Tape
Tales Of Clan Robbins Series, written with L.A. Boruff
Hell’s Silver Bells
A Blaize Silver Story
Margo Bond Collins
About Hell’s Silver Bells
Monster-hunter Blaize Silver and her new companion Wolf follow her curse to a small town in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, where the deep snow hides a deadly secret.
Hell’s Silver Bells
“I guess we’d better head out if we’re going to make Tucson by Christmas, huh?”
Wolf’s ears perked up and he tilted his head as he gazed at me with his almost-white eyes. Then he lifted one shoulder in a shrug and jumped into the passenger seat of my van to stare out the window.
Sometimes I forgot that Wolf wasn’t a dog. He wasn’t a pet. Hell, he wasn’t even really a wolf.
He was a werewolf.
At least, that’s what I assumed. I’d never actually seen him change from a wolf into either a person or even a wolfman—that hybrid shape that looks so ridiculous in movies and is abso-fucking-lutely terrifying in reality.
But Wolf turned up to fight with me—and my cousin Grace—against the last werewolf pack we defeated together. And then he showed up again a little while later when the demon who cursed my family attacked us.
Grace died during that battle. If Wolf hadn’t been there to urge me away from her body, I would’ve had to answer to human authorities for her death. So I trusted him. Maybe even more than I should.
I took one last look across the Canadian border in Sweet Grass, Montana. That’s what I’d driven up here for in the first place—to stare across the border that so many other people found permeable, the one that, when I tried to cross it, hit me like a brick wall.