Original subtitles

I was seven when a skinny, shivering girl showed up on our doorstep in the

rain.

My parents took her in and adopted her as my big sister.

But she wasn't a normal girl.

A week later, I caught her sucking the family dog dry.

That's when she told me she was a vampire.

I've had insomnia my whole life, so every night I ask Jade to use her powers

to put me to sleep.

Last night, I fell asleep on my own before she came.

We used to be best friends.

I was the only one she told her secrets to.

Now she treats the servants better than she treats me.

Tonight she comes home from a meeting with the Vampire Council, the elders who

rule her kind.

But instead of storming in angry like usual, she's crying. I've never heard

Jade cry.

I want to comfort her. But the second my hand touches her shoulder, she spins

around with her super speed and husses at me.

Fang's bared. Stop begging for my attention, Wendy. You're making

everything worse.

Jade, I just... She slaps me before I can finish. Tears sting my eyes. And

before I can explain that I only wanted to help, she pulls out her phone and

makes a call like I'm not even there. I go back to my room and cry until I'm too

tired to wait for her. For the first time in years, I fall asleep without

her.

My dreams are filled with memories.

Even before I learned her secret, I thought Jade was weird. She barely

talked and followed me around like a shadow.

She'd stand in the corner of my room and watch me sleep.

But we got closer, and I was the only one she trusted. I knew a secret she'd

never told our parents or anyone at school. I always thought that's why she

kept such a close eye on me, to make sure I never told.

Then, a year ago, the night before I was supposed to fly overseas to study

abroad,

I came home to find my parents dead and pale.

Jade stood over them, covered in all the blood that should have been in their

bodies.

That night, I helped her cover it up.

Their inheritance says that as long as she takes care of me, the family fortune

is hers.

So now she's a famous model whose face is on every billboard in the city, and

she's stuck babysitting the one person who could don't work on me with a phone

call. No wonder she hates me. After all these years of her putting me under, her

powers don't work on me the way they used to. Some nights I wake up in the

dark.

Tonight, I wake up groggy. My room is pitch black and there's a weight on my

chest.

At first I think it's an animal.

Then a hand runs down my chest and goosebumps rise on my skin. I only know

one person with skin this cold.

Jade can see in the dark, so I barely squint one eye open.

She's straddling my lap.

She kisses my cheek, right where she cut me.

Then she sniffles.

Is my mean older sister crying because she hurt me?

She traces a sharp nail down my lips, my chin, all the way to my neck.

You didn't wait for me, Wendy.

You don't need your big sister anymore.

Have you outgrown me?

Her mouth finds mine.

My heart slams so hard I'm sure she can hear it.

She kisses my jaw, then my throat.

No. I won't let you. You'll always need me.

Always. Her fangs pierce my neck.

First it hurts, and then pleasure floods in.

I've never felt anything like it.

I sink into the bed, my eyes falling shut, but she doesn't notice.

She's too focused on drinking big, greedy mouthfuls of my blood.

When she's had her fill, she licks the punctures, and I feel them close under

her tongue.

Does she do this every night? Every time I ask her to put me to sleep, she takes

my blood as payment.

You ruined me.

Anyone else's blood tastes rotten now, only my mate's is sweet.

Mate?

She curls around me, holding on like I might disappear.

This is the only way a monster like me gets to keep you.

All this time.

She pushed me away because she thought she didn't deserve me.

Now I go to bed early every night and pretend to be asleep long before she

comes in. She doesn't need to pull me under anymore, so she stays longer and

presses her soft body against mine. She bites my shoulder, my wrist, the inside

of my thigh, then heals every mark before dawn.

By morning, there's no proof at all, except that I can't stop thinking about

it. At breakfast, Jade's chair is always empty. She leaves orders for the chef to

make me an iron-rich breakfast with big glasses of orange juice and to make sure

I finish it all. It's everything you're supposed to eat after giving blood.

She licked every wound away, but I still remember getting them. I daydream about

them so much that Josh, my co-worker at the company where we both intern,

notices. At lunch, he won't let it go. It's the lack of sleep that makes me say

it. But once I open my mouth, true or dietered, I'm telling him everything.

So your sister isn't just Jade, the famous model?

She's a sexy vampire who treats you like her pet?

It's the girl-on-girl action of my dreams.

And she called you her mate?

Like, soulmate?

She didn't mean it, even if I wish she did.

That's impossible.

I'm just her personal blood bank.

She doesn't care about me.

If she doesn't care, then let's put it to the test.

Josh is waiting outside the club he invited me to when I get out of the

taxi. A few of us interns are going to a club to celebrate closing a big deal.

Besides, Jade likes knowing where I am at all times.

She says she can't keep me safe if I'm not home.

It's why she bought the mansion and filled it with everything I could want.

So I'd never need to leave.

After two shots, the floor tilts.

Josh nods toward a man and a woman at the bar who've been watching me all

night.

Here's the test.

Go home smelling like that couple.

If Jade doesn't care, she won't notice.

The question isn't whether she'll notice.

Jade can smell a drop of blood from across a city.

It's whether she'll care.

And that's why I go.

Not to prove Josh wrong.

But to prove myself wrong.

They're an older couple, and aren't afraid to let me know how much they want

me. The woman is beautiful, and she runs a finger down my jaw.

The man is handsome and presses his chest into my back.

I feel flattered by them feeling me up.

but nothing else.

When I pull out my phone to take her number, I see it's been on silent all

night. My eyes go wide.

Hundreds of messages and missed calls, all from Jade.

But it's the notification at the top that makes my heart stop.

Jade has requested your location.

Then the music stops. It doesn't fade out. It cuts off mid-beat, like someone

pulled the plug.

A dancer is stuck mid-spin. The woman's eyes are completely blank.

And the man's chest doesn't draw another breath. I look up. Jade is across the

room, scowling, her eyes flashing red.

I don't move.

I don't have to because suddenly she's right beside me.

Jade shoves the man back so that it's her breasts I feel against my back

instead and look at the woman frozen against my jaw.

She takes the woman's wrist, lifts it to her nose, and breathes in and growled.

Their stench is all over you.

I'll leave.

Just let them go.

She tilts her head like I've told a joke.

Okay.

Suddenly, everything is in motion again. And even though she left without saying

anything, I know it's my job to follow. I gulp and chase after her.

But someone yanks me back by my belt. It's the couple from earlier.

You wouldn't leave us without a kiss goodbye, right?

You're like a cute little stray.

Come home with us. We'll take good care of you.

I pull away without saying a word.

Jade is leaning against her limo, arms crossed, glaring down at me from her

high heels.

Get in.

You want me in there?

She never lets me ride with her.

She just glares, so I scramble in.

She slams the door and tells the driver to go as fast as he can.

The ride home is silent.

She keeps a hand over her nose and my cheeks burn at home.

I'm sober but sick to my stomach.

She doesn't listen to my apologies and uses her powers to send me to bed.

I pretend it works on me and go.

I lie there, shaking.

The last time Jade's eyes went that red, our parents ended up on the kitchen

floor. I thought I was safe because she needed me. But a mate who strays might

be worse to her than no mate at all.

The door creaks open.

Red eyes shine in the darkness.

I'm quick to close my eyes and go limp, acting like I'm asleep, just in time for

Jade to superspeed to the edge of my bed. She doesn't stand over me for long.

She jumps on my back and pins me down like a predator attacking its prey.

Immediately, this feels different than all the other time. She isn't holding

herself back.

She's as feral as she was the night I found her hovering over our parents'

bodies. It's not like you to be so disobedient.

Wendy, is it that boy from your job? Is he a bad influence on my sweet girl?

She buries her fingers in my hair, and I'm only barely able to hold back my

yelp as she yanks it out of her way. I feel her hot breath on the nape of my

neck as she pants, breathing me in. She licks as a stripe up the knobs of my

spine, and I squeeze my thighs together.

Or did you do it to spite me? I guess I really have spoiled you, haven't I?

Maybe you're not spoiled enough.

Is that it? Have I been neglecting my Wendy?

Her hands grip my hips hard enough to bruise, before I'm suddenly flipped onto

my back.

Luckily, she's too wrapped up in my body to notice my gasp. Well, it worked. You

have your big sister's attention now.

She's mumbling things into my skin, like she's gone mad but I can't hear them,

over the sound of my heartbeat as she kisses her way down my body.

Down my breasts and stomach.

Kissing and nipping me but never sinking her fangs in like I crave. When she

settles between my thighs and finally bites me.

I have no control over the Mao I let out. She stops drinking, freezing in

place. Then I feel her smile against my thigh. You're here just in time for

dinner.

What do I do? My cheeks flush in embarrassment from getting caught, but I

keep my eyes closed.

I don't want her to stop. I like this Jade too much to go back to the cruel

one that hates me. Nothing to say?

It's rude to ignore someone when they're talking to you, you know?

She wraps my legs around her waist and leans forward until her lips brush mine.

I guess I'm the rude one. I shouldn't play with my food, shouldn't eat with my

mouth open either.

She kisses me again and again.

I taste the sharp iron of my blood in her mouth, and knowing a part Nereid of

me is in her makes my chest heave.

I tried to be good, Wendy, but you make it so easy to be naughty.

She nips at my jaw where that woman had touched me, and I whip her.

My mate throwing herself at strangers?

Do I need to show you?

that you belong to me my first instinct is to scream yes but i hold back i can't

tell how much i want it i can't let her know just how much i'm enjoying this all

of her attention on me just like it used to be but now in an adult way that makes

me tingle wherever her skin brushes mine she chuckles i can smell how badly you

want it you want what only your mate can give you

She's right. I'm wetter than I've ever been before, and she hasn't even touched

me, where I need her the most.

She takes my jaw into her cold hand and forces my pliant mouth open. She kisses

me sloppy and open-mouthed, mixing my own blood with both of our spip and

smearing it all over. A drop of bloody drool trails down my chin, and she

chases it with her tongue. She licks into my panting mouth. I moan when her

fangs scratch my tongue, and she sucks up the blood that beads to the surface.

I'm so warm, I feel like I've been lit on fire, Jade's touch.

A match lit by my desire?

Jade does everything in her power to get me to open my eyes. And when that

doesn't happen, no matter where she licks, kisses, or rubs, she settles on

getting me to make the most noise as possible.

My body feels more hers than mine. I spend that night exactly where I want to

be. In the palm of her hand. Hers to caress, bait, and claim.

Arching when she curls her fingers.

Flushing when she calls my tears cute. She brings out something wild in me I

never knew existed. Nearly as feral as she is. Bucking and screeching and

shivering like a wild horse.

just how to tame.

When she has her fill of my blood and body, Jade settles beside me and pulls

me so close I know she'd lock me in her ribcage if she could. I'm sweaty and

pleasantly sore, covered in fluids of all kinds.

I can't be bothered with my messy sheets or any thoughts of a shower when Jade is

so soft against me and she's being so sweet, petting my hair as she clings to

me, peering like a cat that got the cream.

Every part of you belongs to me.

I don't care how many times I have to prove it.

Your body understands, even if your little head doesn't.

I'm too dazed to even think about that for long, though a small sliver of doubt

works its way between us. How will we possibly go back to how we were before?

Her hating me and me, the burden of a little sister she inherited and never

wanted. I don't think I can handle the cold of being treated like nothing now

that I know just how warm Jade's love is.

Tomorrow, this sweet, cuddly Jade will be gone and she'll look right through

me. She's been living a double life, two different people by day and by night. No

wonder she's so wild, but she makes me wild too.

I wake up with the sun blinding me through my window. For a second, I think

it was all a dream.

A wonderful, very realistic dream that's left me wet between the thighs.

That's when the soreness sets in.

Jade didn't hold anything back last night, and I can feel it.

I stand in front of the full-length mirror to scope out the damage, and I

can't believe my eyes.

Dozens of fang marks litter my body.

and there are bruises in the shape of her dainty hands on my hips.

Jade always heals any wounds she makes, leaving no evidence behind.

It always made me feel crazy being sore and having nothing to show for it, but

not this time. Is this a part of my punishment?

For going out without telling her? For letting myself be flirted with and

touched by that couple? Or is this more than that? Jade staking her claim on me

in a way that can't be ignored.

I hope it's the latter.

When I go to the kitchen, I pause.

Shocked. All of the curtains are pulled closed and Jade is here.

Not only is she here, she's in a pretty pink baby doll nightie.

Feet up and crossed on the table.

The chef brings out food and sets it on the table right next to her instead of

across from her.

Well, don't just stand there, sleepyhead.

I went through a lot of effort telling the chef what to make.

If I wore you out too much, I can feed you.

Is this the same Jade? She's different from usual.

Different from last night.

I sit down, yelling when she pulls my chair closer to her.

While I like her doting on me, it's confusing.

Why is she doing this?

Jade tears a strawberry in half and holds it to my lips.

Open. I do, because my brain has stopped working.

She feeds me, bite after bite.

wiping juice from my chin with her thumb, watching me like I'm the most

interesting thing she's ever seen.

The Jade I know doesn't sit at this table. She doesn't touch me in daylight.

She definitely doesn't wear pink.

I have to know if last night meant anything.

Jade.

About last night.

Her eyes snap to mine, dark and waiting. I panic. I slept straight through it.

Didn't even dream.

For a second, She's perfectly still.

Then she smiles.

Slow and wicked.

And swipes a dot of cream from the corner of my mouth.

She licks it off her finger without looking away from me. Funny. I slept

through it too.

Vampires don't sleep.

Heat floods my face so fast I feel dizzy.

She knows.

She knows I was awake.

And she's letting me pretend.

And somehow that's worse.

I'm going to be late for work. I shove my chair back so hard it screeches.

You haven't finished your juice.

I grab the glass, chug it, and slam it down.

She laughs.

A real laugh.

I haven't heard since we were kids.

I run upstairs and throw on the first outfit I find.

In the mirror, the bites on my neck stare back at me.

And I have to dig through three drawers for a turtleneck.

It's the middle of summer.

When I come back down, she's waiting at the door with my bag.

Have a good day, Wendy.

She leans in close.

Behave.

At work, something is wrong with me. At my desk, a wave of hunger hits me so

hard my mouth waters.

Not for food. For something warm and red. Ten minutes later, I'm hit with a

flash and snap of jealousy so sharp I snap my pencil in half and nobody is

even talking to me.

None of these feelings are mine.

At lunch, I drag Josh into the stairwell and pull my turtleneck down.

His eyes go wide at the bites.

I think Jade went crazy last night.

And now I'm going crazy too.

I keep feeling things.

Hungry.

Jealous. Like someone else is inside my head.

Josh is already typing on his phone. He's been reading vampire forums ever

since I told him. Here, the mate bond.

After a vampire claims her mate, they start feeling each other's emotions,

even miles apart.

He scrolls, and his grin gets wider.

Oh, this is good. The bond only forms if the feelings go both ways.

My face burns.

That's a forum.

Written by teenagers.

It's working, isn't it?

Wendy, you're not crazy.

You're in love with her.

And she's sitting at home right now, jealous of me.

I throw my stress ball at his head.

He catches it, laughing.

And right at that moment, a warm, smug feeling blooms in my chest.

It isn't mine either.

Somewhere across the city, my sister is laughing too.

Jade can't go out in the sun.

I always thought that meant my days belonged to me.

She's proving me wrong.

The barista hands me my coffee, and her pipples flicker red. No cream today.

Miss Jade says you need iron.

In the lobby, A guy from accounting holds the elevator for me.

Before I can step in, the security guard plants himself between us, eyes glitting

red, and says flatly, Take the next one, ma'am.

When the delivery man's fingers brush mine, every bite under my turtleneck

flashes ice cold at once.

I'm starting to understand.

A vampire's thrall doesn't just put people to sleep. It can make them

listen.

Make them watch.

And Jade has spent who knows how long turning everyone around me into her

eyes. On my walk back from lunch, a golden retriever bounces up to me, tail

wagging. Then it sniffs my hand and freezes.

It whimpers, tucks its tail, and bolts.

I smell like her.

Every animal in the city must be able to tell that I belong to something with

fangs. I should be terrified.

A normal person would quit their job and run.

Instead, warmth flutters in my chest.

For years, I thought Jade didn't even know where my office was.

Now she's watching me through a dozen pairs of eyes.

The barista across the street looks up with red eyes, smiles, and waves.

If she's going to spy on me, I'm going to make it hard for her. I order the

garlic shrimp pasta for lunch.

Double garlic.

Garlic bread on the side.

The barista's red eyes flicker when I walk past and she steps back, nose

wrinkling. Through the bond, I feel Jade's sulk.

Good.

I'm halfway through my plate when Josh goes quiet. His fork stops.

When he looks up, his eyes are red.

Are you angry with me, Wendy?

It's Josh's mouth, but it's Jade's voice, soft and almost scared.

Then it's gone.

Josh blinks, grabs the edge of the table, and stares at me.

What just happened?

Was that her?

Was she in my head?

I'm so sorry.

He takes a long drink of water. Then, being Josh, he grins.

Okay. Real question.

If she asked you to give up the sun, your future, your whole human life, to

stay with her, would you?

Yes. I say, before I can think.

Josh sits back like he won a bet.

I knew it. You're just as bad as she is. I've watched you be in love with her

since freshman year, Wendy.

I just never said anything.

Not after what happened with Celeste.

My stomach drops.

I haven't heard that name in three years.

The night I turned 18, something changed in my sister's eyes.

I cut my finger slicing my birthday cake.

Just a nick.

But Jade went still across the table, and her eyes flooded red.

She didn't look at me like a sister.

She looked at me like she was starving.

Then she left the room without a word.

After that, I couldn't stop thinking about that look.

I wanted it again.

So I chased it.

I'd prick my finger on a sewing needle before she came in to put me to sleep.

I'd wear my hair up so she could see my neck.

I'd pass her in the hallway, right after a hot shower, when I knew my blood ran

closest to my skin.

Every time, her eyes went red.

And every time, she walked away.

I kept a list in the back of my journal.

Every single time her eyes changed, when she looked at me.

I read it like a love letter.

She bit her lip until it bled when I hugged her.

She broke a door handle when I said goodnight.

I told myself those meant she loved me.

Looking back, I wasn't hopeful.

I was delusional.

I thought she was fighting how much she wanted me.

I didn't know yet that she was fighting how much she wanted to hurt... me.

And when someone else showed up and started getting that look instead, I

lost my mind.

Her name was Celeste.

She was a vampire, like Jade.

Beautiful in a cold, ancient way, with silver hair down to her waist.

She started visiting at night, three years ago, after Jade moved her coffin

to the cellar.

I watched them through the cellar door.

Celeste would bare her throat, and Jade would drink from her, slow and gentle.

For vampires,

Feeding from each other is the most intimate thing there is.

Jade never drank from me like that.

So one night, when Jade was out, I waited for Celeste at the front door.

Every vampire story has the same rule.

A vampire can't enter a home unless someone who lives there invites her in.

And what a resident gives, a resident can take back.

Celeste smiled at me.

and stepped toward the door.

You're not welcome in this house anymore.

Something invisible shammed into her.

She flew backward off the porch and landed in the rose bushes.

When she tried to come back, her hand hit the doorway like it was a wall of

glass.

She stared at me with pure hatred.

Then she was gone.

Jade waited by the door for her for weeks.

She never knew.

It was me.

Josh is the only one I ever told.

He didn't judge me.

He just looked worried.

Now I understand why.

I didn't protect my sister.

I stole her girlfriend from her.

After Celeste stopped coming, Jade stopped feeding.

She wouldn't touch the blood bags.

Her skin went gray. Her cheeks hollowed.

One night I found her in the kitchen, shaking, gripping the counter so hard

the marble cracked.

I thought I could fix it.

I thought this was my chance.

I took the kitchen knife, cut my wrist, and held it out to her.

Drink. Please.

Take mine.

Her eyes went blood red.

For one second she leaned in, and her breath brushed my skin. Then she threw

herself backwards so hard she hit the wall.

She was down the cellar stairs before I could blink, and I heard the lock click.

She didn't come out for three days.

I disgusted her. I'd offered her the most intimate thing a human can give,

and she'd run from it, so I made myself a promise. She was my big sister, and

that was all she'd ever be.

I tried to make up for it.

I found a secret donor forum and interviewed women at our kitchen table.

I wrote down their blood types and checked their health records.

I wanted Jade to have someone who would feed her and love her the way Celeste

had.

I left the list on her coffin. The next morning, I found it in the fireplace,

burned to ash.

Now, three years later, she won't stop chasing me. Why?

And I'm terrified to find out why.

Jade is outside my office before the sun has even fully set.

The sky is still orange.

She's standing under a black lace parasol.

Wrist. But the light catches her wrist, and her skin starts to smoke.

She doesn't even flitch.

She's burning just to pick me up.

Paparazzi swarm around her.

Fans scream her name and shove phones in her face.

Someone holds up a poster of her latest campaign.

She doesn't see any of them. She's looking at the doors. When I step out,

her whole face changes.

She smiles, bright and real, and walks straight work through the crowd like it

isn't there.

She laces her fingers through mine.

Her hand is still hot from the sun. The flashes go crazy.

Jade, who's the girl?

Are you two together?

Jade's thumb strokes the back of my hand.

For a moment, I swear, she's about to say yes. Then I feel it. The bond goes

silent. She's shut me out.

This is my little sister. The crowd coos. Everyone thinks it's sweet.

I keep smiling, but inside, I feel like I've been dropped from a great height.

She could have said anything.

Instead, she closed the door between us. So I couldn't lurk holes, so I couldn't

feel, to couldn't feel what she really meant. In the limo, she reaches for me

again.

I pull my hand away and stare out the window.

Her burnt wrist is already healing. My chest isn't.

At home, I don't say a word to her. Jade tries everything.

She fills my room with black roses.

She plays the piano in the hall.

The song she used to play when I couldn't sleep as a kid.

Finally, she kneels on the floor in front of me and rests her cheek on my

knee.

Talk to me.

Please.

I go upstairs and... Lock my door. Locks can't stop her, but she respects it.

That night, she doesn't come. At first, I'm relieved.

Then, around midnight, the bites start to itch.

By one, the itch turns into an ache.

By two, my hands are shaking, and I'm drenched in sweat.

Every mark she's ever left on me throbs like it's calling her.

Josh's forum said, a vampire's bite?

is addictive.

I thought that was a joke.

It isn't.

I can't stand it anymore.

I stumble down the cellar stairs in my nightgown.

Candles flicker around her coffin and the lid is closed.

I knock on it.

Jade.

She says nothing.

Don't you want to come to my room anymore?

I can't sleep.

I can't stop shaking.

Please.

I need you to bite me.

The coffin lid slides open without a sound.

Jade sits up.

And her red eyes take in my shaking hands and the sweat on my neck. She

doesn't say a word.

She just lifts me into her arms and carries me back upstairs.

In my bed, she takes only a tiny sip from my wrist.

Just enough.

The shaking stops instantly, and warmth floods through me.

My eyes fall shut.

I'm not asleep, but she thinks I am. She lies down behind me and wraps around me

like she's afraid I'll vanish.

I'm sorry.

She whispers.

I was never cruel because I hated you.

I was cruel because every time you came near me, I wanted to drain you dry.

And I wanted to kiss you while I did it.

Her voice shakes.

I was afraid you'd find out what a monster I am.

Then you'd run.

Her arms tighten.

You tried to, once.

When you were going to fly across the ocean.

A broken laugh.

I'd already bought an apartment across from your dorm.

Blackout curtains.

I was going to... follow you.

I lie very still.

I always thought that flight was...

My last chance to escape.

The sister I could never have.

She was going to come after me the whole time.

I won't make you choose me.

Jade swispers into my hair.

Date someone.

Love someone else.

Someone with a heartbeat.

Who can stand in the sun with you and grow old with you.

Shh. Her voice breaks.

That's what you deserve.

Not a dead thing.

that has to drink you to feel alive.

Something wet falls on my shoulder.

It's pink.

Vampires cry blood.

Just don't push me out of your life.

As long as I can stay near you, I'll be happy.

I'll be your sister.

I'll never touch you like this again.

My heart is shattering.

She has it all wrong.

I don't want the sun.

I've only ever wanted her.

I'd trade every sunrise I have left for one more night like last night.

But if I turn around now, she'll know I heard everything.

Let me hold you one last time.

She whispers.

Then I'll let you go.

She presses her lips to the back of my neck.

Then she goes completely still.

Wendy. I hold my breath.

Sleeping hearts beat slow.

Yours is racing.

Her lips curve against my skin.

It's been racing every night for weeks.

My eyes fly open.

I've always known when you were awake.

I just didn't think you'd want me to know.

She's always known.

Every night I lay there pretending, and she let me.

She thought I stayed silent because I was disgusted.

She thought I was letting her do it out of fear.

I'm sorry.

She whispers.

I'll go back to the cellar.

You won't have to pretend anymore.

Her arms start to slip away.

The thought of her never climbing into my bed again makes my eyes burn.

Something in me snaps.

I roll over, shove her flat on her back, and climb on top of her, the way she

always does to me.

Her red eyes go wide.

I lean down and kiss her.

Then I bite her bottom lip.

hard enough to break the skin.

Her blood hits my tongue, cold and sweet.

Suddenly, I'm drowning in her. Her memories pour into me, flashing like

film. Me at seven on the porch, holding out my hand.

Me at eighteen, cutting my birthday cake.

Me asleep in a hundred different nights, and her watching from the corner,

aching. Every single one says the same thing.

Mine. Mine.

Mine.

I pull back, gasping.

Her blood is on my lips.

Jade stares up at me like she's never seen me before.

You think I'll let you give up on us that easily?

I wipe the blood from my mouth with my thumb.

Jade flips me onto my back so fast the room spins.

She hovers over me, her hair falling around us like a curtain.

Her eyes are shining.

Say it.

She whispers.

I need to hear you say it.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

Three years of hiding it, and now my voice won't work.

Jade doesn't push.

She lowers her head and rests her ear against my chest, right over my heart.

Then let this answer for you. Her voice is barely a breath.

Wendy, do you love me?

My heart leaps. It slams against my ribs so hard she must feel it in her teeth.

She lifts her head.

She's laughing and crying at the same time, pink tears running down her

cheeks. Never lied to me once.

She kisses my palm, then my wrist, right over my pulse, then the cut on my cheek

she left that night on the stairs.

I love you, she whispers. I love you, my mate.

For the first time, The bond between us is wide open.

Her love pours into me until I can't tell which feelings are hers and which

are mine. I finally find my voice.

I love you too, big sister.

My name is Jade. I'm a vampire.

And I fell in love with the human girl whose family took me in. She has no idea

how close she came to dying in my arms. When a vampire's mate comes of age, her

blood changes. It starts to sing.

Every other drop in the world turns rancid, and hers becomes the only thing

you can taste.

Wendy started singing on her 18th birthday when she cut her finger on the

cake knife. I left the table before I tore her throat out.

I went up to the roof and waited for the sunrise. I let it burn me until I was

screaming, because pain was the only thing louder than her heartbeat.

From that day on, I kept my distance.

Every brush of her skin made me want to sink my teeth in and never stop.

If she ever found out, she'd look at me like I was a monster.

So I let her think I'd turned cold. Putting her to sleep was the only time I

let myself near her. My powers never hurt her. They just gave her rest and

gave me a few hours to hold her and taste her without her flinching. Then

the council...

summoned me a vampire with a human mate has two choices turn her or give her up

i couldn't force this life on her and i couldn't let her go that's why i came

home crying a year ago our parents found out what i am mom came home early and

caught me in the kitchen with a blood bag between my teeth i'd imagine that

moment a thousand times i always pictured it going the way it went with

wendy a little shock then a hand held out to me instead Mom screamed.

Dad grabbed a kitchen knife and pointed it at the girl he'd tucked into bed for

years. What are you?

What did you do with our daughter?

Like I had stolen myself from them. Like the child they raised was never real.

That's when I understood.

They never loved me. They loved the quiet, grateful girl from the doorstep.

The only person who had ever seen all of me and stayed was Wendy.

The hurt turned into rage so fast I didn't feel it happen.

When it was over, they were on the floor, and I was covered in everything

that should have been inside them. I want to say I regret it. I don't.

Then the front door opened.

Wendy. I waited for her to scream, to run, to finally look at me the way they

had. She dropped her bags, rolled up her sleeves, and asked me where we kept the

bleach. She scrubbed that floor beside me until sunrise.

That was the night I knew I would love her until the world ended. It was also

the night I learned what I'm capable of when I'm hurt.

If I could do that to the people who raised me, what could I do to her one

day? So I pushed her away harder than ever.

I can't follow Wendy into the daylight.

So, I make the daylight work for me.

One look into the barista's eye, one into the security guard's. The doorman,

the receptionist, the man who sells her newspaper.

Now they all watch her for me.

And they never remember doing it.

A man from accounting started bringing her coffee one night.

I paid him a visit and looked into his eye.

He transferred to another city the next week.

He doesn't remember why.

He doesn't remember her name.

Then one night, every one of my eyes went dark.

She'd turned her phone off and gone somewhere none of them could follow.

I found her by her heartbeat. I could pick it out across the whole city.

In the club, I watched that couple put their hands all over her, and I heard

her heart speed up.

Not for me.

I could have drained them both before she even blinked.

So I froze the room instead.

I let the couple walk out because Wendy was watching. That's when I knew pushing

her away wasn't keeping her safe.

It was only making me hungrier.

That night, I stopped holding back and she reached for me. She said my name.

The next night, while she slept, I went back for that couple. No one has seen

them since. I swore I'd never hurt Wendy. I never promised anything about

anyone else.

I wake up in the dark, wrapped in silk sheets that aren't mine.

Candles flicker on stone walls.

I'm in the cellar, in Jade's bed.

I've knocked on her coffin and left lists on its lid, but she's never once

let me sleep down here.

She's lying beside me, chin propped in her hand, watching me.

Good evening, mate.

My face burns.

Don't call me that.

I yank a pillow over my face.

She laughs.

Wendy, I can hear your blood rushing to your cheeks.

Hiding won't help.

Then stop listening.

I can't.

You're too loud.

I feel her lean in close, her lips right against the blanket by my ear.

Or would you rather I...

Call you little sister.

The words send a shiver all the way down my spine.

Get out.

I need to get dressed.

I see perfectly in the dark, Wendy.

I've already seen everything.

I groan into the pillow, and she laughs again, warm and happy.

She kisses the top of my head through the blanket.

Then she climbs the stairs and opens the cellar door.

Morning light pours down the steps, stopping just short of her bare feet.

Breakfast is up there, she says, stepping back into the shadows.

I'll be right here when the sun goes down.

For years, the dark was the only place I could have her.

Now it's where she's waiting.

For me.

Three years later, there's a blood moon.

It only rises once every three years.

Jade tells me that's when vampires make promises that can never be broken.

She takes me to the vampire council for the first time.

Their mansion sits in the woods outside the city, and pale faces watch us from

every shadow as we walk the long stone hall.

The elders who rule her kind.

I hold her hand tighter.

She leads me up a spiral staircase to a balcony open to the sky.

The moon hangs huge and red above the trees, washing everything in crimson.

The council gave me a choice once.

Jade says quietly.

She turns to face me.

It's...

Yours. Below us, the whole council has gathered in the courtyard, looking up.

Jade kneels on the stone in front of me.

She rolls back her sleeve and holds out her bare wrist, pale in the red

moonlight.

Wendy.

You've given me your blood every night.

Now I want to give you mine.

Her voice trembles.

Let me turn you.

Stay with me forever

Yes

The word isn't even out of my mouth before the courtyard below

erupts Jade pulls me into her arms and kisses me Then she tilts my head gently

the way she has a thousand times and sinks her fangs into my neck This time

she doesn't stop

My heart slows.

The red moon blurs.

I'm not afraid.

I've fallen asleep in her arms, more times than I can count.

The last thing I feel is her wrist pressed to my lips, and her blood on my

tongue. Then nothing.

When I open my eyes, the world is impossibly sharp.

I can see every leaf on every tree.

I can hear every heartbeat in the courtyard.

Every heartbeat except mine.

The hunger hits me like a wave.

Jade is already there, holding her wrist to my mouth.

And for the first time, I drink from her.

Her memories flood me again.

This time, they're all of tonight.

The oldest elder climbs the staircase and opens a huge leather book.

In it are the names of every vampire mate for a thousand years.

She writes my name in red ink, right beside Jade's.

It's done, she says.

No one can ever part you.

The girl I've loved my whole life.

And I say it for the first time.

I love you, my mate.

Six months after I'm turned, Jade and I are walking home in the rain when I hear

it.

Two tiny heartbeats, fast and frightened, coming from an alley.

We find them behind a dumpster.

Twins, maybe five years old.

Dirty, skinny, shivering.

A dead rat lies between them, and their mouths are red to the chin.

The little girl sees us and bursts into tears.

We're sorry, we didn't mean to.

We were just so hungry.

Please don't tell anyone.

We're monsters.

They think they're human.

They think wrong.

Something is wrong with them.

Jade goes completely still.

I know exactly what she's seeing.

A skinny, shivering girl on a doorstep.

In the rain.

I kneel in the puddle beside her.

We look at each other.

And at the same time, we smile wide and let our fangs show.

The twins stop crying.

Their mouths fall open.

You're not monsters, Jade says softly.

You're just like us.

The boy crawls into my arms.

The girl reaches for Jade.

And my big, scary sister melts.

At home, Jade warms blood bags and pours them into baby bottles.

The twins drink until they fall asleep on the couch, curled together.

Did you see her hold my finger?

Jade whispers.

She has my eyes.

She doesn't, but she does.

He snores.

I'm grinning so hard my face hurts.

Our son snores.

Our son.

She says it like a prayer.

We need a nursery.

Blackout curtains.

Tiny coffins.

Do they make tiny coffins?

I laugh and kiss her.

Then Jade stands in the corner, watching them sleep.