Page 51 of Don't Bite the Botanist
He was wrong.
That wasn’t what he saw on her face at all. Instead of amusement or disbelief he saw… fear?
She closed the distance between them and took his hand in hers. “Ethan, I tried to tell you…”
“No,” he interrupted, shaking his head.
It wasn’t possible. This was another bad dream. Another nightmare. He’d fallen asleep somehow, and he just needed to wake up.
Come on, wake up, he shouted inside his head, scanning the surroundings for something to latch onto. Something out of place that could confirm it was just a dream. It had to be.
Only nothing had changed. The breeze still rustled the trees. The church, with its windows shuttered and paint peeling, still loomed behind them. The remnants of Tressa’s ice cream lay a few yards off, a shiny pop of fluorescent pink amongst gray gravel. He could still smell the bubblegum scent, though he wasn’t sure if it was the melted dessert or the smell of Tressa herself.
Tressa.Who was looking at him with such pity in her eyes as her thumb stroked the back of his hand.
It wasn’t cold. There was no chill to her skin, not like a dead thing should have. Her body was warm and soft. Like a human. She had to be human. There was no fucking way she was a…
“No,” he said again, his brain unable to lock onto any other word. He couldn’t believe it. Hewouldn’tbelieve it. He just needed to wake the hell up.
WAKE UP!
But he didn’t. Because he was already awake, his nightmare made reality.
Tressa gripped him tighter and opened her mouth to speak, but he ripped his hand from her before she could say anything. He backedaway so fast he tripped over his own feet and landed on his ass, staring up at the woman he’d thought was so incredible just seconds ago. The woman he almost abandoned his mission for. The woman he could have seen himself falling in love with.
Only she wasn’t a woman.
She was a vampire.
A monster.
Chapter twenty-nine
Tressa
Something inside Tressa broke when she saw the expression on Ethan’s face. The way he looked up at her as if she was truly one of the irredeemable monsters he believed her kind to be. As if she was no better than the rogue who had butchered his best friend.
Ethan shook his head. “No. It’s not possible.”
Tressa took another step toward him, and he scrambled away from her, cutting his hands on the sharp stones of the gravel lot.
Tressa’s fangs pushed at her gums when she caught the coppery scent, but a sharp intake of air drew both their attention to the rogue who was now eyeing Ethan like he was a four-course meal.
Ethan brought his palms up, and Tressa watched the blood from his cuts ooze down his hands to land on the gravel.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
His head jerked up to look at her, but Tressa kept her face calm, stoic, and she forced her fangs to stay hidden. It took all her willpower because Ethan smelled so very,very, good, but she couldn’t let him seeher lose control.
I’m not like Renata,Tressa thought.I can restrain myself. Please Ethan, see that we are different.
His expression dropped from pure terror to something more like extreme wariness the longer he stared at her, and Tressa remained perfectly still, waiting.
Renata, on the other hand, prowled toward them, her eyes fixated on the drops of blood. “I’ve been all over this Lilith forsaken state looking for you, Ethan. And I have not eaten in days. It seems only fair that you fix the problem you caused.”
