The following days went about as well as Vail could have hoped. The only visitors to his room were the servants, who brought fresh meals for Victoria; the doctor, who stopped by once per day to assess her condition; and his father, who only checked in on them in the hopes of sending the Crest heiress away as soon as possible. Among the guests, the latter was the most unpleasant. Peter had become less explicitly vocal about his dislike of their unorthodox relationship, but he still made a point to remind them that as soon as she was on her feet, he would be returning her to her own family, and Vail would be expected to begin his courtship with the [i]vampire[/i]—the subtle emphasis was always applied when the clan leader spoke of Sylvia—without any further delays.

Such encounters were the only times Vail woke during the daylight hours. The rest of the time, he slept by Victoria’s side, entangled together in the warm sheets. He usually rested when the sun was out, but as the days passed, he had another reason for dozing as often as he could: It was getting harder to resist feeding on her blood. Whenever he was awake, the predatory urge to bite her plucked at his willpower, especially if he stirred while she was still asleep. There had even been one time when, finding it too difficult to stay within close proximity, he had gotten up from the bed to pace until the drive to hunt simmered back down to a manageable level. It was simply easier to be unconscious than it was to continuously fight between giving in to his instincts and adhering to the logic that draining her of her blood yet again would only cause her to relapse.

Each night when he as active, he honored his word to Victoria that he would look for information on the turning ritual. For an hour or so after the rest of his family had retired to their rooms, he snuck down to the Hygrace archives and rifled through the journals and tomes in search of any mention of the method his ancestors had used to create new vampires out of humans. Afraid of leaving her alone for too long—he didn’t want to cause another repeat of the Caleb incident—it took three days before he finally stumbled upon a book that contained written records that described something called transmutation. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to skim the contents before the sound of footsteps outside the archive had prompted him to hastily shove the tome back into its place and return to his bedroom to make sure none of his relatives had taken advantage of his absence.

Now, on the fourth night, he was eager to finish what he’d started.

Sitting across from Victoria with a chess board in between them, Vail watched her decide on her next move. His elbow was resting on the arm of his chair and his cheek was propped languidly in his hand. It was already dusk, but some of the other Hygraces took longer to fall asleep than others, so they were biding their time with a game. His hazel eyes tracked her hand as she took his pawn with her knight, silent as he tried to calculate her strategy. If he had invested more years in the art of chess, he could have become a grand master at the game. However, having only picked it up again recently after decades of disinterest, he still had trouble predicting every move his opponent would make. It seemed like he was holding his own so far though. She hadn’t put his king in checkmate yet.

Lifting his gaze from the board, he caught sight of the smirk on her lips and paused. He was sure now that she could see something he didn’t. The only question was whether or not he could find it before she backed him into a corner. He leaned forward to study the setup of the pieces from above, idly chewing on the inside of his lip until he spotted the vulnerability. However, instead of correcting it by moving his king to a safer square, he offensively pushed a rook forward to put her king in check, hoping to change the board state into something more advantageous for himself rather than give in to her upper hand.

“Check,” he vocalized as per the rules, his eyes flicking up to her face again. His father had stopped by earlier that day and declared that now that she was feeling better, she would have to go back to the Crest manor the next morning. He would have sent her away sooner if Vail hadn’t argued that it was unsafe for her to walk home alone after dark when she could barely carry herself without assistance. The delay had earned them one more night together before their inevitable parting, but he wished she could have stayed indefinitely. He had enjoyed having her around and didn’t look forward to being pushed to court another woman before he could figure out how to turn her from human to vampire.

“That tome I found last night,” he mused, thinking about it again as he leaned back in his armchair. His family’s potential approval hinged on whether or not he could perform the old ritual, so it weighed heavily on his mind. “I’ll bring it back here once everyone is asleep, so we can read it together. I want you to know what you’re getting into before you make any final decisions.”