"Don't call me by my name
All of this is temporary
Watch as I slip away for your sake
All of this is temporary
Well, maybe I could hold you in the dark
You won't even notice me depart
Secondhand thread in a secondhand bed
With a second man's head
Leavin' through the door without a word
You won't even notice, little bird
Better off dead, so I reckon I'm headed to Hell instead
So don't wait for me, don't wait for me
It's not a happy ending
Don't wait for me, don't wait for me
It's not a happy ending..."
"Bells in Santa Fe", Halsey
*****
"Valentina...that's not normal." Steve sighed, running his hand through his perfectly fluffed brown hair. Robin let out a sigh from the ground between him and Valentina where she laid on her back, sprawled out like a starfish.
"I know. I'm not saying it's normal. It's just...it's a lot." Valentina said, her eyes burning holes into the ceiling above her bed.
Steve paced around the room, massaging the bridge of his nose and while keeping his other hand on his hip. "And this was all over that guy?"
"The bartender?" Robin asked.
Valentina started shaking her head in disagreement. "No, it was over the other guy."
"The one that brought you home?" Robin asked, tilting her head up and a little to the side towards Valentina on the bed.
"The one that you...kissed." Steve looked at Valentina suspiciously. She could swear she heard a snort of laughter coming from the tree by the bedroom window.
It had been one night since Theo punched Kas in the face and to work through it all in her head, Valentina called the only friends she had. She didn't tell them about the forest based dry humping and instead labeled what happened as, a kiss. She knew it was a poor representation of what actually happened, but it got the idea across.
"I just feel so awful about it." Valentina groaned and buried her face into her palms.
"Why?" Steve raised an eyebrow. "Theo's probably been cheating on you since you got here."
"Because he's my fiancé Steve!" Valentina shot up and glared at him from the bed. "That means something to me!"
"Clearly he doesn't feel the same way." Steve scoffed. He'd met Theo once, earlier that day when he arrived with Robin. From their three minute encounter he could tell that Theo was a real shithead.
"I feel like we're grossly overlooking the fact that he got in your face and screamed at you." Robin quipped.
"Yeah, that was fucked up too. More so even." Steve scowled at the closed bedroom door like it at any second it would transform into Theo himself. Thankfully Theo wasn't even home, he was at work, and Steve and Robin had the day off.
"At least Kent was there to stand up for you." Robin sighed hopefully, grateful that there was an additional layer of defense for her new friend.
Under no circumstances was Valentina ever going to give her friends Kas's real name. In a panic, she renamed him Kent.
Could you have picked douchier name for me? Jesus.
Kas's sarcastic voice in Valentina's brain no longer came as a shock. She didn't even react. She only responded, Sorry, it was a heat of the moment decision. I wasn't going to sell you out to my friends.
You really need to find better friends.
Valentina sighed, doing her best not to draw attention to herself as Steve went around the room pacing while Robin stayed on the ground and tossed a pair of wadded up socks up in the air that she found under the bed when she laid down. Valentina had grabbed brunch with her friends and now they were holding up in her room.
"Are you going to leave Theo?" Robin asked gently, knowing that even with everything that was going on, Valentina had been with him for a long time. It was an understandably difficult decision. Well. Not to Steve.
"Of course you're leaving him. You can't stick around with someone who thinks they can scream at you like that." Steve said without realizing how condescending he sounded. His words bit with a finality as if his opinion was the only one that mattered.
Valentina and Robin both rolled their eyes at each other. They knew Steve meant well, but he could sometimes rival an overprotective father sending his teenage daughter on her first date with some guy who had a face tattoo when it came to trying to keep them safe.
"It's not that simple." Valentina sighed back. She had a lot to consider.
Admittedly, it was a bad fight. And while she might not have have slept with Kas, she was being dishonest. Theo's suspicions weren't entirely off base. But Valentina knew she was probably just rationalizing everything that happened. So much had happened within the week. Her brain was overflowing and unclear.
Immediately after the fight after Theo dragged her up to their room, nothing happened. Their house phone rang and Theo got distracted and then just sort of left Valentina on her own. To cry, mostly.
Kas watched over her after he got done speaking with Amelia, but after Valentina fell asleep he decided to head back to the Upside Down. Since then, he'd spent the morning following Valentina and her friends around, and now it was the afternoon and he found himself laying on his bed, watching the world through Valentina's eyes...wishing he was there. But unfortunately spying from the tree by the bedroom window is difficult to do unnoticed during the day.
Day turned into night and finally once the sun started setting, Kas began his return to the real Hawkins. Valentina, Robin, and Steve had begun a movie marathon to distract Val and let her brain decompress. Amelia was up in her room doing homework.
The group later ate pizza and then Steve and Robin went on their way. In a shock to no one, Theo was working late. Kas made a mental note to follow him around the next day to finally get some concrete proof of what he was up to. But for now he was content to watch Valentina lay on her bed with a book.
Valentina grew tired of her book after only about fifteen minutes and tossed it aside with a frustrated groan. She was restless. Lonely. Bored.
She rolled on her side and clicked off the lamp on her nightstand and then stared up at the ceiling. In the dark, alone, her mind wandered. Ever since her time with Kas in the woods...that's where her mind usually drifted. Valentina slid a hand under the elastic waistband of the tiny athletic shorts she was wearing to bed and pushed her head back into her pillow.
It was dark, so Kas couldn't see as easily. He decided to get closer and crawled out farther on to the branch of the tree he'd been perched on. He slid his hands forward followed by his knee until SNAP.
The branch cracked in half unexpectedly, sending Kas plummeting to the ground in a messy heap of vampire. He didn't even have time to spread his wings. He landed on the ground with an annoyed groan and a thud.
Kas sat up and rubbed the back of his head and silently cursed the tree for keeping him from watching Val touch herself, which would have made his entire month. He wasn't sure if the tree had a personal vendetta against him, but it sure as hell felt like it.
"You again." A voice grumbled flatly. Kas snapped his head around only to see Amelia standing in front of him.
Shit.
"What are you doing here?" Amelia asked. Her eyes took in Kas's face and then drifted down to him on the ground. "And why are you on the ground?"
Kas realized quickly that since it was dark out, Amelia couldn't yet see the wings that were crumbled behind him. But if he stood up...there was no hiding them.
"Aren't you going to stand up or did that fall break all of your bones?" Amelia said looking exhaustedly down her nose at Kas, like he was holding up all of her vibrant evening plans.
In reality, those plans really were to grab some more pizza and go back up to her room to listen to music, but she got distracted when she heard what sounded like a small car fall out of the sky outside the kitchen window. Her sister didn't hear all the way up in her room, but Amelia did, and of course she had to investigate.
"Uh..." Eddie stalled.
Amelia decided she'd completed her civic duty as a human being by checking on Kas and turned her body to head inside. Facing the front door she started forward when out of the corner of her eye, she saw a weird angular shadow behind Kas. She froze and focused her attention back on him.
With her eyes squinted and her body leaning forward, she walked up to Kas, who debated trying to get away, but knew he was trapped. She'd seen him. All of him.
Kas knew the moment Amelia recognized the wings when her eyes shot open to a size rivaling the moon above them. She clasped her hands over her open mouth, looking at Kas with terror. He groaned and stood up, brushing himself off. He hissed out a sound of relief when he was finally able to stretch his wings back out, but all that did was scare Amelia more. She dropped her hands and Kas knew she was about to scream so he lunged forward and covered her mouth with his hand.
"Don't freak out!" He whisper shouted.
Amelia smacked his hands away, taking a step back, already breathing heavier. She looked at him the way someone would look at a dog standing on their hind legs, speaking perfect English to them.
"Don't freak out?!" Amelia whisper yelled. "Don't freak out?!"
Eddie dragged his hands down his face. "I can explain —"
"Explain that you're some kind of vampire?!" She interrupted him. Kas fell silent, and then another thought slammed into Amelia's mind, forcing her jaw to fall open again.
"Does Valentina know?!" Amelia looked him up and down, her chest rising and falling.
Kas raised his hands up, palms facing her in a gesture of surrender, but he made the mistake of stepping towards her at the same time. Amelia's eyes widened again and she shoved her hand down in her pocket and a flash of black and silver went rushing by Kas's head as he sidestepped whatever she'd thrown with the same ease he'd use if she'd thrown it in slow motion. He followed the object with his eyes and watched as a the tip of a knife stabbed into the trunk of the tree he'd been watching Valentina from.
"What is it with you Griffin girls and stabbing me?" Kas chuckled as he walked over and grabbed the knife, folding it in half before handing it back to Amelia.
Amelia's lips quirked up into the beginnings of a smirk. "Val tried to stab you?"
Kas shoved his hands in his pockets. "She did stab me." His tone one was that of someone recalling a fond memory.
"And you're what...her friend?" Amelia's eyebrows arched. She scoffed a little in disbelief. Her sister wasn't cool enough to be friends with a real life vampire. Or so she thought.
"I just look out for her from time to time." Kas shrugged, doing his best downplay the fact he didn't just watch out for Valentina from time to time, it was more like he never even stopped. His mind was constantly trying to figure out if she was safe or not.
For a beat, the two just stood in silence, shrouded by shadows and the darkness of night. A sparkle of intrigue sparked behind Amelia's eyes and she let her full smirk appear on her face as she looked Kas in the eyes.
"You like her."
Kas scoffed out a disagreeing breath that really only worked against him. "No. I don't like her." He knew he was probably protesting too much, but Amelia reminded him a lot of Max and that was infuriating in itself. They would have been best friends.
Amelia kept her smug expression on her face and pinned her arms across her chest. "Okay. You love her."
Kas scowled at a smirking Amelia and shook his head. "I don't love her. I just think she's hot as shit. Okay? Happy now?"
"Delighted," Amelia said full of accomplishment. She turned to head back inside and said over her shoulder, "But whatever helps you sleep at night big guy."
"Wait!" Kas got Amelia's attention without alerting the rest of the Valentina inside. Still looking shamelessly smug, Amelia spun around and looked at him.
"Can you make sure to tell Val I didn't try to kill you?" Amelia's nose wrinkled in confusion. "I don't want her thinking I'd ever try to hurt someone she cared about."
"Except for Theo?" Amelia's brows raised again. Eddie stilled.
"I'm not going to do anything to Theo. I'm not...that kind of vampire. Or whatever." Kas said, lying through his fangs. But he didn't want to alert Amelia because if he alerted Amelia that he planned on killing Theo, she'd make sure Valentina knew he's the one who did it, and he wasn't ready for that.
Amelia studied Kas for a minute and then asked, "Is that why Valentina kept you as a secret? So we don't all assume the worst and try to kill you?"
That line of thinking hadn't really crossed Kas's mind. But...it made sense. Was Valentina also trying to protect him? If she was, he didn't deserve it for one single second, but it was an intriguing thought.
"Yeah. She doesn't want me getting blamed for all the fucked up shit going on around here." Kas did his best to force a fake shudder through his body, like the growing list of grizzly deaths over the last few years was something that actually bothered him. He was pleased when Amelia seemed to buy it. He glanced down at her pocket and another thought came to mind.
"Why are you carrying around a switchblade anyways. Aren't you like thirteen?" Kas hated how much he sounded like a concerned parent.
"Fourteen." Amelia deadpanned. "And I just started carrying one. After...you know..." Stunningly out of character, Amelia cast her eyes down at her feet, shyly. But Kas knew exactly what she was talking about. It was because of Theo. She'd started carrying around a fucking knife because Theo had scared her so terribly.
"Hopefully that's not a problem for very long." Kas's hopeful tone disguised the double meaning of what he'd said.
"I think her two friends are going to convince her to leave him." Kas gestured with his head and shoulders towards the house where Valentina had been watching movies with Steve and Robin earlier.
Though, Kas really did hope Theo wouldn't be a problem for long, but that wasn't because Valentina would leave him. He knew just as much as her friends did that that was an unlikely scenario. He knew because he did have every intention of killing Theo himself, and savoring every second of it. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
"I guess you can call me Amy now if you want," Amelia said casually, even maybe a little apprehensively. "Since I guess we're friends or whatever." Kas nodded.
"I will do my best to make sure nothing happens to you or your sister." Silently, Kas added, until I take her back to Vecna.
For a split second Kas felt his chest constrict around his heart and his stomach churn uneasily. He looked at Amelia again and actually started to feel a little guilty about what he was going to do to her older sister. Not even so much because of what would ultimately happen to Val, he felt bad because of what would likely happen to Amy.
He knew how much it sucked to grow out without parents and now he was tasked with taking away the last living loving guardian Amy had. Kas tried not to think about the toll that would take on the girl standing in front of home; the girl that was bold and so sure of herself. So unique. He hoped that all of those qualities survived whatever her future held.
Amelia laughed quietly to herself and pulled Kas from his thoughts. "I can't believe I'm friends with a vampire. How metal is that?" She chuckled again, really only talking to herself. The practically nonexistent sliver of Kas's conscience ached deep inside him, and he did his best to ignore it.
Kas watched as Amy started to walk away again, but he stopped her with a question. "What are you listening to right now?" Amelia spun around instantly and grinned brightly.
"Slayer." She said proudly. Kas beamed back at her.
"You've got great taste Amy."
"So do you." Amelia said back, her eyes bouncing from Kas's to the house where her sister was and then back to Kas. He knew what she meant, but couldn't help but smirk at his own interpretation of what she meant.
He'd had a taste of Valentina's blood, and he wanted more.
*****
That night after talking to Amelia, there was still no sign of Theo. Kas flew off and checked The Hideout and looked all over town for his car, but couldn't find it. He had no idea where Theo had gone. But he had an idea.
Kas knew that the next day he'd have to follow Theo around from the start of the day to make sure he didn't miss anything. In the meantime, he checked on Amelia and she was sound asleep in her room with a Slayer tape playing quietly out of a boombox she had next to her bed.
Outside Kas positioned himself under Valentina's window and lifted himself off the ground, using his wings to hover outside her window while he silently opened it up, making sure to cast a quick betrayed glare at the tree that had let him fall earlier.
Without making a sound Eddie climbed through the bedroom window and approached Valentina's bed. As if she could sense the presence of someone in the room in her dreams, Valentina started to slowly wake up. She rolled over and saw Eddie's dark, blurry figure and rubbed sleep from her eyes with a yawn.
"Theo? Is that you?" She asked tiredly. Eddie scowled back at her for the implication he was her asshole of a fiancé.
"Try again." He growled, his jaw clenched and frustrated. Valentina's eyes burst fully open and she gasped when she saw Kas standing next to the bed.
She sat up instantly and hissed, "What are you doing here?!"
Kas shrugged, trying to remain as casual as possible, but the smell of Valentina was overwhelming his senses. She smelled of her freesia shampoo and reminded him of a garden in the spring after a thunderstorm. It had become his favorite scent. If he could bottle her scent like perfume he'd huff it like a drug addict. He already knew he was addicted to her. What was one more thing to obsess over?
"You need to leave. Theo could be back any second." Valentina said pointing at the window.
Eddie shifted his weight back and forth on his feet before plopping down on the bed and lazily responding, "Nah. I don't think I will. I think I'm going to stay right here." He flashed Valentina a mischievous grin and with the gracefulness of a cat, climbed over her and laid on his back on the bed next to her. Eddie used his wing to pull her closer until she was laying on it right at his side.
Valentina shifted uncomfortably. "Aren't I hurting you?" She looked over at her shoulder at the part of his wing she was laying on.
"Doesn't feel any different than you laying on my arm sweetheart." He said with surprising honesty.
"We shouldn't be laying together like this." Valentina said so quietly she might have really only been saying it to herself.
Kas chuckled darkly then rolled on his side and supported his head with his hand, inadvertently posing like he was trying to sell a luxury bed in a magazine. Valentina noticed and swallowed hard.
The moonlight from the window gave her a clear view of every curve and line of his aggravatingly perfect face and the cute way his messy hair did whatever the hell it wanted to. She swallowed hard again, forcing all of those thoughts into little storage containers in her mind before locking them away. Defensively Valentina yanked her blankets almost up to her neck and rolled away from Kas.
"Why?" Kas purred into her ear, sliding his hand under the blankets. Valentina felt his hand gripping her hip and then he started trailing his fingers across her stomach. Liquid heat pooled at the bottom of her abdomen. "Afraid you won't be able to keep your hands off me?"
Every muscle in Valentina's body tightened. She was a cord pulled so tight it was in danger of snapping. A soft gasp escaped her lungs and Kas felt it go straight to his dick. He was so close behind her his face was almost in her hair and all he could do was inhale her, over and over again. Valentina started to get lost in the way tingles crawled down her spine as she felt Kas's warm breath against her ear.
It only took a few more seconds for Valentina to come crashing back down to reality. Violently she ripped her body away from Kas's and tumbled out of the bed and on to the floor.
"You know what I think?" Kas thought out loud as he moved across the bed and looked over the side and down at Valentina. She just glared back at him. "I think what you're really scared of is that if you let me touch you the way I want to touch you...you're going to like it."
"Bullshit. Keep telling yourself whatever you need to keep that massive ego inflated." Valentina rolled her eyes.
"You seemed to like in the woods." Eddie smirked.
"I was under the influence of the blood drinking Kas." Valentina's eyes pierced Kas's and he could feel the sharp stab of her annoyance against his chest.
"You didn't do anything you didn't want to do." Kas retorted. Valentina had no response. She knew that even if she was heavily influenced by the connect that was made while Kas drank her blood, she didn't do anything she didn't want to do. The fear that twisted in her stomach was that maybe the fog she'd been in that day in the woods was really a breeze that blew in and uncovered the feelings she'd been trying to hide. Kas had a point.
"So what? I'm attracted to you. Big deal." Valentina looked uneasily in Kas's direction. Kas tilted his head and studied her like she was an organism under his own personal microscope. He could see in her eyes that she wasn't being totally honest. He knew she was attracted to him. He felt her in his lap. He knew. But in her eyes he saw a flash of something...more. Something that went beyond a lusty romp on the woods, and that didn't sit well with him.
"I'm not trying to steal you away from your fiancé, if that's what you're worried about." Kas did his best to create distance between he and Valentina with what he'd said.
Using his words to smother and extinguish whatever feelings Valentina was starting to develop him Kas added, "This is not some romantic thing Val. I just wanna fuck you, that's all."
For an instant Valentina looked like she'd been slapped across the face. But just as quickly she masked it, locking it away inside. Kas could feel her pulling back from him, and that both pleased him and pissed him the hell off.
"I was only trying to be your friend Kas. Nothing else." Valentina said defensively. Her words acted as a return fire against his.
"Friends can lay next to each other, you know." Kas suggested, pushing his luck and trying to change the subject. Valentina rolled her eyes again and stood up. Kas gently pulled her back on to bed just how she'd been earlier. The two laid on their backs next to each other.
"You know," Valentina began, staring at the ceiling, "you're not as scary as you make yourself out to be. You're actually pretty sweet...when you want to be."
Kas crossed his arms across his chest and chuckled. His lips pulled into a boyish smile revealing his fangs. But Valentina didn't recoil at the sight of them, if anything, she drew closer to him.
"Just so you know Val..." Kas turned his head and looked down his nose at her. Her big eyes looked darker in the moonlight and looked like melted pools of chocolate. He knew if he looked at them for too long he'd fall right in.
"Flattery works with me. But you don't have to try so hard to get in my pants. I'm already a sure thing when it comes to you." Kas's mouth rested in a lopsided smile and then he winked at her. Valentina rolled her eyes again, a response she'd become accustomed to around Kas.
"Do these cheesy lines usually work on all of the other girls?" Valentina raised an inquisitive brow back at him.
"Nope." Kas kept his eyes locked on Valentina's. "I'm usually to busy making them come with my tongue to say a whole lot of anything."
When Valentina's eyes doubled in size, satisfaction washed over Kas like he'd been doused in gasoline and was just waiting to be lit on fire. He loved shocking her speechless. She'd always look at him with her big doe eyes surprised that such words would leave his mouth.
Valentina's gaze softened and her expression melted into one of timid curiosity. "Can I ask you something?"
"If it's if I'll worship that perfect pussy with my mouth until you're screaming my name, the answer is a resounding yes." Eddie said with a cocky grin.
Kas then watched as Valentina's mouth pulled into a frown. She shifted a little next to him, and he wondered if she did that because she was getting turned on. He told himself she was and let that warmth roll over his body like ocean waves, slowly pulling him under.
"Can you be serious for even five minutes?" Valentina said exasperatedly. "I'm trying to get to know you."
"I haven't the faintest clue why you'd want to do that, but by all means. Fire away."
Valentina paused and then averted her gaze from his before slowly focusing on him again. With a great deal of trepidation, like the answer might kill her, she asked, "How did you die?"
Kas froze and then he answered cooly, "Car accident. Got pretty mangled up and bled out." A fraction of his answer was true. He did get pretty mangled up and did in fact bleed to death. But he left out the parts where two thirds of his body was eviscerated by the same demobats he know acted as the leader of and the minor detail that that this all happened in an alternate dimension.
"I'm so sorry." Valentina breathed out. Kas shrugged.
"It's not a big deal. We all die Val." It was a sharp, painful truth that rang out with more relevancy now than it ever had before. Just as he had four years ago, Valentina would die young soon too. But unlike him, she'll never see it coming. He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing yet.
"How old were you?"
"Twenty." Kas answered before he could think better of it.
"So that would make you...what — about twenty-four now?" Kas nodded in agreement.
"And then you just, woke up...as you are now?"
"You mean as a vampire?" Eddie raised his eyebrows. He wasn't sure why she was sugarcoating the truth, but it was a little amusing. Valentina nodded.
"Yup. I opened my eyes and instead of the bright light or whatever, I had fangs and wings."
"What have you been doing all this time?" Valentina asked, her fingers now drumming idly against his chest.
Run errands for a psychopathic overlord in another dimension and in my spare time I hunt down the people that wronged me and shred them into pieces and drink their blood, is what he wanted to say, but instead all he offered was, "Read. I've read hundreds of books."
The words fell from Kas's mouth with ease because they were the truth. He'd read hundreds of books since his death. They were a great distraction from the fact that he was a vampire and all his friends abandoned him.
"What's your favorite book?" Valentina asked, her eyes lingering on the hand she had on Kas's chest.
"Lord of the Rings." Kas answered without even thinking about it. "It's actually a series of three books, but I love all of them."
"Never heard of them." Valentina said casually. Kas sat up and turned and looked her dead in the eye.
"You've never heard of Lord of the Rings?" Kas was dumbfounded. Floored. Amazed even. How on earth had she not even heard of his favorite books? As if to rile him up more, Valentina just shrugged.
"What fucking rock did you crawl out from under?" Kas looked at Valentina like she had three heads.
Valentina giggled and then looked at him. "This is actually really upsetting to you, isn't it?"
"It's one of the most famous fantasy book series of all time Val!" He felt his voice get a little higher as he argued back. Valentina had the audacity to giggle again.
Kas narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "Can you even read?"
Valentina burst out laughing and the sound was almost enough to make Kas forget she hadn't even heard of his favorite books.
"Of course I can read!" Valentina said through her laughter. "I just don't generally read fantasy!"
The bed shifted a little as Kas threw himself back on it with his arms crossed against his chest. Valentina looked at him and arched a brow.
"Are you...pouting?" She tried to suck her lips into her mouth to hide the fact that she was about to explode into more laughter.
"I'm not pouting." Kas snarked back, definitely pouting.
Kas sighed and dragged his hands down his face before daring to look at Valentina again. "Jesus. Next you're going to tell me you've never heard of Metallica."
"Who?" Valentina asked, a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. Kas's jaw dropped. Valentina exploded back into the laughter she'd barely been containing.
"I'm kidding!" Valentina rasped out, clutching her chest. "Of course I've heard of them!" Eddie let out such a deep sigh of relief Valentina could feel it against her skin.
"They're a band...right?" Valentina asked, doing her best to sound clueless. To her delight, it worked.
Kas looked like someone had just told him the earth was flat. He was about to chastise her again when her laughter rang out through the room.
"I know they're a metal band Kas! Amy listens to their tapes all the time." Valentina shot Kas a gotcha look that made his heart do a weird little skip thing.
"Whatever. You get the point. I read a lot." Kas said, totally not still pouting.
"And hooked up with women," Valentina added with a teasing smirk, trying to lighten Kas up.
"Yeah," Kas finally laughed begrudgingly. "Cant forget about them."
But...Kas realized in that moment that he had actually forgotten about them. He hadn't thought about a single other woman since he first saw Valentina. He told himself it was just because she was the best looking thing he'd ever seen and not because something about her was warming up pieces inside of him that he'd thought had long gone dead and cold.
Neither Kas nor Valentina said anything for a while. Eventually Valentina started to fall asleep and as she did so, she snuggled into Kas's side.
"I feel so much safer with you here, Kas." Valentina murmured.
You really shouldn't little bird, Kas thought to himself.
Valentina laid on her side with her arm stretched across Kas's body. Kas made the mistake of looking at her. Her thick dark lashes pressed downward against her cheeks. Her pretty plump lips parted just slightly. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to touch her. Having her this close to him and not doing anything about it felt like he was snuggling a branding iron and not a beautiful woman. But Kas knew that in a matter of minutes he'd have to carefully extract himself from her bed and disappear into the night.
Kas could count on one hand how many girls he'd ever snuggled with in his life. Before dying? A whopping zero. After death? Also, still zero.
He never stuck around after fucking one of the women he drank from. He was usually clothed and out the door before they were even finished coming down for their highs. Never had he just laid with a woman. It wasn't the worst feeling in the world.
And that was a big problem.
*****
When Valentina woke up the following morning, a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring was sitting on the middle of her nightstand.
She knew exactly where it came from.