I didn’t enjoy myself. My eyes kept wandering over the crowd, looking for a long black coat and listening for a familiar drawl. The tension caused the urge for a cigarette to loom larger and larger in my mind, until finally I decided to sneak outside for a smoke.

The faeries wouldn’t have cared if I smoked indoors. I could’ve smoked an entire pack like a virtual chimney in the middle of the room and it wouldn’t have fazed them. Faeries are immune to disease, so they had no worries of cancer from secondhand smoke. But I’m used to living in a world where smokers are right up there on the popularity list with lepers and felons, so when I feel the need to light up I find somewhere to hide. Excusing myself, I slipped out of the ballroom and then outside into the courtyard.

The moon hung high above in the night sky, and I took a moment to stop and stare. There aren’t as many stars in my neighborhood, where the constant light from the city drowns them out. My first night in Faerie I spent hours just staring up, mesmerized by the sight of all those stars and how large and bright the moon was. The moon is important to me and my magic. It’s the second tarot card I wear tucked in the band of my top hat, the planet that rules my sign of the zodiac, Cancer. Now it was a bright, shiny reminder that the full moon was approaching, and the time left before the third test was running out.

Ducking into a shadowed archway, I dug my pack out of my tiny handbag and grabbed a cigarette. My hands shook from the cold as I reached for my lighter and fumbled with it. This was the replacement for the one that had exploded in my hand, and I hadn’t broken it in yet. I have a love/hate relationship with my lighters: I love to smoke, they hate to light. The long gloves weren’t helping matters either.

“Sure you’re allowed to use one of those after what happened last time?”

I glanced up to spot Lex as he wandered toward me across the courtyard. Under his long black coat he wore a black button-down shirt tucked into black slacks. He would have blended right in to the darkness if the moonlight hadn’t been so strong. I gave him a dry look as I continued to fight with the lighter, and then the flame finally caught, allowing me to light my cigarette.

“We’re safe as long as no vamps try to jump us,” I assured him after I took a long drag.

“Then I guess there’s nothin’ to worry about. Didn’t your fairy godmother think to give you a coat?” He slipped his duster off and draped it over my shoulders. The coat was heavy, and I resisted the urge to poke through it and search for hidden pockets and concealed weapons.

“No, and she’ll freak out if she sees me in something that doesn’t match this outfit.”

“You look beautiful.”

“It’s not bad.” I brushed self-consciously at my gown. “Though I think I’m going to buy Portia a set of Barbies so she’ll play dress up with someone else next time.”

We stood together in strained silence for several moments as I smoked my cigarette, and then he finally spoke up again. “Smoking is bad for you, you know.”

“I know. I tried to quit. A few times. Besides, trying to become Titania’s been bad for me too, and yet I signed up for that.”

“You’ll be good at it.”

“Should I live that long, I suppose,” I replied, trying to sound flippant about my imminent demise.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” The sincerity in his gaze sent a tingle down my spine, and I nodded.

“I know you won’t. I’m a big girl though, I can take care of myself. More or less.” Trailing off, I itched at the side of my throat with my free hand, remembering the sharp slice of fangs piercing my skin. “Lex, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what would happen.”

“You should’ve left Simon’s lair when I asked you to.” He scowled and pointed an accusing finger at me for emphasis.

“My problem, my responsibility.” I exhaled a long stream of smoke in his direction, and he waved it away in annoyance.

“It was my idea to bring you there, the payment was mine to make.”

My face turned nine shades of red as I blushed, and I was thankful for the concealing darkness of night to hide it. I ground out the cig under my ridiculously impractical high-heeled shoe and immediately lit up another smoke. “So it’s okay if the big, bad vampire molests you but not me? Forgive me if I’m not convinced by that.”

“He wouldn’t have done that to me. I’d already agreed on terms with him.”

I blinked, not understanding. “Wouldn’t have done what to you?”

Lex sighed, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s my fault, what he did to you-I should’ve been more careful in namin’ conditions, but I never thought you’d volunteer to be bitten. Vampires-and chroniclers-can vary the pain or pleasure in their bite. Simon wouldn’t’ve made me experience what you did, because he’s not attracted to men, so I didn’t think to mention it when I agreed on the price. He bespelled you in order to hurt me. I’m sorry. You’re right, I should’ve told you what the price was.”

“Wait a second, he did it to hurt you?” I blurted in disbelief. “I’m the one who got molested, how did that hurt you?”

Stepping away from his spot in the doorway, Lex moved toward me, almost pinning me against the wall. He snatched the half-finished second cigarette out of my hand and flicked it out into the middle of the courtyard. Frozen and wide-eyed, I stared up at him, and he placed a gentle hand upon my cheek and ran his thumb across my lips.

“It did,” he said, his voice low and strained. “What happened to you was my fault. Just like…it was my fault you were attacked that night. I should’ve been there. I was going to stop by the café, drive you home, but I got a call. If I’d been there, I could’ve done something.”

My heart sank-I’d never thought of it that way. “Lex, it wasn’t your fault. You know my neighborhood, it could’ve happened at any time. You couldn’t be there all the time.”

“I wanted to be.”

Swallowing nervously, I struggled for something to say as I tried to decipher his expression, but my thought process ended when Lex kissed me.

I closed my eyes as he drew me into his arms. One of Lex’s hands slid up my back beneath his borrowed coat, while the other tangled in the upswept mass of curls Portia had styled my hair into. My hands rested against his chest as he pressed me close to him, and I moaned low in my throat. Lex made a noise in response that sounded surprisingly like a growl, and it startled me enough that I pulled away from him.

“Catherine,” he whispered against my ear. As he trailed kisses down the side of my throat it triggered a sudden flashback to the sensations of being bitten, and I tensed in reflex. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, misreading my reaction.

“For what? Kissing me? Don’t apologize for that. I’m still a li’l annoyed about the macho ‘I should’ve fed the vampire’ thing, but the kissing I won’t complain about.”

Encouraged by my words, he grinned and then kissed me again, long and thorough, until I was so intoxicated by the feeling that it made me weak in the knees, and I had to tighten my grip on the front of his shirt to steady myself. With my gown and my high-heeled shoes I felt a bit like a girl who’d snuck away from the prom in order to make out with the school bad boy under the bleachers.

Oblivious to everything but Lex, I lost track of time. I’m not sure how long we stood there in the archway.

“Is your room close?” Lex asked when we pulled away from each other.

“Fairly.”

“How ’bout you give me a tour?”

“I suppose I could arrange that.”

Taking Lex’s hand, I led him through the castle to my bedroom, doing my best to appear calm and collected on the way there. When we arrived Lex shut the door behind us and glanced around the room. “Nice. Bigger than mine.”

“The benefits of being family.” I set my evening bag down on the dressing table. My heart beat wildly, though I knew there was no good reason for it-I wasn’t a virgin, this wasn’t our first time. “I believe this is yours.” Slipping the coat off, I held it out to him, and he grinned as he took it and nonchalantly tossed it to the side. The coat landed on the floor with a muffled thunk, and I laughed, shaking my head in amusement.