Chapter 4Blood Lies and Cherry Pies

I had to test him.

The next morning, I took a blood bag and camped out by the basement door. Right on schedule, Ethan emerged, wrapped in a cloud of cold air.

He was wearing a dark red silk robe, open at the chest, his slightly-too-long hair tied back. He looked every bit the part of the decadent, moody vampire.

No wonder I never questioned it. In my head, this is what vampires are supposed to look like.

He saw me crouched by the door and jumped. "Cici! What are you doing, planting yourself on the floor?"

I leaped up and threw myself into his freezing arms. "Ethan, you've suffered so much!"

He stumbled back, almost hitting the door. "What? What's wrong?" He patted my head. "Did someone bully you?"

I looked at his lips, which were genuinely pale from the cold, and my heart ached. "Ethan, I know everything. You don't have to—"

Before I could finish, Arthur, our housekeeper, hurried over. "Mr. Ethan, he is here to see you..."

I shivered.

Ethan's "nemesis" was here.