THE DAY I SLAYED MY VAMPIRE LOVER
The patient’s chest rose once more—deeper this time—and then grew still.
Not dead. Merely… paused.
Cattleya looked down at the now-closed wound. Only the faintest silver scar remained, like a signature left behind.
When she looked up again, the man in black was watching her with something dangerously close to fascination.
“You should be careful,” he said quietly. “Some questions bleed when they are answered.”
Cattleya met his eyes without hesitation. “And some answers,” she replied, “refuse to stay buried.”
For the first time in her rigorously trained life as a medical student, as a priest’s daughter, as someone who believed understanding death was the highest form of mercy, Cattleya Vermont