I was about to ask why the fuck I would ever want to change her, but then the infirmary door opened. As I’d anticipated, Ava’s eyes glistened with misery. She walked right into my open arms, and I locked them tight around her.

“The bastards need to die.” Her voice was shaky, but her words were strong.

I nodded. “They will.”

“Each and every one of them,” vowed Sam. She then related everything that Rosa had said, making both Jared and I curse repeatedly. “Stephan’s going to be hunted, just like the clients and suppliers.”

“Do you think it’s possible that the other survivors were sold by their Sires?” I asked.

Sam ground her teeth. “Yes. If so, their Sires die too.”

By the time Ava and I got back to my – no, our – apartment, she had pulled herself together. The woman had a spine of steel. But thanks to the frustrating and, to be honest, slightly confusing conversation I’d had with Jared, I wasn’t in the best mood.

Still, after some time with Ava, who never failed to amuse me – which was an achievement in and of itself – my mood had been close to improving, despite that the colour theme of my apartment was now black and pink. And despite that I had weird princess cushions on my sofa, which I naturally had every intention of getting rid of somehow.

Then Will, Blythe, and Gina had to go and fuck up my recovering mood by appearing on the doorstep.

“What do you want?”

The huge smile on Will’s face didn’t falter at my unwelcoming tone, but irritation rippled down our blood-link. “I know things ended badly between us, Salem. But let us mend the rift. After all, we’re going to be neighbours now.”

“Who is it?” Ava appeared, all smiles. Remembering her upset expression at the beach party, I reflexively shifted her ever so slightly behind me but without obstructing her view. Blythe noticed the protective move and quickly turned to Ava. “Do you think we could forget what happened at the party and start afresh?”

Ava, the image of perkiness, nodded. “Well of course.” Her voice sort of…tinkled, like a bell. “We’re practically family.”

What? But then I saw that her beaming smile hadn’t quite reached her eyes.

The ‘we’re practically family’ comment pulled a low hiss from Gina.

Blythe suggested, “Let’s start over, Ava. I’m Blythe, Will’s mate.”

“I’m Ava. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” And she sounded so sincere, I almost believed it.

“And you remember Gina.”

Ava’s expression softened…like Gina was an injured animal. “I know it must be hard for you to see Salem with someone else. I don’t blame you for being jealous. After all, he’s pretty fabulous.”

I tensed as Gina’s face morphed into a deadly glare. She went to say something but was quickly silenced by a sharp look from Blythe.

Will released a long sigh, looking very pleased with the situation. “Now that that’s all over and done with, maybe we could all go inside and talk.”

We could…but I didn’t want to invite them inside mine and Ava’s apartment. I didn’t want them in our personal space, and I didn’t trust them around Ava, especially Gina.

Ava must have sensed my struggle, because she proposed, “How about we all go have dinner together at the new Italian restaurant? Have you guys eaten yet?”

Blythe smiled winningly. “That would be lovely.”

So we edged around the man-made beach as we made our way to the restaurant, passing stores, cafés, bars, other restaurants, the bowling alley and nightclub. Ava, her hand in mine, was practically skipping – a bundle of unlimited energy. She chatted non-stop about absolutely nothing… ‘That store over there sells the best shoes. I love shoes. Especially stilettos. My favourite pair are red. Isn’t red a great colour? It’s not my favourite colour, though. My favourite’s yellow. Or maybe blue. Hey, isn’t the water a gorgeous blue?’ On and on it went.

When she wasn’t talking, she was humming. Or singing totally off-key, getting the lyrics mixed up. Will, Blythe, and Gina no doubt believed she was kooky and whimsical. But I knew exactly what Ava was doing. Still upset about what happened at the party, she was getting some payback.

Who needed to argue and exchange insults when you could just annoy the hell out of someone by being overly friendly and bubbly? Only Ava could have pulled it off.

Finally inside the restaurant, I sat beside Ava, which placed Will, Blythe, and Gina opposite us. Gina was glaring hard at Ava, playing on every protective instinct I had. I shot her a ‘back the fuck off’ look, which she returned with a self-satisfied smile.

“Ooh, this looks good,” Ava practically purred when the server set her ravioli in front of her. She shot him a grateful look that had him grinning at her like an idiot. So I growled at him. That got him moving. Ava just rolled her eyes at me. Humming, she then picked off what looked to me like little green leaves from her ravioli and put them on a napkin. Realising that Will was looking at her oddly, she said by way of explanation, “They’re green.”

I probably should have found it weird that she refused to eat anything green for no apparent reason, but I strangely found her little quirks kind of endearing.

Blythe took a bite of her pasta before speaking. “You must have impressed your Grand High Pair in the try-outs to earn a spot in the legion, Ava.” It was a prompt for information. Clearly they hadn’t watched the ascension over V-Tube. Sam had announced that she was forming an all-female squad and that Ava – among others – would be given a place.

Ignoring the prompt, Ava gave her a shy smile.

“I’m assuming you have a substantial gift.” It was another prompt. But I knew that Ava wouldn’t reveal her gift to someone she didn’t trust. The knowledge could be used against her; if a vampire ever decided to come at her and knew what her gift was, they would know that she needed bodily contact to harm them. As such, they would know to keep their distance and attack her from afar.

Gina sneered. “Being a Sventé, I can’t see that being possible. No offense, child, but vampires of your breed” – said with scorn – “tend to have defensive gifts.”

Ava didn’t seem in the least bit offended, but I knew any slight on her breed would gall her. I was also betting that being referred to as ‘child’ would annoy her. To a vampire as old as Gina, though, that was exactly what Ava was – something young, weak, and vulnerable.