Cassidy
"He's a vampire."
I blinked. My thoughts scrambled for context, some kind of grounding—anything that would make this feel less surreal.
Celeste was staring at me like I might fall over.
I didn't.
But I did slowly repeat, "A vampire?"
She nodded quickly, wide-eyed. "Yeah."
I blinked again. "Well… that's, um… that's interesting. Who is he?"
Her mouth opened, then closed, like the name itself was heavy.
Then she said it. "Orion."
That tickled something in my memory.
"Orion," I echoed. "That sounds… familiar."
Celeste inhaled like she was bracing herself, then added, "Orion Draeven."
I shot to my feet like the mattress had caught fire.
"The Blood Keeper?!"
"Shhh!" she hissed, lunging across the bed and yanking me back down by my wrist. "You wanna alert the whole house?!"
My voice was barely above a whisper. "Are you serious? The Orion Draeven? The vampire leader who's basically your brother's political equivalent?!"
She nodded miserably.
