Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Vladdict Merchandise

Modern Day (set before Renie and Jason's weddings)

I stood in one of Belle Morte's two art rooms, studying the almost-finished pencil sketch that someone had left on an easel. The sketch was of Ysanne, and whichever donor had drawn it had perfectly captured Ysanne's haughty visage and cool stare. I wondered if I could commission them to make a sketch of Edmond.

My eyes strayed from the sketch and across to the shelves that ran around the room. Carefully positioned on one of those shelves was a small clay bowl, and to anyone else, it would have looked like a pretty poor effort. But to me it was beautiful, because June had made it, back when she was a donor, before Etienne had turned her into a monster.

I couldn't bring myself to keep it in my bedroom, but I couldn't bear to part with it either, so it lived here in the art room, along with all the projects that current donors were busy with.

Jason came into the room, his phone held to his chest, his eyes sparkling. "I need to show you something," he said.

"Okay."

"So, I was looking for some socks with Gideon on them –"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted.

"Socks," Jason repeated.

"You were looking for socks with your fiancé's face on them?"

"Yeah."

We stared at each other.

"Why?" I said.

"To see if they existed," Jason replied.

"But . . . why were you looking in the first place? That's so random."

Jason's face cleared. "Ohhhh, wait, you need context."

"That would be good, yes."

"Okay, so you know how I asked my followers to tag me anytime they found the weirdest, tackiest vampire merchandise, and today someone sent me a link to a U.S website that's selling socks and T-shirts with the most famous vampires on them."

"The most famous American vampires?" I checked.

"Yeah. I wanted to see if there was a UK equivalent."

"Because you need socks with Gideon's face on them," I said, my lips twitching.

"Because I want to see his face when I wear them."

"Did you find any?"

"Not yet," Jason said, practically vibrating with excitement. "But I did find this."

He brandished his phone at my face, and I automatically took a step back. I looked at the screen and my eyes widened. "Is this real?"

"Oh yes. And available for the low price of £39.99. A bargain, if you ask me," Jason said.

My fiancé, Edmond Dantès, stared back at me from the screen. Or rather, a life-size cardboard cut-out of him stared back at me. It looked like it had been taken from a photo of him at some ball or another – he was dressed in black velvet, with his shirt open at the neck to show off a pale triangle of chest, and his inky hair tumbling around his shoulders. His eyes were red, but the colour was slightly off, and I suspected that was a photo effect that someone had added in.

"Why is this a thing?" I asked.

"Because Edmond is hot as hell, and there's a market for people who will buy literally anything vampire-related."

"Did anyone else get a cut-out?" I asked.

"Not that I could find, but that could change." Jason's whole face lit up. "I wonder if they take requests." He turned his phone around. "I'm going to email them."