I rolled over and sat facing him.
He did the same, one knee bent and his arm draped over it. “You don’t heal?”
“I don’t heal as quickly as a Vampire, and drinking blood doesn’t seem to help. Niko’s going to find out if I can heal like a Mage. If not, then I guess you’ve found my biggest weakness of all.”
“How did you get the bruise?”
“Don’t pretend like you care. Let’s just finish the test and get this over with.”
When I started to get up, he caught my wrist.
“Neither of us is leaving this room until I know the truth. Now you can rabbit on and pretend to be a fairy princess with thewoe is meroutine, or you can answer my question.”
“Three nights ago—”
“The night we met?”
“Yes. Can I finish? Three nights ago, I went to a human club to clean up in the bathroom. It’s a new place, and business was slow. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why I get more privacy there than in a Breed club. Anyhow, after I washed up and soaked my dress, I was sitting in a stall trying to figure out where I wanted to go. Two men came in, and I overheard a conversation I wasn’t supposed to.”
“They weren’t human, were they?” he asked rhetorically. “Did they gang up on you?”
“No, just one of them. I would have finished him off, but someone walked in, so I had to cover my tracks and bail.”
“And now you have someone who knows who you are.”
I stood up and raked my fingers through my hair. “Yes, and I’m sure he’s dreaming of all the different ways he wants to kill me if we ever run into each other again.”
Christian surged to his feet. “Weren’t you armed?”
“Lesson learned on letting my guard down. Thanks for the reminder.”
He advanced, forcing me to step back. “How far did he go?”
I kept walking backward until my shoulder blades touched the wall.
When he zeroed in on my eyes, I looked down to avoid him charming me.
His voice became low and dangerous. “How far did he go?”
“It was a hell of a fight, but I can take care of myself. I knocked him out and lived to see another day. What more do you want? Life on the streets isn’t easy, so I don’t need your sympathy or chivalry.”
“Darlin’, you don’t get my sympathy until you’ve spent a decade buried in a pine box.”
I blinked in surprise. “That seriously happened to you?” I struggled to kill the laughter rising in my throat. “Sorry, I just thought that Vampire burials were an urban legend.”
He flashed me a look of irritation and branched away. I’d heard stories that in the old days, Vampires were buried as a form of punishment.
“No, seriously,” I said, following behind. “What did you do to entertain yourself? Sing songs? Recite Shakespeare?”
“I bet it’s a big fecking joke,” he said, waving his arms. “Go ahead and laugh it up. See if I have any remorse should it happen to you.”
“I’ll just pulse my Mage energy in Morse code for help.”
He turned swiftly and pointed at me. “I thought you were lovely when I first saw you in the bar, but I don’t think I can deal with a woman who has this many limitations.”
“Don’t be such a condescending ass. You don’t have to deal with me at all. What you see as limitations, I see as advantages. I can pass for a Mage or almost any other Breed, so that makes it easy to trick people. Chitahs can’t pick up my scent, and most of my Mage opponents rely on subduing me by force, not realizing I can drain them like a bathtub. I’ll ask Viktor to have someone else take over. You’re obviously not a man who can do a job without his emotions getting in the way.”
He lifted a fifty-pound kettlebell and tossed it back and forth in his hands as if it were weightless. “You shouldn’t be drinking blood from your victims for any reason. I’m sure you realize it can become an addiction.”
