“I mean it. Parts are the things that make you whole. I want the job. If there’s a Jesse-sized hole someplace—and no, I’m not being dirty this time.” He winked with a faint smile.
“You’re already a part of me. You deserve someone who won’t leave you wondering.” Her arms slowly slid around his neck.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’ll always look at you with wonder. Wondering things like, “How did I get so lucky? Why doesn’t she get that people are staring because she’s like something out of a fairytale?’ Only the insecure jerks would stare for other reasons.” He placed a soft kiss on her lips, then her cheek, losing himself and moving against her throat. “Wondering why you and I ended up in the same place, same time, both of us in the middle of nowhere...”
“Jesse, stop. No fair distracting me that way,” Sophie gasped as he made her body respond, begging for more kisses, more touches.
With a muffled groan, he pulled away, nodding. “More tonight? It’s choir practice,” he smirked.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Sophie twirled out of his grasp and bumped into a teetering stack of books on the nearest table. “Oops!” she exclaimed, frantically trying to catch the cascade.
Jesse saved most of them. A narrow volume that was wedged between two larger books skidded free and landed on Sophie’s toe.
“The Vampire.” Sophie held out the book as she read its title. “I believe this belongs to you,” she teased.
“Not me.” Jesse opened the book to show her that it was more like a journal, with long blocks of handwritten notes on each page. “Minegold figures it was from someone like us, someone who knew vampires or demons enough to know how to kill them, knew how they stayed alive. He wrote some really detailed accounts. I skimmed it once.” Jesse squirmed guiltily.
“What is it?” Sophie demanded as he shifted his eyes away from hers.
“I was a horny twenty-something-year-old when Minegold first gave me the run of his library. I read lots of lore about vamps, but I didn’t like most of what I read. No one wants to hear that nine out of ten vampires turn into soulless beasts who kill innocent people. Half of this book is like that. The other half has some juicy stuff. I remember putting it down in a hurry because my mother came over unexpectedly—probably with a bundt cake.” He laughed self-consciously, hand rubbing the back of his neck as he shifted from foot to foot.
“Juicy stuff?”
“Jesse? Come and take a look at something in my ‘apothecary’, will you?” Mr. Minegold called.
“Be right back,” Jesse whispered, leaving with a lingering kiss.
Sophie turned her eyes to the skinny volume left in her hands. The handwriting was old and faded, thick dashes and jots making words that were hard to read and definitely not spelled like they were today. Some pages had sketches, gruesome ones of bloody fangs and long, clawed fingers. She turned those pages hastily.
One picture toward the end of the book caught her eye. If there had been bodice-rippers back in the 1500s or whenever this thing was written, the picture of the swooning female and her lover could have been on the cover.
If the lover had a tendency to bite.
“The vampires in London and Paris are different from those I met in the mountains of Russia. They blend in with society and take lovers for blood and pleasure. The humans they espouse share willingly for the release it gives to both.”
Sophie stopped, her face warm.So, biting makes people “release”?She tucked that away in the back of her mind, information unneeded just now.
She hurriedly perused another page of stuff that would have made Puritans send for the stakes and torches before she found a notation that caught her eye.
Offspring.
The legend included a sketch of a baby in a female’s arms, dark shadows hanging over them both.
“Vampires do not produce offspring as humans do. They pass their demonic “seed” through an exchange of blood with one who is already drained of their own. The new vampire appears the same age as his host and thereafter the body doesn’t age.
Dhampir are rare, almost a myth among the vampires themselves. They are the offspring of a vampire and his mortal wife or lover. They must have already consummated their union before the vampire’s turning.”
Sophie read hopefully but found nothing new to her. Her eyes were beginning to blur and burn from looking at the faded writing on aged pages. Lots of notes. Few explanations.
The last section under offspring made her arch her brows.“The demon may also choose a wife or husband of its own kind. Vampires seldom choose demons of a different sect, but if they do, compatible ones may spawn.”
Sophie’s eyes widened.Am I spawn? I’m a human. Humans aren’t spawn. Well, technically...
Sketches of deformed halflings made her stomach twist.“Breeding is unsuccessful—”She turned the page,“unlesssacrifices and terrible deeds are performed to ensure the child is born whole, usually in the guise of a changeling to be raised as a human.”
Changeling? Not human. Human in disguise.
I’m every bad thing the bullies ever called me?
