“Absolutely not.” He sighs, but it sounds weighted with lead and concrete. “You’ve kept me wanting to remain in this world. If I grow bored again, the only danger is to myself, not to you.”
I shiver. I don’t want to think about a world without him in it.
“Besides,” he adds, “you are under Lucius’ protection. I’ve managed to exist this many centuries without making an enemy of my ‘uncle.’ I prefer the world order as it currently stands, thank you very much.”
“I have to say, for an old vamp, you sure are…chill.”
“Is that a pun?”
“I mean literally. Most of the older ones like Lucius are…”
“Greedy? Power-hungry? Megalomaniacal?” He smirks.
“I was going to say borderline or outright douchebags, but yeah, those work, too.”
I love the sound of his laughter. “I’m guessing you don’t feel like that about Lucius?”
“No. I mean, he can be a dick when someone pisses him off, but I get it. If you treat him courteously, respectfully, he gives it in return. I’ve never had a problem with him. I consider Selene one of my best friends. He’s crazy over her. She’s got that dom wrapped around her paws, and they both know it.”
“You interest him, too.”
“I guess. I make him money. Alotof money. That doesn’t hurt.”
He studies me for a moment. “Do you think he’d let you leave?”
“I have the freedom to come and go as I please. The deal was always that I’d move on if I needed to and no hard feelings about it. I told him about my little night visitor when he hired me. I didn’t want that coming out of nowhere and him thinking I lied to him when I suddenly left.”
I study my water glass, unable to look Dex in the eyes right now. “I know he researched the hell out of my story when I first arrived. I’m still alive, so obviously I passed the sniff test.”
“So to speak.”
“Yeah.” I shrug and finally look up again. “Like you said, I don’t bore him. And I’m useful, to him and to the shifters. I can move among them.” Of course, now I’m once again thinking about Amber’s certainty regarding her vision. “I need to update Lucius and tell him what Amber said. And…everything else. He doesn’t know the full story.”
“The hair?”
I shake my head. “I could be bald under those wigs for all he knows. I know Lucius gets a bad rap sometimes, but he’s kept order. Is he ruthless? Well,duh. Frickingvampires. Kinda goes with the territory.”
He smiles. “Are you jealous of Selene? That she’s his queen?”
“Nooo.” I take another sip of water. “Look, I’d be lying if I said Lucius and his men are fugly grunts. They’re gorgeous. So are you. When I first let Lucius sample me…I gotta be honest, I nearly bolted then, after he told me what I tasted like. I was afraid he might try to keep me prisoner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Why, indeed? Dexter doesn’t interrupt me as I think about it. “I guess because I sensed I could trust him. That, and I’m thirty-five, and I’m sick of being alone. No family—”
Shock widens his eyes. He’d been in the process of taking a drink of bourbon, and he literally spit-takes back into his glass, choking on his liquor. “You’rethirty-five?” he asks once he stops coughing.
“Yeah, I know, I know. I look younger.” He continues staring at me in obvious disbelief. “Wait, you can accept that you can’t mojo me, my blood’s a funky and addictive flavor, my hair has a life of its own—and did you notice I have frickingvioleteyes?—I have superpowers with my senses of hearing and smell, I can stake a vamp with a number-two pencil and my snark, I’m being stalked by a supernatural Cujo, and oh, add in that my dad’s apparentlynotdead after all if my psychic friend’s correct…but you can’t believe I’m thirty-five?That’sthe line?Seriously?”
“It’s just…I mean…” He grabs his napkin and pats the liquor off his lips. “I wasn’t expectingthatrevelation, is all.”
“Noooobody expects it,” I tease, hoping he gets the reference.
He smiles. “If only the Spanish Inquisition had been as enchanting as you, I might have actually enjoyed it.”
16
Dexter
