“Well then.” He flashed me another thin, brittle smile. “In that case, I suppose I’m glad he’s dead.”
More than glad. He seemed… steady.
Eric had planned to murder both of us. He would have succeeded with me if not for Nicolas. But still—there was nothing, was there? Not even a hint of unease over the fact that he had just taken a living person and snuffed his life out. No emotional reaction at all.
“You’ve killed before.”
“Eli, please don’t do this.”
I fixed him with a hard look. “Are you going to lie to me?”
The grief in his eyes was plain to see. But, very slowly, he shook his head. “No. Never.”
“It goes without saying at this point, but I know you aren’t human.” I paused, willing myself to force the next words out. Now that we were here, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to ask anymore—because I knew this was going to change everything. But I had to know. I took a breath and let it out slowly. “Nicolas, what are you?”
His smile vanished as quickly as it had come, and something in his gaze darkened again. A muscle in his jaw jumped. “I’m a vampire.”
I stared at him. I expected to feel disbelief or shock. Or fear. Or maybe even anger. There should have been something. But I didn’t feel any of that. It explained everything fairly well, didn’tit? The impossible speed, the lack of a heartbeat, the fact that he didn’t need to breathe. It probably even accounted for some of his immensely strange behavior, even though I wasn’t sure how yet.
But I could tell the admission cost him. He wasn’t used to being vulnerable to anyone, was he? And he had just made himself excruciatingly vulnerable to me. Because he agreed with me that I had a right to know. Somehow, I didn’t just suspect that—I knew it. As though I could sense what was going on inside him. The CliffsNotes version, anyhow.
“Thank you,” I said.
He let out an incredulous-sounding laugh, his eyes widening as he stared back at me. He paused for a long time, as though waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it didn’t, he said, “You’re welcome?”
His words rose at the end, more question than statement. As if I had confused him. Which, to be fair, I probably had.
I decided to get the other most important question out of the way first. “Am I safe with you?”
“Yes.” His answer was immediate.
I wasn’t especially surprised by that either. I knew by now that he wasn’t going to hurt me. Nicolas would never have hurt me. He had just gone out of his way to save my life.
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay?” he demanded, verging on scandalized. “I tell you that I’m a vampire and you, just… what? You’re not surprised?”
“You had to be something,” I countered. “Why not that?”
“You’re not afraid?”
“Not of you. You’ve had plenty of chances to hurt me.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know that,” I repeated, frowning at him. “But you can’t mess with my sister’s head.”
“She gave informed consent,” Nicolas said flatly. “It was her choice.”
“What are you talking about?”
He scowled and shook his head. Whatever had taken place between him and Sam, he didn’t want to talk about it.
Why not?
Because he was guilty? Or because he was protecting her confidence?
I watched him in silence. The little display of emotion twisted something deep inside me. This was more evidence of what I had seen that first night we were together—and a thousand other times since. He was far more fragile than he seemed. And there was a deep well of hurt in him, too. I could almost feel it as though it were my own.
