“How are we supposed to know?” I glared at him and the smug smile that was thoroughly pissing me off, wondering who the hell this guy thinks he is.
“I’m Dennis,” he answered out loud, eyes boring into mine.“I already told you.”
“Did I say that out loud?”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Ari’s voice was shaky as her eyes darted from Dennis to me, then back to Dennis.
“You said it loud enough for me to hear,” he said.“So any guesses?”
“You’re a serial killer?”
“No.”
“Are you a telepathic experiment that escaped from a governmental testing site?”
We both looked at Ari.“Is now really the time to give college lectures?” I asked in exasperation.
She shook her head.“I’m not. I just thought—”
“Nice guess, but no.” Dennis ran a hand through his multicolored hair, smirking at the way it made us flinch.“Are you both really that stupid?”
“I’m one of the top students at my university and I’m two years ahead of where I should be. Don’t call me stupid.”
“Alright,” he turned his attention to Ari, “since you’re apparently the smart one, why is this taking so long? You have enough hints to work with.”
She swallowed nervously.“You’re not human.”
“You’re getting closer.”
“You’re a vampire?”
“That I am.” He leaned forward in the chair.“And I’ve claimed your cousin as my own.”
“I’m not yours. Can you stop saying that?”
“Depends,” he started, “will you listen if I explain?”
“…what?” I’d been listening this entire time. He was making no sense.
“I’m making perfect sense.” His high-pitched laugh cut through the air as he stood and grabbed the knife. He nicked a finger on the blade and brought it to his lips, licking the blood.
“Can you read minds?” I was beginning to realize he was answering questions I’d never asked out loud.
He sat again but didn’t answer, still toying with the knife. Ari took a gentle hold on my hand and I immediately knew what it meant; we subtly inched back on the bed, trying to put more distance between us and the‘vampire’without making it obvious.
“Did you know,” his hazel eyes shifted up from the knife to land on me,“that I can see things most people can’t? Like you moving that fraction of an inch to get away from me.”
“We weren’t, we’re not—”
“And did you know,” he continued over Ari’s stammering,“that I can hear your heartbeat? It’s going about twice as fast as it should be. Why is that?”
“What is that?” I ignored his question and squinted at his knuckles, which had the word ‘bloodlust’ tattooed across them. The ‘b’ was normal, but the‘l’was drawn as a stake, the two‘o’s were written as dates on a gravestone, and the‘l’in lust was a knife dripping with blood. Worst of all, the‘t’was drawn as a shredded cross.
“I think it fits, don’t you?” A boyish grin crossed his face as he stood and threw the knife over my head. I barely ducked in time—it stuck in the wall above my headboard.“I’m leaving. I’ll let you process this and figure it out.”
“Figure what out? The blood binding thing?”
“I guess you could say that.”
