Thomas was a few inches shorter than Liam and just as good looking. He had a strong jaw with stubble shadowing it. His eyes were bright and alert as he nodded at me. I knew those eyes. They haunt me every morning just before the sun sends me into the land of the dead.
“Is this her, then?”
Thomas didn’t seem too impressed with what he was seeing. He also didn’t look like he’d ever seen me before. Something I knew to be false.
I couldn’t react beyond a slight tightening of my finger on the trigger. Under the table, it was now pointed at the two men.
I wanted to squeeze that trigger so bad. It would take less than six pounds of pressure to fire. It seemed so easy. Just a pop, pop.
I knew from a previous encounter with Liam and my last hand gun that it might not be as simple as I thought. It was the only thing keeping me from emptying the entire clip into the men in front of me.
“It is. Thomas, this is Aileen. She is the unclaimed vampire I told you about.”
I bet he did. And here I was hoping he’d make good on his promise to teach me some things. Maybe show me vampires weren’t so awful.
“This is your plan?” Thomas asked, arching an eyebrow as he looked me over.
I was going to need to count back from one hundred to keep from shooting this guy.
“She’s more resourceful than she looks.”
A compliment and insult all rolled into one. How lovely.
“Liam tells me you refuse to join a clan,” Thomas said, finally directing his comment to me.
I hesitated. Is that all Liam had said? Not knowing what game these two were playing, I gave him a nod.
“Where’s your sire?”
Sitting right across from me.
I clamped down on that thought and shored up my mental defenses, adding tree after tree and boulders and hills. If he was a mind reader, I didn’t want him having access to such dangerous thoughts.
How could he not recognize me? Or had he attacked so many women in the last year trying to turn one of them that he simply didn’t remember the one he had?
I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. The werewolves were able to tell if someone was lying. I didn’t want to chance the vampires having the same ability. It wasn’t one I possessed, but then I seemed to be lacking many of the talents associated with my kind.
“Do you speak?” His tone had an arctic chill to it.
I narrowed my eyes and grabbed a French fry, dunking it in the milkshake and taking a bite, my teeth clacking together.
Did I speak? Who did this guy think he was?
Made me want to be silent for the rest of this meeting just to mess with him.
“Why is she eating?” he asked, bewilderment in his tone. Then to me, “Why are you eating?”
Again I shrugged, before taking another bite out of the fry.
“Stop that.”
In a blur of movement that I only half caught, my plate and milkshake disappeared. I blinked down at the empty table. In the next moment, the fry I was holding was torn out of my fingers.
What the hell?
No, stay calm. Be professional.
“What the hell?” I asked. “That was mine. Give it back.”
