“Holy shit, I thought-where did you come from?” She stumbles slightly with a hand on her heart.
She’s easily startled for a murderess.
“From there,” I tell her, jerking a thumb back at the side of the porch. “Where else?”
“Oh, I don’t know. The fucking stairs?”
I laugh. “Why would I do that? I’m a vampire.”
Maris is silent for a second and then sighs and wraps her arms around herself. “It’s cold. Let’s go inside.”
The second she says it’s cold, I’m on the move with one goal. I have to get my wife warm. If I had a shirt on I’d give that to her but I don’t. I’m walking around like an idiot on a romance book cover with no shirt.
I open the door and usher her inside ahead of me. At least I’m able to shield her from most of the wind this way. “Come on. We’ll warm you up.”
Maris follows me inside and stops just inside the door. “What did you do to Billy?”
“I taught him a lesson,” I tell her truthfully on my way to the living room. There’s a fireplace in there. I can get that going and then work on feeding her. My blood did a lot of heavy lifting for Maris’ health but it’s not a cure-all. Not unless I turn her into a vampire and I’ll only do that if she decides. Until then she needs to eat.
“But how? Aren’t you afraid he’s going to tell? You didn’t kill him. I mean, I saw him run out of here but you roughed him up. What if he tells someone?”
“He won’t say a word.” I crouch by the fireplace and work on building a fire while Maris paces behind me. “Trust me. Billy won’t breathe a word of what happened, and he won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“But how do you know that?”
“I glamoured him,” I say, striking the flint in front of me. It sparks and lights the tinder. Now all I need is a few more logs. I look around and see a bundle of wood neatly stacked beside the fireplace. More than enough to warm Maris while she eats. I start to add wood to the fire. Behind me Maris stops pacing.
“What the fuck is a glamour?”
“A vampire mind trick.”
“What?”
I don’t answer her while I finish arranging the firewood. It’s only when I stand up from the fire to face her that I speak. “A glamour is the imposition of a vampire’s will on another being. It’s like hypnosis but stronger. Now stay here while I go warm up the food. You’re eating something and that’s final.”
Maris glares. She really needs to consider the finer points of her health and sustaining herself. “Fine,” she mutters and sits down on the sofa with a soft stomp of her foot. Oh, she’s pissed.
I pause on my way out of the room and stroke her cheek. “I know you have a lot of questions for me and I know it’s overwhelming, but trust me with this. I will tell you everything you need to know. I swear it to you.”
The glare on her face softens. Maris looks up at me and when she does I see the trust I asked for shining back at me. “Okay. I-I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry.
Two words that don’t come easy from a human. When it’s sincere, those two words are much harder to utter thanplease. There’s no ego in being sorry, but there is vulnerability. That’s what Maris gives me now with her apology.
It’s a gift I’ll treasure until I’m given the Final Death.
“Thank you,” I tell her, and then I leave the room to get my mate her dumplings.
Thirty-Two
MARIS
Idon’t know what Julian did to Billy but I know it wasn’t good. I clasp my hands on my lap and look out into the foyer where Julian vanished to get the food we ordered earlier. My belly growls so I guess I’m hungry. Sometimes I forget, the days and hours blend together so easily that I don’t know when the last time I ate was.
Granny would be pissed about the way I’m not taking care of myself. I know she would. She would love Julian immediately. Not only is he a hot doctor she could marry me off to but he pays attention. Billy never cared if I ate. He was more of a ‘I’m hungry so I guess you should eat too’ sort of guy. I didn’t notice before because I took better care of myself before.
“You were alive then,” I remind myself. I lean back and look up at the ceiling. The house is quiet and still like it always is around this time of night. Whatever is up there on the second floor doesn’t always make itself known but it runs its course before it gets too late. I wonder what’s up there. I stare at the ceiling and think it over. I never thought too much about it because it’s always been this way. Granny accepted it so I did too but Julian’s right.
