The sight of him sticks my tongue to the roof of my mouth.
“Alaric, you’re up and about.” I hold out the tray. “I brought you some soup.”
“It is I who should be looking after you.” He steps towards me, and something about the rumble of his voice makes me wonder if I’m supposed to run. “I heal quickly, Winnie.”
“But not that scar?”
Alaric follows my gaze to the white scar. “No,” he says sadly. “Not that one.”
I bite my tongue. I have so many questions I want to ask. But my head’s full of silly ideas from Isis and the Nevermore Murder Club, and I’m afraid if I open my mouth, I’ll accuse him of being a vampire.
Or I’ll leap on him and climb him like a haunted treehouse.It’s one or the other.
Alaric regards me with guarded suspicion as he bends to retrieve his phone, sliding it beneath a pile of clothes on the pew with the ease of a predator in repose. “What are you doing up here? Reginald told you not to disturb me.”
I swallow. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. You were hurt because of me. Look at your skin! I thought this was your bedroom, but I didn’t mean to disturb?—”
“This is the family chapel.” He holds out his hand to me. “Leave the tray with me. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Allow me to dress, and I’ll meet you downstairs. I’m weak, but perhaps I can help you with the Whirlwind, as long as we keep the curtains tightly closed.”
“Okay.” I set the tray down on a baptismal font and slip past Alaric, down the stairs, away from the creepiness of Alaric’s quarters.
What in Van Helsing’s name did I just see?
CHAPTER TWENTY
ALARIC
Gideon: How are those blue balls going, Allie? I thought you’d be interested to know, since you’ve been shut up in that castle during some of the most VITALLY IMPORTANT moments in history, that there is this wonderful invention called contraception – it enables a human woman to lie with whomever she chooses … without falling pregnant. Do with that information what you will. I won’t tell. Don’t ever say I’m not a good friend to you.
That was close.
I’d been lying sleepless in my coffin, staring at Gideon’s text as my mind whirled with possibilities, when Winnie’s voice broke through my dark fantasies. I’d flown from my coffin and managed to drag my weakened body into the adjoining powder room before she saw me, where I stripped down, wrapped a towel around me, and dunked my head in the basin to appear as though I had just taken a shower.
At least my phone was now safely back in my possession. If Winnie had seen Gideon’s text …
… what then?
Winnie might have been frightened to see the coffin, but she would run away and never come back if she found me asleep inside it.
That’s good,a sensible voice whispers inside my head.She should run far, far away from this place. From you and the lustful thoughts you have about her every moment of every night …
I hate myself for how much I don’t want her to run.
Gideon’s message reminded me that modern inventions may have gone some way to preventing Dhampir, but that’s only one of two monsters dealt with. I am the other, and I am far more dangerous because of how much I want her.
Winnie waits for me in the hallway while I stamp down the beast clawing at the inside of my skin, clothe myself and comb out my coffin hair.
When I emerge to meet her, Winnie’s face falls at my slow pace. “I’m so sorry. It’s my fault that you’re injured. I wish you didn’t have to save me, but thank you all the same. I … I can’t tell you what it means to me.”
“You are safe in my castle, Winnie.”
… or are you? Are you safe from me?
She makes a little squeak in the back of her throat. “I won’t let Mirabelle lead me on adventures around the fountain again. I had no idea that it was really a portal to Hades.”
“It’s a cistern built to hold water when the castle was under siege. I keep the Hades portal in the basement.”
I hold out my arm to her, and she slides her hand beneath mine and allows me to escort her back downstairs as I explain about the last time the castle was besieged and how it withstood. Her touch whispers against my skin.Mine, mine, mine …
