“Your glamor or whatever that is.”
He looked bashful suddenly—a tattooed twenty-something supermodel with a sheepish look.
“I’m sorry. Autopilot. It’s not intentional.”
“Eddie. I felt like we had something that night. I have to know that it wasn’t just, I don’t know, your charisma or something. It wasn’t just some power people like you have, was it?”
“I don’t know,” Eddie said. “Truthfully. Look, Stacey, I don’t know how you tracked me down here. I don’t even know how you know about a glamor. I don’t even know if you know what I am. Who I am.”
“You’re a vampire,” I said. “I pieced that together.”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Why did you run away that night? I know that wasn’t a nosebleed.”
“Something came up,” he said. “Look, it’s complicated, okay? You’re not supposed to be here, Stacey, and you’re definitely not supposed to know all this. I guess I should have guessed you’d figure it out when I saw that birthmark.”
“Not that again.”
“It’s the Moon Kiss. It means you’re special. I don’t know the specifics. But, Stacey, you have to understand. That’s the equivalent of someone finding out they’re making out with the Virgin Mary suddenly. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You hurt me anyway,” I said. “By running away.”
“Stacey, you don’t understand.”
“You’re not even giving me a chance. You won’t even give me a chance to understand.”
“I’m trying. I’m just saying it’s complicated, okay? Please, don’t make this any harder than it has to be. I’m, uh. I’m not good at controlling myself, Stacey. I didn’t want to do anything to. Put you under thrall.”
“Under thrall?”
“The glamor,” he said. “You think it’s bad now, wait until you get bitten.”
“You’re saying there’s a chance you’ll bite me, then?”
I thought about how that sounded in the air when I said it. We both shifted uncomfortably.
“No,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t want to, if you want to be. I mean. It’s probably not a good idea. The Moon Kiss—it means you’re marked already by the divine. It’s sacrilege to mark someone already marked. It’s a territory thing. If I claim you for my own. That’s a big deal. I’d have to defend you from anyone else that wanted to claim you. It would cause a feeding frenzy.”
“Like sharks.”
“Like humanoid sharks, who are capable of cunning and disemboweling people with one hand tied behind their back.”
There was a creak from downstairs, and Eddie looked past me at the door, a shock of fright on his face.
“You have to go,” he said. “You shouldn’t be here. There are some other vampires coming—”
“Like Brother Aleister?” I asked.
He stared at me.
“He was what tipped you off, wasn’t he? So obvious.”
I nodded. Eddie moved toward me, gripping me by the hand, and pulled me up a set of stairs behind another door.
“There’s an awning up here,” he said. “I need you to go out on it. It might be a little chilly. Don’t fall, please. You should be safe from detection. When the meeting is over, I will come and grab you. And then you will go back to your former life, and you will forget everything you know about tonight.”
“Eddie,” I said. “You can’t make that decision for me.”
