“Good, ‘cause soda’s bad for you. Right, Aunt Leni?”
She smiled and gave him a nod, her warm eyes sparkling in the low light of the dining room. For a moment, sitting there with the two of them, Knox felt as though he had stepped into some alternate reality. A pleasant one, where he was a part of this little family and talks around the dinner table felt as natural as breathing.
Where the fuck had that feeling come from? He didn’t want to know. Nor did he give it a chance to linger inside him. He drew his arm away from Riley’s tickling exploration of hisglyphs.
“I’m not like you or your aunt,” he said, his voice gruff. “I don’t eat the kind of food you do. I need to drink blood in order to live.”
“Blood? Yuck.” His petite nose scrunched up. “I wouldn’t like that.”
Knox chuckled. “Probably not. That’s because you’re human. I’m not.”
“Then . . . what are you?”
“I’m Breed. People like me are born withdermaglyphson our skin, like I showed you. Sometimes, our eyes change colors and our teeth get sharp.”
“Why?”
“It’s just the way we’re born,” Knox said, sensing no fear in the boy, only a quest to understand. “We’re stronger than other people and we live for a really long time. There’s only one thing that’s stronger than people like me. Sunlight.”
There it was. The basics of vampire life laid out in terms he hoped Riley’s six-year-old mind would grasp. He figured it best to leave out the details of how Knox and his kind went about obtaining the blood that sustained them. He was trying to provide a level of understanding, not terrify him that his—or his aunt’s—carotids were at risk.
Thinking about Leni’s throat giving way under his fangs was an image Knox preferred to avoid envisioning too.
Especially in front of the kid. After struggling all day to hold back the part of himself that was pure predator and far too distracted by the beautiful brunette seated across the table from him now, the last thing Knox needed was to give Riley an up-close account of a Breed male gripped by the urge to feed.
To say nothing of the other animal urges Leni provoked in him.
She broke the prolonged silence that began to settle over the room. “It’s okay to be different, right Riley?”
“Sure.” He punctuated his agreement with a vigorous nod, then picked up his bear and began bouncing it in his lap. “Can me and Fred be ‘scused now?”
“Fred and I,” Leni corrected gently. “And yes, you may.”
With the toy in hand, he slid out of his seat and tore upstairs.
“I’ll be up in a few minutes to give you a bath and read you a story before bedtime,” Leni called after him, but he was already long gone. She glanced at Knox and rolled her eyes. “You can see who really runs this house.”
Knox smiled. “You’re good with him.”
“I’m spoiling him.” She shrugged her shoulders and rose to begin collecting the plates. “Honestly, I don’t have any idea what I’m doing. I’m just trying to do my best for him and get by until his real mom comes home.”
Knox kept his opinion of that likelihood to himself as he stood and picked up a couple of the serving bowls. He thought she would refuse his help, but she said nothing as she carried her items into the kitchen. He followed, setting his things down on the counter next to the sink.
It had only been hours ago that they’d stood in this same spot, he dangerously close to acknowledging his attraction for her. At least, to himself. Right before he pissed her off and earned her cold shoulder for the duration of the day.
Her back was still up around him, the energy vibrating off her feeling guarded, even wary.
After they’d cleared the table and she filled the sink with hot, sudsy water, he returned to the dining room, bringing the collection of tools and leftover hardware supplies with him.
“I’ll put that box back in the garage with the rest of these things.”
“Thanks.” She glanced over her shoulder and let go of a small laugh to see him holding up a hammer with a bright pink handle. “Shannon’s favorite color. She was a girly-girl, but she was handy too. She went out and bought all of that stuff after . . .”
“After Travis assaulted her?”
She nodded, then turned back toward the sink to scrape the plates over the disposal and place the dishes into the water.
“Tell me about her, Leni. About the Parrishes.”
