“Define wounded.” I tighten the silk around me and cover my breasts. “Are you here to feed on me as well?”
“Depends.”
My fingers grip the fabric, and my jaw clenches. “On what, nightwalker?”
“On whether you answer me with the utmost honesty,” he drawls. The shadowed shape moves, appearing to lounge back comfortably in the dim, reddish light. “If you don’t, I’ll find another way,kamai.”
“Kamai?” I murmur. “What language is that?”
“Daryun,” he says with a dismissive tone. “Who gave you that tattoo on your shoulder? Were you bitten?”
My tattoo? Bitten?
Abruptly, my entire body tenses. “I got it when I bloomed,” I say, my words flowing too easily. “And I’ve not been bitten by a nightwalker before.”
I have no control. Words I try to hold back, clenched tight behind my jaw, blurt out.
A stir of amusement surrounds him and a low, breathy laugh floats out as if it belongs to the air. “Bloomed…Fascinating,” he murmurs as he sits up—well, the shadow looms taller, so it seems like he is sitting up.
“I have a question,” I say. His power seems to waver. My eyes narrow, and an emotion I can’t place stirs in the air as I say, “Were you the nightwalker who killed the Bleeder?”
Dark red eyes dilate, and the shadow ripples, then smooths out like a cloak. “Yes.”
“Were you also stalking me in the airshaft?”
“I wouldn’t call it stalking if you happen to be in the same place I was lurking…But yes.”
“Are you the nightwalker who was in my room?”
He chuckles. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Intrigued.”
Intrigued? Does he know what I am?
“Kamai, can I ask you a question now, or do you have more?”
I hug the sheet around me tighter and mutter, “Why are you asking permission? I’m merely a Feeder.”
“Very well,merely a Feeder.Were you forced into this Feeding Ground?”
“No,” I say, the word bleeding freely from my mouth. “I willingly came in.”
The shadows rise as if the nightwalker stands to leave.
I lean forward, my stomach tensing as the words fumble out. “But my brother had no choice! The elder in my village wanted him dead when he was three years old. And there are others here who were taken by the Bleeders. They smashed down doors and dragged them out of their homes to bring them here. My friends. Manni. Emily. They were all captured.”
His lure fades, and my straight back slumps. I take a deep breath, suddenly feeling light and calm, but it doesn’t last long.
“I’d like to bite you. Would you permit me?”
Bite me?
I open my mouth, only for nothing but air to slip out,and I pause at the idea of being consensually bitten. I quickly shake my head and say, “No.”
He breathes a laugh. “You hesitated.”
