Oh, crap. So he fed on humans. Would he want to feed on her? “You want to ah, mate me, so you have blood?”
His brows drew down. “Huh?”
A shiver racked her.
“Sweetheart.” He stood and grabbed a blanket off the sofa to wrap around her. “You’re weakening.”
She’d been weakening for about two months. Her heart hitched at his kindness. His protection. What would it be like to truly be with a man like him? “That’s what happens when your heart slowly dies. Well, when a human heart dies. Do you have a heart?”
“Yes.” He sat back down, his elbows on his knees, his body leaning toward her. “Our anatomy is just like yours, except we have more chromosomal pairs that make us essentially immortal. Human to vampire is a lot like comparing plants to humans—on a chromosomal level.”
Fascinating and oh so very tempting. “Do you hunt humans for blood?”
His expression cleared. “Oh. I get it. No. We make our own blood and don’t need yours. Well, we do bite during battle or sex, but that’s more of survival and choice.”
Sex. Heat bloomed into her face. “Legends are really wrong.”
“Yep.” He rubbed his whiskered chin.
How had she missed such information? Leave it to Olly to discover the truth. “Will Olivia become a vampire?”
“No. Your friend and my brother plan to mate. Her chromosomal pairs will duplicate until she’s almost immortal, but that’s the only change.” He leaned forward even more, and his masculine scent settled all around her. “I’m offering you the same thing, Veronica. If we mate, you’ll become immortal and you won’t die from this disease.”
It wasn’t a disease. Yet it was going to kill her, without question. Probably within a week or so. What would immortality be like? Probably pretty freaking awesome. If nothing else, it’d give her time to hunt down the bastard who thought he’d killed her, finally proving her father wrong. She was strong, and she could survive in this world. Yet, she didn’t know this man. “Why are you offering?” She truly didn’t understand.
He shrugged. “Family is everything to us. My brother loves your best friend, and she’s heartbroken that you’re about to die. If you live, then maybe I’d see more of Chalton.”
Was that a glimmer of sweetness revealed in the badass? He obviously loved his brother. Tough guys understood loyalty, now didn’t they? As a psychologist, Ronni loved delving into motivations. “Olivia said that you and your brother haven’t talked in a long time.”
“We haven’t, and I want to change that.” He flattened a hand on his jeans. A big and broad hand. “It’s only been a century, but even so. I’ve missed him.”
A century? “How old are you?”
“Ah, I think about four hundred and twenty-seven?” He quirked his lip. “Maybe twenty-eight. Time runs together.”
He looked thirty, tops. She tried to grasp the new reality and studied his face. Way too rough to be called handsome, the hard ridges and planes created a wild beauty that matched the glint in his eyes. Straight nose, high cheekbones, masculine mouth.
A predator harder to catch than the wind.
She shook her head. Now she was becoming poetic. Yep. She was near death. “You said earlier that mating is forever.” She barely kept from stuttering on the word “mating.”
“It is.” He reached for her, enclosing her chilled hand in warmth.
Energy thrummed between them, heating her throughout. When was the last time she’d been warm? “But Olivia said it might not be?” What if the mating was just temporary? Ronni would take the immortality if it was that easy, wouldn’t she?
Jared shook his head. “It’s forever, Veronica. While there is a virus that has negated a mating bond well after one party has died, it hasn’t been tried in two living mates, and it won’t be in our case. Too dangerous, and I won’t allow it.”
Warning crept up her spine.
Every once in a while, his mask slipped. Oh, on the surface, he was calm and gentle…even reasonable.
Yet…a restless energy crackled from him. A force with strength she barely imagined but could sense. On a primitive level, she knew without question there was more to Jared Reese than he was letting her see. What exactly was a vampire?
He’d have her believe he was just another species.
So was the jaguar.
Even in her weakened state, her body hummed near him as if his primitive energy captured hers. “Since you’re so old, I’ll let the word ‘allowed’ pass. This time.” It took all her strength, mental and physical, to meet his gaze without blinking.
