I agreed. “And so is my involvement with you. Do you want to break the news to the vampire world, or should I?”
Stark’s fingers squeezed painfully around my arms, and I instinctively knew he was about to zap me with his eyes.
I clenched my eyelids shut. “Nope. Nope. I’m not letting you do that thing with the swirly colors again.”
“Open them,” he snarled.
“Nuh-uh.” I turned my head.
“Do it, or I’ll finish Charlie’s transformation,” he warned.
My eyes snapped open. “You didn’t.”
“Did,” he said smugly.
Oh. No…Stark had drained Charlie and given him his blood.Halfway to vampire.The final step was feeding.
I glanced up at the shiny silver insulated ceiling, praying for help, wisdom, superpowers—anything to stop this madness. “How could you? Charlie was a good man. He would never want to be like you.”
“Hello. That was the purpose of doing this. Are you so pure that you do not see my vengeance play? You are not very fun.” Stark tsked again.
What a jerk!“Yeah. I got that, Captain Coffin. But this is vile, even for you.”
“I could command him to obey you, Princess Smart Tits. That way, you may decide his fate like you did with Deedee’s killer.”
He knew how much that whole event haunted me. “You’re a monster.”
“You’re a saucy monkey.”
“Tick,” I threw back.
“Whiny snot otter.”
What the hell was that?“Okay, old man,” I replied.
Stark’s gaze locked on my lips as we stood in silence for a long moment. Isuddenly realized he was breathing a little heavy. His gaze slowly moved down my neck, fixating on my breasts.
“Oh my god. Are you really thinking this is about to lead to some…stupid, explosive make-out moment?”
His eyes whipped to mine. “Vampires do not ‘make out.’ I was thinking about fucking you.”
“You’re disgusting.” I smacked his hands off my arms.
“And you are…weak. Also, your right eye is darker than the left, which makes you imperfect.”
What is wrong with him?It dawned on me that he was fighting like a child. Probably because he’d never actually engaged in a verbal argument with anyone in his life. He’d practically been raised by a vampire and then became one. A powerful one. From what I’d gathered, vampires didn’t do much discussing. They generally just killed the vampire they disagreed with or kept their mouths shut. It was why Stark always looked like he was having a fang pulled anytime he attempted to open up to me.
Well, whatever his trip, I was out of patience. He’d wrecked our chances of saving humans, and he’d destroyed a good man’s life. All because of his jealousy.
“You were right,” I said. “Millions are going to die because of us.” It was something he’d said back at the island.
“Silence, Masie. I grow tired of your whining. Now, we are going to discuss—”
I slapped Stark’s cheek. “Stop it. Stop this evil, rude garbage right now. You don’t speak to me like that. And stop hurting the people I care about. This is not the man I fell in love with.”
Stark pressed his hand to his cheek; his demeanor instantly shifted—rounded shoulders, softened lips, light green eyes. “So you do love me.”
“That is not what I said,” I hissed.
