Anatoly smiled at her, looking rumpled and mussed and very unlike his usual put-together self, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Come, sit. Ask me anything and I will answer.” He motioned to the armchair nearby with a sweep of his arm.
She gave him a nod and moved to sit down, her legs feeling shaky as she came down from the adrenaline of shooting and then kissing Anatoly. Her butt made it into the chair, but exhaustion was setting in. She glanced at the clock on the wall. There were still a couple hours before midnight mass, which meant they had plenty of time to talk.
“Here, take this, you are still damp from rain.” Anatoly surprised her by suddenly wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, his hands lingering on her arms before he walked around to sit on the coffee table next to the armchair. She’d been so distracted getting settled and looking at the time, she’d not even seen him move.
“So are you,” she pointed out, grateful for the warmth that spread through her from the gesture as much as the blanket.
“I am vampire, cold does not affect me same way anymore,” he reassured her.
Maggie glanced down at the bit of skin showing from his ruined shirt, remembering how the bullet wounds had healed. If he said he didn’t feel the cold, then she believed him. “Is that why you’re cool to the touch?” she asked her first question, reaching across to put her hand on his.
He nodded, lacing his fingers with hers. “I am most lifelike and therefore warmest after feeding.”
The reminder of what she’d walked in on made her a little uneasy. It had been unnerving, seeing Anatoly like that, his gaze glowing an unnatural red for just an instant, like the gleam of a cat’s eyes in the dark.
She chewed the bottom of her lip, trying to reconcile that version of him with the man she’d come to know and apparently develop an attraction to.
“Have you ever killed anyone?” She ventured the question tentatively.
“Nyet, not as man or vampire.”
Maggie let out a relieved breath and squeezed his hand. She had feared the answer, especially as she couldn’t help but think about their victims, all exsanguinated. Though they had found the cause to be from a port in the victim’s torso, now she couldn’t help but wonder if the murderer was in fact a vampire. If she hadn’t known Anatoly better, she might even have suspected him as the culprit.
“What about other vampires?” she continued her line of questioning, not wanting to think too hard about the possibility that her judgement was flawed where he was concerned. “I doubt they’re all priests…”
Anatoly covered the back of her hand with his palm, holding it now in both of his. “I cannot speak for other vampires, but not all I have met were violent. Most are like normal people, trying to make way through existence. There are exceptions, of course. There are always those who let power go to their heads.”
“How many other vampires are there?”
“I am not sure. There are many covens in many cities, but I suspect there are more like me who choose to exist beyond such conventions.” Anatoly continued to answer as though they were discussing something mundane and not a secret vampire society. Was this all so casual for him?
“Will you get in trouble for telling me this?” she asked instead, focusing her thoughts on information that seemed important. Personal questions could come later.
“It is complicated,” he admitted. “During Great War, vampires unified and agreed to keep existence secret. Many others followed their lead and so we keep to shadows and leave sunlight for mortals.”
“Others?”
“Other supernatural creatures,” he clarified. “Werewolves, hexen, or as you might know them, witches… All have place here.”
Maggie swallowed, her mind reeling. “If you tell me leprechauns and unicorns are real, I’m walking out that door…”
“Nyet,” he chuckled. “Though perhaps I have simply not been fortunate enough to meet one. In case of unicorn, anyway.”
They shared a laugh, their fingers caressing each other’s skin as they sat together, talking about things that should have been silly. Monsters were real, but not all monsters, and one of them was sitting across from her. It was baffling, confusing, but it didn’t feel wrong. Since that first night in the hospital together, being in Anatoly’s presence had always felt right, and even after finding out he was keeping a huge secret, that sense of safety and comfort remained. She’d only needed to calm down enough to feel it.
His gentle touch drew Maggie out of her thoughts. “You look very pensive,” he pointed out. “Surely, you have other questions?”
“Yeah, but this one is a doozy.” She smirked, though she didn’t see any humor in what she was about to ask. “Do you think the person killing clergymen is a vampire?”
Chapter Twenty-One
It took all of Anatoly’s self control not to pull Maggie onto his lap and start kissing her again the minute they sat down. Making her stop had been the hardest thing he’d endured all night; he was sure even getting shot twice had been less painful.
Sitting with her now, holding her hand between his and talking with her this way, was almost as stimulating as the taste of her lips. There was a pleasant buzz in his head, contentment in his heart, and then she asked him a very serious question.
Instantly, his good mood shattered and he was reminded of their purpose, of the whole reason they had come together: to find the person who had murdered Father Abrams.
“Da,” he answered truthfully. “Have suspected since beginning. That is why I offered my services. I did not want you facing vampire alone.”
