“That was Eliana. She is Marquin’s mate.”
Cora nodded absently, still in a daze. The fog faded away after a second, and she regained her full senses once more.
Damn, that woman was like walking ecstasy. How did anyone get anything done with her around?
“Whatwas she?” Cora breathed out, propping herself up against the fluffiest pillow she’d ever touched.
“She is a vampire like me, more or less. She’s just a little extra in many ways. She is considerably older than any of us in the compound, but we don’t know her exact age, nor do we ask. I’ve been told that she was never exactly human the way you are. That even before she was turned she was a feared and respected seer. After she died…” Saiden scrunched up his face in thought for a second, and Cora couldn’t help but think how disarmingly cute he looked when he was struggling for words. Like he briefly forgot he was supposed to be mean and scary.
“Let’s just say she’s not quite a vampire either. She’s something special. All of us have an aura, an emanation that causes humans to be, at the very least, intrigued by us. Eliana’s aura is unlike any other. She rarely leaves the compound because of the effect she has on humans and vampires alike.”
“But you don’t feel a pull to her?”
Saiden shrugged. “I did at first but not anymore. Eliana is, for lack of a better word, like a mother to me. Marquin is my sire, and she is my sire’s mate. It’s a bit difficult to feel so enamored by someone who is a parental figure as well as the one most likely to lecture me any time I mess up. Not that messing up is a common occurrence.”
Cora searched his face for any hint of deception or teasing and found none. “That was yourmom?”
It kind of made sense in a weird way. Eliana spoke to Saiden in a manner that was similar to how she imagined a mother would speak to her child.
Saiden laughed at her comment, and she really wished he hadn’t. Every time he laughed his features relaxed into something less intimidating, and it made it that much harder to remind herself of what he was. That much harder to resist him.
Which is probably why she didn’t pull away when he leaned forward and brushed her hair away from her face.
“What happened?” Saiden asked, the question tender and compassionate this time.
Cora sank into herself. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her illness, but she doubted he was going to leave her be without some sort of explanation. “It happens sometimes if I eat too fast. My throat spasms, and I start choking. Jinx has done the Heimlich on me three or four times by now, and I’m never supposed to eat meals alone because of it. I’m sorry if I scared your cousins.”
“Don’t be sorry, Cora. We were all just worried about you. You stopped breathing then passed out. The girls said you only had three drinks.”
Cora tried not to look too embarrassed. It would be easier to pretend they drugged her, but she knew three martinis would have done it. She must have lost count somewhere along the way.
“I don’t drink much,” she explained. “Or ever, really. The trauma combined with the booze was probably just a little too much of a hit to my system. I’m sorry if I made a scene.”
Saiden gave her a heated look. “If you do not stop apologizing, Cora, I’m going to have to punish you.”
The way he said ‘punish’ made her think it would be less chained in a dungeon and more handcuffed to a bed.
She gulped as the visual of a naked Saiden ‘punishing’ her took up rent inside her brain and signed a lifelong lease. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of the naughty new desires he was unlocking inside her. If she found one more, maybe she’d win a new vibrator to help deal with all of them.
“Got it, not sorry,” she corrected, and a flash of disappointment crossed his face. Almost as if he hoped she would apologize again.
“So now will you tell me what’s going on?” he urged. “I know I have not been human for a long time, but I’m pretty sure throat spasms are not a common occurrence. Not to mention the muscle twitches when we kissed. Something else we still need to circle back to.”
Shit, why did he have to bring that up again? The one time she was content to sweep something under the rug, he had to call attention to it. She debated her two options and decided she preferred airing her dirty medical laundry over airing her dirty thoughts about him.
“The twitches and spasms are symptoms of Huntington’s Disease.”
She waited to see if he recognized the illness. Some people did, and she had to deal with a disgusting level of pity. Others didn’t, and the pity was staved off only until after they went home and googled it.
Saiden’s blank look indicated he would be one of the latter.
“I see,” he replied carefully. “And this Huntington’s Disease, how exactly does it affect your life in the long run?”
She would have preferred the internet gave him the answer to that particular question, but since that didn’t seem to be an option, she might as well rip the bandage off. She was going to bring it up eventually when she pleaded her case with Marquin anyway.
“It doesn’t affect me in the long run because there is no long run,” she answered, forcing herself to look him in the eye.
“I’m dying, Saiden.”
