“I was over there. And now I am over here,” he confirmed. “Excellent deduction, Sherlock.”
Okay, now he was just being snarky, but he was exhausted after spending his entire day in a car just to deal with this mess. The trip had yielded nothing but a coincidence, and he just wanted to get back home to resume his hunt. One-track mind, Marquin always said about him, and the assessment was accurate if also somewhat depressing.
When Saiden was younger he had spent some time walking amongst the mortals, trying to get to know them, but in the end it was always pointless. They were too breakable, too easily scared, and it always hurt when he had to wipe their minds. Humans simply couldn’t be trusted with the truth of his kind.
“No one moves that quickly,” Cora declared, shaking her head in denial.
Saiden let out a heavy exhale. This part was so tedious that it bordered on painful. It was like taking a cat to the vet. You knew you’d get there eventually, but damn it was annoying to deal with their scratching and yowling the entire way.
He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. “I believe I told you earlier, Cora Lee. I am a vampire. You of all people should have some idea of what that means. If you promise not to scream or hit me, then I’ll be happy to give you another demonstration.”
“Look,” she said, backing away slowly. “I’m happy for you that you’re committed to your LARPing or cosplay or whatever, but just because you can sprint faster than the average guy doesn’t mean I’m going to believe that you’re a vampire. If you could please just let me leave, then we can both go about our day like this never happened.”
Saiden glanced back at the distance from where he started to where he currently stood. “Now you’re hurting my feelings. I’d say that was more than just sprinting fast.”
Cora’s eyes darted side to side, and he could sense that she was about to bolt again. “Okay,” he began with as much calm as he could muster. “What will it take for you to believe that I am a real vampire? Ask for any display of my abilities, and I will oblige.”
She bit her lip for a second, eyebrows knitted together in deep thought, then tossed her braid behind her shoulder. “Anydisplay, huh? How about you step aside and let me leave?”
Saiden didn’t even recognize the bark of laughter that escaped his throat. He was pretty sure he hadn’t laughed in decades. She was a clever one, though, he had to give her that.
“Well played,” he remarked, shifting closer to inhale her scent again. She smelled like some kind of fruit, but it was smothered beneath something else he couldn’t identify. Something medicinal. He didn’t like the acrid tang that reminded him of death, but his sense of smell was strong enough that he could mostly sort through it to find the sweet pheromones that were distinctly Cora. Damn, she would be delicious if it weren’t for the chemical taint that burned his nose. How many medications was this human taking?
Ignoring the faint tickling at the back of his brain that told him he was missing something, he smiled wanly at her and said, “Ask me for anything that doesn’t involve letting you go. I have no intentions of hurting you, Cora. I really don't. I can hear your racing pulse, so I know that I’ve frightened you, but I need you to settle down enough that we can conclude our business. So again I ask, what can I do that would prove to you that I’m actually a vampire?”
Cora eyed him warily, the visible stiffness in her muscles not fading in the slightest bit. “Okay,” she said, waving her hand toward the upper balcony of the four-story warehouse. “Fly up there.”
Saiden rolled his eyes at the lack of originality. “I can jump pretty high, but I’m not a bat, Cora. I can’t fly.”
Folding her arms, she cocked a hip and gave him a dubious look. “Fine, then turn into fog.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Saiden didn’t think vampires could get migraines, but she was strongly testing that theory. “You know, based on the accuracy of your film script I would have thought your requests would be more realistic. The entire reason I am here is because your movie contained a few key secrets of our kind, but if youhonestly believe that I can fly or turn into fog, I’m seriously doubting the validity we gave to this concern.”
Cora threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Show me your fangs, I guess.”
Now that he could do.
Saiden gave her a wide, wolfish grin, allowing her to see the second set of teeth that emerged from behind his incisors. He touched the tip of his tongue to one, offering up the ruby red drop as evidence before sucking it down and retracting the fangs. The damn things were too sharp to be left out unless he was feeding.
Cora’s eyes widened slightly at the display, but after a second her features hardened again in disbelief. “You can do that with special effects teeth.”
Then why did she even ask to see them?
Okay, this was taking far too long. Perhaps the bulldozer approach would be more effective. Saiden cracked his neck from side to side then unleashed his power in a blast of abilities, one after the other. Using his vamp speed, he raced up the stairs to the balcony and leapt off, slamming down in what this new generation called a ‘superhero landing’ before springing back to his feet. He grabbed the heavy table in the middle of the room with one hand and balanced it on two fingers, spinning it like a basketball. Dropping the table, he grabbed one of the plastic chairs and chucked it across the room. While it flew, he snagged two daggers from their hidden sheaths at the small of his back and hurled them at the flying object. The knives slid perfectly through the slats of the chair, nailing it to the wall.
There. That should do it, he thought, plucking a splinter from the table out of his pointer finger.
He strolled back toward Cora, trying to keep his expression as non-threatening as possible. Baylin would tell him he wasn’t capableof that, but he at least attempted to soften his perma-scowl. It wasn’t even his fault that he unintentionally terrified people. If males had the equivalent of resting bitch face, then that would describe him perfectly. It was just how he looked. Regardless, he still made an effort to tone down his murderous vibes.
“Well?” he asked the female who stood perfectly still, watching him as a scientist might evaluate a new snake they just discovered but hadn’t yet determined if it was venomous. Cautious intrigue was what he could see glittering in her eyes. “Was that enough, or do you require further proof?”
She shook her head robotically, her wide eyes still a bit glassy from the shock.
“You believe me now?” he prodded, hoping they could finally move on.
She lifted and dropped her chin in a subtle nod.
“Any chance you’ll relax sometime soon, or do you have questions?”
