My lack of self-control tonight worries me. I waited so long to hunt that I couldn’t stop myself from fixating on Raoul. I’d have attacked him once I got him in the alley. I might have even drained him dry. I was lucky that masked stranger intervened. Biting myattacker was only natural—I was in hunting mode, nearly out of my head with the blood-craze. But screwing him? That was something else entirely. I don’t fuck where I feed. And I certainly don’t feed on guys who are conscious.
What if he remembers my face? It was dark, but it’s possible he was able to make out my features. And he heard Raoul call my name.
Shit…why did I let him live? Since when do I trust anyone else to keep my secret, much less a stranger?
My steps slow as I come to terms with the unfortunate truth. I need to go back and kill him.
I don’t want to. The only people I’ve ever killed were the wannabe gang rapists who cornered me in that alley several months ago. I’ve come close to murder a few other times, but I’ve always managed to avoid it.
I turn back, still warring within myself—my moral code against self-preservation. A herd of laughing, drunk girls teeters toward me in their cheap pink cowboy boots, so I step back and lean against a building until they pass.
My attacker’s blood left me feeling stronger than usual, as if I could lift a truck or a whole-ass building. It’s more than enough strength to take down one masked man.
But I still can’t decide if protecting my identity is worth the murderous stain on my soul.
Suddenly, a pickup truck pulls to a halt near the curb. The passenger window rolls down.
“Christine!” Raoul’s bright smile is like a bolt of lightning, a shock to my wicked heart. He’s popped up twice tonight. It’s like fate, like something out of a rom-com—or maybe a horror movie.
“Are you stalking me?” I force a smile.
He laughs. “You’re the one who came to watch me play.”
“By accident. I didn’t know it was your show. I just heard the music, and I…” The memory of his soothing voice and those delicate chords vibrates through my mind. “I was kind of obsessed.”
“The way you looked at me…I thought you might want to, um…talk.”
Is he blushing? That’s too fucking cute.
“I did,” I admit. “And then I got to thinking it might be weird if you and I…talked…since I’m part of the cast now.”
“Right.” He winces. “I guess that could be perceived the wrong way.”
“For sure. But I’ll see you Tuesday night, yes?”
“Yeah. Hey, can I give you a ride somewhere?”
“My car’s just up here. I’m good.”
“All right then. Good seeing you, Christine.” His voice lingers over my name, turning it warm and golden.
Impulsively, I take a step toward his car—and at the same moment, the breeze swirls against my back, whisking my hair past my cheeks, flowing toward him.
Raoul’s nostrils flare, and his handsome face tightens, his eyes wide and alert. His gaze locks with mine, half confusion, half challenge.
My heart flutters with the foolish terror that somehow, heknowswhat I did in that alley. But he couldn’t possibly know.
He stares at me a second longer, and then a car honks as it swerves around his truck.
“Sorry!” he calls to the other driver, then says tersely, “I should go.”
He guns the engine and roars away without another word.
I return to the alley, still uncertain what I plan to do. But when I reach it, the masked man is gone.
10The Phantom
Abhartach. A fragment of the Old Tongue surfaces in my mind.
