“Aspen?” He seemed confused. “I thought you would be by tomorrow. Come in.”
Standing back, he let me in and then shut and bolted the door behind him.
“Yeah, sorry, I have a trip coming up. We leave early tomorrow so I need to do … this … today.”
“A trip?” He frowned, reaching up to rub his tousled hair.
Put a freaking shirt on, dude! I could barely focus on my words. Was he carved from rock? God help me.
I started to have inappropriate thoughts, like could vampires have sex with humans and did they shoot blanks, and immediately shot those thoughts down.
Focus.
“Yes, a trip! I’ll be gone for four days. We can feed today and then you can draw my blood and drink that while I’m gone.”
I puffed out my chest at my ingenious plan.
“Four days!” he shouted, rubbing his face. “That won’t work.”
He walked over to his kitchen island and picked up a book. It was brown suede, identical to the one I’d brought.
“What’s that?” I played dumb.
He handed it to me. “You left it here. It seems you stopped reading before the good part.”
Left it here? Damn, I hadn’t even noticed; the one page was enough to do me in. I scrolled past the stuff I’d already read.
One final mention. In a bonded pair, the vampire must never drink the feeder’s dead blood. It acts as poison and will kill them.
That’s the part I missed?
Awesome.
“Dead blood?” I queried.
“Bottled. Bagged.”
I cursed. “I have a life you know. I can’t just be at your beck and call like a blood whore!”
He flinched. “I wouldnevercall you that.”
‘Ever,’he sent mentally.
The sincerity of his words caught me off guard. I could feel his emotions and it was weird. He felt … normal. Nice. Sweet. Not a douchebag vampire.
“Look I have to go to this thing, okay. I … didn’t ask for this bond with you. I’m doing the best I can to keep you alive, but it’s starting to get complicated and we are only on day three.”
He stared at me, making me squirm. “You act likeIdid this on purpose. Like I knew what I was doing. I thought imprinting was folklore.Youoffered your blood to me and I took it. Nowwehave to deal with it.”
I felt like we’d created a baby together and were now fighting over how to raise it. I raked my fingers over my face and then crossed my arms, looking up at him. “Well, I can’t miss this thing.”
He nodded. “Very well. I think that’s fair enough. Where is it? I’ll travel with you.”
My eyes bugged. “Travel with me! Hah. No, that would get us both killed.”
He seemed to understand. “Ah, aworkthing, then?”
The way he said work, there was definite shade thrown. “Yes, aworkthing. It’s in Portland.”
