“No. I had to teach myself, but I found hunting gear and a booklet on setting traps that helped.”
Thane looks down at the floor, shaking his head.
“It still doesn’t make sense. You’re just a little human girl. You should’ve been easy prey.”
“If it makes you feel better, there were several occasions where I almost didn’t make it out alive.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.” His voice is solemn, and it takes me by surprise.
“I made a set of rules for myself that I followed. Never stay in one place too long. Only take what I need. Spray myself with vampire blood every three days.”
“What?” He pushes himself off the doorframe. “How’d you get vampire blood?”
“Um, I killed them?” Thane bolts over and lies propped up next to me. “What are you doing?”
He rolls his eyes. “Relax. I’ll go to my chair when we’re done talking.”
“Fine.” I roll over to face him, inching myself as close to the edge of the bed as I can get without falling off.
“So how’d you kill them?”
“Traps. Once they were caught, I’d shoot them in the heart with an arrow. If that didn’t kill them, I’d follow it up with my hunting knife.”
“Did you like it?”
I shoot up to a sitting position, waiting for Thane to say he’s joking, but he just looks at me with a blank expression.
“No, I didn’t like it! I fucking hated it!”
“But they would’ve killed you…”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better about taking a life?” The words spew out of me with intensity, and Thane sits up.
“Why on earth would you feel bad about killing someone who wouldn’t think twice about ripping your heart out of your chest?” There’s an evenness to his voice that makes me think he’s genuinely curious.
“It’s called humanity, Thane. Something you all clearly don’t understand.”
His lips peel back in a snarl. “Where was the humanity when they were experimenting on us? When they were injecting us with poisons and electrocuting us?”
“You mean like how you electrocuted me?” I spit, as the memory of the shock collar comes flooding back.
“Stop doing that!” Thane growls, darting up from the bed.
“Doing what?”
“Reminding me of how badly I hurt you!” He begins pacing across the room with long strides, his fists balled at his sides.
“You should be reminded!” I shift to sit on my knees, watching him try to rein in his temper. “If I don’t get to forget, then you don’t either! And the only reason you even feel bad about it now is because of the mark.”
He shakes his head as he continues to pace back and forth. “That’s not true.”
“You would’ve killed me that day in the woods, only you decided you wanted me to suffer a fate worse than death, so you took me as your prisoner instead!”
Thane shoots over to the bed, leaning forward on his palms so that his face is merely inches from mine.
“There was more to it than that,” he says, his voice slightly straining.
“Meaning?” I demand with my arms crossed.
