I nodded my head weakly. “’K. Give us a kiss?” I tried to tease.
He laughed and kissed me full on the mouth.
“Sneaky elf.”
He winked again and carefully stood with me, then handed me to Draven, who clutched me tenderly to his chest.
We went out a back entrance that bypassed the crowd. The night air was chilly, and I shivered as I tried to snuggle closer to Draven for warmth. Draven climbed into the back seat of the Lincoln Town Car with me, and situated me carefully across his lap. He pulled a blanket from a hidden compartment and covered me with it.
“What happened?” I asked sleepily. I was still unsure of how I’d suddenly gotten sick. I’d been dancing with Mr. Tall Dark and Swarthy, and then I’d used the ladies’, and then I’d gotten sick. It made no sense.
“My enemy showed himself today.” He looked down at me. In the dim light coming from the windows, I could see that he looked both troubled and furious. “I’m sorry you’re getting caught up in this.” I could see the regret in his eyes, but more than that, I could feel it radiate out to me.
“Was it the guy I danced with?” That was the only thing that made sense to me. Maybe he had somehow stuck me with a tiny needle and I hadn’t noticed?
Draven nodded. “He used a virulent viral agent that transfers from skin to skin, from his hands to your hands. He’s immune as a vampire, but you, as a mostly human, are not.” He looked regretful at these words, like it was his fault that I was a mostly human.
I hummed in thought, keeping my eyes closed. It seemed safest when the world was so insistent on spinning like a top.
I felt a little floaty. I wasn’t afraid, though, because Draven was with me. I scrunched my brows in thought. “Draven?”
“Hmm?” His hands traced careful paths down my neck, trying to soothe me.
“Are youevergoing to kiss me?”
I felt him still beneath me and I took my chances and squinted up at him. His eyes were very warm and focused on me. “Just curious what it would feel like for a vampire to kiss you?”
His face was going blurry and wavy, and I was having a hard time focusing on him. “No,” I answered honestly, bravely. “Just because I wantyouto kiss me.”
“You’re not yourself,” he dismissed. “You don’t really know what you’re saying.”
I whimpered when he adjusted his legs slightly. He stilled them immediately. “I do,” I whispered, trying to keep my breathing even and calm.
“I,” he hesitated. “I don’t know that I will ever love again, cara mia. And whom I kiss, I love.”
“Oh.” I internally cringed. Old world values. I kept forgetting that about him.
As if he could sense my thoughts, Draven chuckled low. “I do not judge you for not having the same sentiments as me when it comes to a kiss.”
Well, after his declaration, maybe Ijudgedmyselfa little. Just a little, though. My heart broke a bit at his words. I’d grown to care about Draven over the past months we’d worked and spent time together. Caring about him just felt so natural to me.
But not to him, and I needed to remember to respect that.
He shifted carefully, and I held my breath, but there was no pain this time.
“I…” he hesitated again. “I could use a friend, if that sounds amenable to you?”
Without tapping into his emotions, I sensed the difficulty behind that request. My heart broke for him. He must have loved the woman in that vision very much. So much so that he’d barricaded his heart behind a bastion of walls since her murder.
I swallowed, touched and honored that he would open up that much to me and offer his friendship. According to Rhys, Draven wasn’t friends withanyone. “Yes,” I said simply, squeezing his hand. I closed my eyes, and we rode out the rest of the car ride in silence.
Chapter10
Mia
“I’ve drunk my potion, I’ve R & R’d, I’ve Scrabbled, I’ve bothered Henri so much that he came after me with a spatula. What does a girl have to do around here to escape?”
Draven looked up at me briefly from where he was lounging behind his desk, arched an eyebrow at me, and then hid his face behind the paper again. “You have not rested and relaxed, you threatened to throw the Scrabble board at me when I won again, and you can’t leave until we catch the vampire that’s after you.”
