Teeth chattering, tears streaming down her cheeks, she looked into his handsome face. “I mean, how did you save me?”
“I still don’t want to tell you,” he said, his voice choked and full of emotion, “but you deserve to know the truth. I’ll explain it inside.”
Back in the sitting room, he wrapped her in a blanket and started to turn away, but she tightened her grip on him.
“Selena, please,” he said. “Let go. I’ll tell you, but I’ve got to stoke the fire and—”
She could tell that was just an excuse. The fire was fine. “Stay here.”
He had a pained look on his face. “Trust me. You don’t want that. What I have to say will frighten you.”
She couldn’t bear the thought of not feeling him next to her right now. She sucked in a few gasping breaths, trying to control her rising anxiety. “You…you think I could be frightened of you? Mateo, you saved my life. I’d be…dead if it weren’t for you.”
He said nothing for a few long moments, then finally, he caved and sat next to her. She relaxed, resting her head in the crook of his arm as he began to speak. The sound of his voice reverberating in his chest soothed her even more.
“Before I get started, I want you to know that I would never intentionally hurt you. I’d rather die a thousand deaths than have any harm come to you.” He paused for a moment then continued. “What I’m about to tell you is going to seem utterly impossible, but I swear, it’s the absolute truth.”
Over the next hour and several more cups of tea, Mateo proceeded to tell her the most unbelievable things she’d ever heard. Things about vampires being real and her blood being addictive. He explained that contrary to popular fiction, most vampires lived peacefully among humans only needing their blood occasionally. Then he demonstrated how they could absorb a human’s energy just through touch, and she felt a subtle tingling sensation where his hands pressed against hers, before he abruptly pulled away. Any more than that, he told her, and she’d start to feel mildly tired.
Honestly, if he hadn’t saved her life, she never would have believed any of it. Nope. Not in a million years. The stories he was telling her were that insane. That crazy.
“And you came back because…?” She gripped the blanket tighter around her body, not sure she really wanted to hear the answer and yet knowing she needed to.
He told her about Darkbloods, a hidden society of vampires that lived like their brutal ancestors did, killing humans and selling their blood. And how he’d discovered her blood on the black market.
Hugging her arms close, she felt as if she might get sick. “Since I’m still alive, when did they do it? When did they come for my blood? When I was sleeping?”
“That’s possible,” he replied.
She shivered as she tried to imagine the evil creatures sneaking into her bedroom at night. Had they used the front door? One of her windows? She searched her memory for something, anything that would jar loose the memory of what they had done to her, but there was nothing. Only the fatigue that had plagued her for weeks.
He continued. “However, I believe the customer who supplied you with the Sweet-laced rum is responsible, so it may have happened there.”
“I don’t understand how I wouldn’t remember. I mean, I had to have been terrified. Why didn’t I notice needle marks or bite marks?”
“I’m sure you were.” He cursed under his breath. “Our ability to wipe human minds has allowed us to live in secret among your kind, and feed from you, for thousands of years. With just a touch of saliva, we can heal any marks we make on our prey. Do you understand why I had to get you out of town tonight and why I couldn’t allow you to go home?”
She sighed, nodding reluctantly. “But did you have to be such a…a pig-headed brute about it?”
“Do you really think if I had told you then that you’d have believed me? My first and only priority was getting you away from a possible place of danger as quickly as possible. I sure as hell didn’t have time to elaborate why.”
He brushed a strand of hair from her face and his gaze dropped to her lips, sending a deep, stirring need thrumming through her body. Although she’d been with a few men since Mateo, at that moment, she wouldn’t have been able to recall any of their names, including a man with whom she’d been briefly engaged, even if she’d tried.
The sound of her heart pounded loudly in her ears. How would it feel if he took her vein? Would it hurt? He’d said that vampire couples often shared blood during lovemaking, so it had to be pleasurable on some level, but what about lovemaking between vampires and humans? She could’ve sworn she’d seen his gaze flicker to her throat then back to her mouth again.
“Can you hear that?” she asked softly.
He glanced around the room, drawing his brows together. “Hear what?”
“My…heartbeat.”
He looked back at her, a startled look on his face, before he closed his eyes and nodded.
“I thought so.”
She tilted her head up, needing him to kiss her. They had much more to talk about—she still had a lot of questions about the strange new world that had just been revealed to her—but that could come later. Right now, she needed him.
He gave her a chaste peck on the forehead, however, and she groaned in frustration.
