“It’s okay if you’re still a bit out of it. Gideon’s here with me. He’s a bit of a control freak, but he’s not so bad. He’s lycan like me. My brother, Vane, is standing guard outside the apartment. Draven… Well, maybe stay away from him for a while until you’re at full strength, but he’s a vampire like you.”
God, she’s so quiet.
It’s disconcerting, but I blunder on regardless.
“You’re in Manhattan, in the rather exclusive penthouse suite of King’s Eden. It’s affectionately known as ‘the Bloody Tower’ mostly because it’s a vampire-only skyscraper but also because the ridiculously expensive decor is almost entirely scarlet to hide the bloodstains.”
Did she snort or was that a cough?
“Red walls, red floors...” I lower my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Red sheets.”
Silence again.
Okay. Flirting is clearly off the table.Think like an omega.
“New York’s changed a lot since the last time you were free,” I cajole. “Cain moved his seat of power here twenty years ago from Berlin. He would have stayed in Europe but—”
“Silas. Enough.” Gideon’s voice is as sharp as a whip. “Talk about something else.”
I was so caught up in Evelyn that I almost mentioned the resistance in Cain’s own building.
Shit.
“When we get permission to take you outside, I’m going to take you to see absolutely everything. You won’t believe how much the world has changed in two hundred years.”
“Two hundred...” Her words are barely audible, but the tiny hitch in her breath guts me.
I groan. “Really, it’s only a hundred and eighty-five. God, I am terrible at this.”
“Yes. You are,” Gideon growls, thrusting a frustrated hand into his hair as he paces away from me. “Fix it.”
How?“It’s all right. You might be a little bit more mature than my usual type, but I’m not against dating a hot older woman.”
Nothing.
I try again, “You didn’t even miss much while you were gone. In fact, I’d be happier if I hadn’t lived through the seventies; lime green was in and shoulder pads were everywhere. I’m pretty sure there’s a good picture of Vane somewhere in flares and a brown and yellow shirt... Then there was the time Draven got high off some hippy blood...”
A growl echoes from the hallway, but no one interrupts me. I’ve finally found a subject that makes us seem harmless and isn’t likely to out us.
“I would never have left that blood lying around if I’d known he’d be thirsty that night...” I totally did, and I grin at the memory. “I still have that on VCR somewhere. If you come out, we can dig it out of storage and laugh at him.”
“I’m not leaving this...”
“Not even for chocolate?”
Her confused silence gives me the opportunity to flash Gideon a ‘what are you waiting for’ look.
He’s gone for less than ten seconds, and when he returns, he’s holding a bag of the synth blood that female vampires go mad for.
“Give this a try,” I say.
I manage to tug the coffin lid open an inch and squeeze the bag through before Evelyn slams it shut again.
That little glimpse of her blistered fingers tugging the metal closed pulls a growl out of my throat before I can stop it.
More of that damned silence follows. For the longest time, I don’t think she’ll drink it.
Then the slightest moan.
