His eyes held mine, and the air between us shifted. Thickened. I felt the change like static electricity before a storm, raising the fine hairs on my arms beneath my flowing sleeves.
"I can't tell you what I don't fully understand," he said finally. His voice dropped lower, and I noticed how close he was standing. When had he moved around the bar? "And what I do know isn't my story to share."
"She's my cousin."
"And Alex is your twin." His gaze didn't waver. "Which means you're probably hiding just as much as she is."
My breath caught. I should have denied it. Should have maintained the carefully constructed facade I'd worn my entire life. Sweet Alice. Gentle Alice. Alice who followed rules and respected boundaries and never, ever stepped out of line.
But something about the way he was looking at me stripped away that pretense. Like he could see straight through to the darkness inside I'd been trying so hard to hide.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Liar." The word was soft. Almost tender. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the back of the barstool between us. Close enough that I could smell him now—clean cotton and that delicious vampire scent, something that reminded me of rain-soaked earth and midnight. "You're practically vibrating. I can feel it from here."
I stepped back instinctively, putting distance between us. My hands twisted in my skirt, bunching the flowing fabric between my fingers. "You don't know anything about me."
"Maybe not." He straightened, but didn't move away. Just watched me with those dark, penetrating eyes that seemed to catalogue every nervous gesture, every racing heartbeat. "But I know what it feels like when someone's trying to hold back something big. Something they're afraid of."
"I'm not afraid."
The words rang hollow even to my own ears.
Dae's expression softened, and somehow that was worse than the intensity. "Everyone's afraid of something, Alice. Even happy-go-lucky vampires who dance for tourists and pretend nothing ever gets to them."
The admission surprised me. Caught me off guard enough that I forgot to maintain my distance. I drifted closer again, drawn by something I couldn't name. "What are you afraid of?"
His gaze dropped to my mouth, then back up. "Wanting something I shouldn't."
His words hung between us, charged with meaning I wasn't sure I wanted to decipher. My pulse pounded in my throat, and I knew he could hear it. Could probably smell the adrenaline spiking through my system, the way my body responded to his proximity despite every rational thought screaming at me to leave.
"Dae—"
"I really don't know much," he said abruptly, cutting me off. "About Talin. Or your brother. Just that Elias has been helping her focus, trying to make sense of whatever she's seeing."
I absorbed this information. "Just Elias?"
"Far as I know." He walked back behind the bar, picked up another glass, and resumed unpacking with movements that seemed entirely too casual.
"Did it work?"
"I don't know. I wasn't here." He set the last glass down with precise care, and crushed the box with his bare hands like it was paper.
Heat traveled across my chest and up my neck to my face. And lower…
I cleared my throat, trying to think of something to say to break the sudden tension in the air.
He came around the bar again, and this time I didn't step back.
I breathed in his scent as he passed, unable to help myself, and watched him move past me toward the stage, his movements fluid and graceful despite his muscular build. He started checking equipment, testing lights, doing all the mundane tasks that kept the club running.
And I stood there like an idiot, rooted to the spot, unable to make myself leave.
"How long have you known?" I asked finally.
"Known what?" He didn't look up from the lighting panel he was adjusting.
"That there's something different about me."
