“I—I haven’t told anyone.” She makes her voice firm, though she reeks of fear. “And I won’t say anything! If you’ll just go, I promise no one will ever know you were here.”
“There is only one way I can be certain of that.”
She blinks, and he is right in front of her, so close she has to tilt her head back to look at him. Her mane of unruly spirals sets off the delicate features of her face, her beauty striking him suddenly.
Still, it will not save her.
“Take off your coat,” he commands.
She steps back. “Your mind control doesn’t work on me anymore.”
“Would you prefer I overpower you?”
He takes a large step forward, and she backs up into the tall-stemmed plants, looking around in desperation for a way out.
When she cannot find one, she looks at him again. Her golden eyes are large and glassy, twin suns that cannot win against the night.
As she still does not oblige, he grips her coat’s collar with both hands and shoves it off her shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. Then he draws down the toothed fastening of her next layer of clothing.
He finds the two tiny puncture marks from last night, and he lightlybrushes a finger across them. She gasps softly, and then shivers. She must be freezing.
He is determined to take his time tonight, lest his gluttony have consequences again. As he moves in, a tear rolls down her cheek, and he hesitates for just one of her heartbeats.
Then his fangs sink in, and all other thoughts disappear as her warmth flows down his throat. He circles one arm around her middle and cradles her head with the other. He can feel her trying to speak by the vibrations in her neck, but he clamps down harder, silencing her for good.
As her heart begins to slow, he feels more of her weight in his arms. He takes a brief break, dislodging his fangs from her skin just to monitor himself and make sure he is not going to have another seizure like last night.
Yet all he feels is more hunger.
He leans down to keep drinking—
“I… know.”
Her voice cannot even compete with the light breeze that blows through the leaves of this garden. Yet her words make him hesitate. What if she has had information all this time and is only giving it up now, when death is imminent?
“What do you know?” he asks, his lips by her neck.
“Library.” She sounds breathless. “Midnight.”
“What—?”
Her neck goes limp, as does her entire body, and when he looks at her face, her eyes have rolled up. She has lost consciousness.
She was probably deceiving him. She would have said anything to save her own life.
And yet… What if there is a reason she woke him?
Perhaps he can wait one more day and kill her tomorrow.
CHAPTER 9lorena
Waking up in the morning is brutal.
I try to lift my eyelids, but they’re too heavy. I feel like I haven’t slept in weeks. I don’t even remember how I got to bed last night—
My hand flies to my neck as the memory hits me hard.
I brush my fingertips over the spot where the vampire’s fangs sank in. My skin feels tender from his bite, and goose bumps ripple across my body as I think of how close he came to killing me.
