“Do wooden stakes kill vampires?” she whispered.
“Yes, but it has to be to the heart. Fire and decapitation work too.”
“I doubt I’ll get close enough to decapitate or burn one without them killing me first.”
“Very true,” he agreed. “But the more you know.”
Mollie gave a small snort of laughter as she recalled the public service commercials she’d seen on TV over the years; “the more you know” had been their tagline. “What are you, a PSA?”
“Just spreading wisdom to the youth of America.”
It jolted her to recall she was the youth of America, compared to him, and that he was in his fifties andnother age. It was such a disconcerting realization considering the way he looked that for a second, she felt dizzy.
“Unless of course, you’re a Canadian and not American,” he said. “And then I’m spreading wisdom to the Great White North.”
“I’m American,” Mollie absently answered.
“Well, you finally shared some knowledge with me beside your name and the fact you have a sister. Instead of being the Unsinkable Molly Brown, you’re the Tight-lipped Mollie.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his teasing tone. “I’m not exactly eager to spill too much about myself to a stranger and a vampire to boot.”
“Are we strangers anymore? I think we crossed that line when we had neighboring cages.”
“Perhaps.”
“Besides, I’ve revealed more to you than I should have with a stranger and a human to boot. The truth of our existence isn’t exactly public knowledge.”
“But you couldn’t have kept the truth from me after what happened in the barn.”
“I could have taken the memory of what happened to you.”
Mollie came to an abrupt stop. “You couldwhat?”
Turning to face her, Mike scanned the forest and scented the air, but he detected no one close to them. “Vampires can assert control over the minds of others. If I didn’t want you to remember the barn, you wouldn’t. I shouldn’t have left you with the memory; it would be safer for me if I took it from you, but I won’t.”
Mollie gawked at him before closing her mouth; it fell open again. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not.” He clasped her elbow and nudged her forward. “We have to keep moving.”
Mollie’s feet felt like lead weights as she trudged along beside him. He could control hermind? “If it’s safer for you, then why didn’t you take the memory from me?”
“Because I’m not going to mess with your mind.”
“Uh, thank you,” she said uncertainly.
The confusion emanating from her made him stop and face her again. Resting his hands on her shoulders, he held her before him. “You havenothingto fear from me,” he promised. “I’m going to get you out of this.”
A part of her didn’t think she should believe him, he was a vampire, and she’d seen what they could do in the barn, but Mike had protected her and been honest with her from the start. Maybe she’d put her trust in him and get burned for it, but so far he’d only earned it.
“Why are you so willing to help me?” she asked.
It was a question he didn’t know the answer to either. “Because I like you.”
“You barely know me.”
True, but he still felt connected to her, and what he did know of her, he liked. “You’re strong, capable, you don’t complain, and you’re loyal to your sister; what’s not to like?”
Mollie had found plenty not to like about herself over the years, but she didn’t say that. She’d moved on from those darker times, and she would not plunge herself back into that cycle of self-hatred and misery she’d been bogged down in for far too long.
