“My parents were turned while they were human, so I was born a vamp. They met when they were a couple of decades into being vampires. They became good friends and remained that way for years before deciding they wanted a child and would make good parents together; so I was born. As a purebred, I aged until I reached maturity, and then I stopped aging. My parents weren’t mates, but they loved each other, and they loved me.”
“What are mates?” she asked.
“Vampires have mates or soul mates. They don’t always encounter their mates, but when they do, it’s a lifelong bond completed through an exchange of blood and sex; once it’s sealed, all vampires can recognize a mated vampire. If a vampire’s mate is human, they must turn into a vamp, and if they’re a vampire, they have to complete the bond or else they go insane. If a mate dies, the remaining ones either dies or goes insane.”
“That sounds awful.”
He smiled as he crossed his legs. “Maybe before they complete the bond, but it’s amazing to watch the vampires involved once they’re mated. It’s a love like you can’t imagine.”
“What if they don’t love each other but this mystical force drives them together?”
“I’ve never seen two mates who don’t love each other, but I guess it could happen.”
“So, they could end up being unhappy for eternity with each other?”
“Even if I never fell in love with my mate, I could never be unhappy with her.”
“Why not?”
“Because when a purebred stops aging, the demon part of us becomes stronger, but it also hungers for other things more. This newly awakened, insatiable hunger shows itself in different ways. Some vampires crave blood or killing, others pain, some retreat from humanity, and some cannot get enough sex. Those hungers only calm when we find our mate or give in and become a Savage.”
She was beginning to understand Saxon a little bit more. “And I’m guessing that, in you, it showed in sex.”
“Bingo.”
“So without sex…?”
“I would have a difficult time restraining myself from killing.” He didn’t tell her he’d probably lose control of himself; he couldn’t let her worry about him turning Savage while here.
She glanced around the cabin as she picked at her blanket. Yes, it would be ahorribleidea to sleep with this guy, but she was attracted to him, and she’d thought he felt the same way. Instead, he was experiencing some biological urge to remain sane, and she wouldn’t be used in such a way.
Then what did she want from him, a relationship?
She almost laughed out loud at the idea. No, she didn’t want a relationship with a vampire or anyone else. Alone was her best way to go through life, or it would be once she got herself and her father out of this mess. However, she had no idea how she would do that.
“You’re safe around me, Elyse,” he said. “I’m not going to attack you, and I wouldneverdo anything you didn’t agree to.”
She met his hazel eyes again and saw the truth of his words in his steady gaze. “But if youneedto have sex, or else you snap—”
“I’ll be okay.”
And he believed it. At any other time, he would be going out of his mind if he found himself trapped with a woman who didn’t want him. He wouldneverharm a woman, but he would have been desperate for sex. Unfortunately, he learned centuries ago that his hand didn’t provide the same release as a woman did; his life would have been aloteasier if it did.
He studied her as she bit her bottom lip and gazed at the TV. She was striking with her clear blue eyes and brown hair; she was also exhausted and broken, and he wanted to protect her as much as he wanted to run his finger over her lips before kissing her.
When his cock stirred again, he shifted and tugged part of the blanket over his lap. These sweatpants did nothing to conceal his erection.
“I’m many things, but I’m not a rapist,” he assured her. “If it becomes necessary, I’ll leave and come back when I feel more stable.”
Her gaze shifted to him, and her head tilted to the side. “And you would leave to find another woman?”
For some reason, the idea of that made something inside him recoil. “No, I wouldn’t leave you unprotected.”
“So where would you go?”
“Into the woods until we could leave.”
“You would come back for me?”
