Page 52 of Blood Sugar

Rowen stiffened against me.

“Too soon?”

“I don’t know what I would have done,” he said. His exhale hissed through his teeth. “Liz told me you’re newly turned. Is that true?”

Jerking back, I arched until I could see his face. “How’d she know?”

“Something about your eyes still changing colors.”

“Oh. Well, yeah. It happened about four or five months ago now.”

A coldness settled in my stomach, the dregs of a fight-or-flight response.

“I’d like to hear about it, if you’ll tell me.” Rowen’s gentle words held no expectation, no demand.

“Um, okay.” Settling back into his hold, I ran my fingers over Ralph’s back. The opossum snuggled against my thigh, comforting me.

“I was waitressing, living with a bunch of roommates. One of them brought over a boyfriend, and he had a friend. He was really good looking, long hair and dark eyes. Not my type, though.”

“What’s your type, then?”

“Tall, tattooed, red-purple hair, has a opossum,” I said, smirking. “Anyways, while my roommate was getting busy, this guy wanted to hang out with me. And I’m not one to randomly hook up. I’ve barely dated. I don’t know what it was.”

Rowen cleared his throat. “Vampires can sway humans easily. But human blood doesn’t keep them fed the way magical blood does, so most vampires don’t bother with humans.”

“Makes sense. The one magical friend I knew, she told me to come here. I wish she’d explained more. The vampire guy certainly didn’t.”

Bitterness tinged my words, sharpening them.

“Well next thing I knew, we were having sex and he bit me. It was messy. There was blood everywhere. I remember feeling weak and delirious, like I was on drugs or something.”

“And you woke up a vampire too?” Rowen surmised.

“Yeah. He was nowhere to be found. My roommate's boyfriend pretended he didn’t even know him. But I couldn’t stay there. Luckily that one friend found me and realized what had happened.”

Blinking back tears, I swallowed thickly. “And now I’m here, and things are better than I think they’ve ever been before in my life.”

“How old are you?” Rowen asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Twenty-six.”

He huffed a laugh. “I thought you were decades older than me. I’m such an idiot.”

“What do you mean?”

His thumb stroked over my skin. “I thought you were an older vampire. You dress all cute and vintage. And you’re so elegant.”

“Thank you, but I just like the vintage style.”

“I figured you had some vampire family supporting you, and you just wanted to travel. If I had realized you were trying to start your life over from scratch, I would have done more to help.”

Frowning, I squeezed his arm again. “No. I didn’t want that. I’m not thrilled about moving in with you because I want to support myself.”

“You can pay half the rent, okay?” he offered.

“And how much is that?”

“Zero,” he said, laughing as he nuzzled and kissed the side of my hair.