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She smiled again. "I was wondering when you'd get around to asking that."
"Meaning yes, he did?"
"Of course. No one gets through my door without me first knowing their name."
"Then would you mind telling me it?"
Amusement played about her lips. "What are you going to offer in exchange?"
I looked at her for a moment, then said, "How about I not call the Directorate on you?"
"You've already reported our presence. There's another guardian patrolling outside, isn't there?"
"He's there to catch Ivan's attacker, should he decide to come back."
She waved a hand. "But the Directorate will come to investigate us regardless."
"They will. But investigating is not cleaning out."
"You would not ask them to go that far. You are not the type."
I raised an eyebrow. "Lady, you have no idea what type I am."
"I can taste it in the air, little wolf." She considered me a moment, then smiled. "You are honorable, in your own way. And at the moment, you are also very wary of what you sense in this room."
Mainly because what I sensed in this room was nothing like anything I'd come across before. "I can't pay you."
"I'm not asking for money."
"Then what are you asking for?"
"A kiss. Just a simple kiss."
There was nothing simple about a kiss. Not when it involved this vampire. "Why?"
"Because I want to taste you."
"I thought you weren't a blood vampire."
She rose from the sofa, her long skirt billowing briefly around her in cloudlike wisps of bloodred organza. Surprisingly, she was my height and build. She'd seemed so much smaller and daintier on the chaise lounge - another carefully placed illusion, no doubt.
"I am not a blood vampire," she said softly. "And I give nothing for free. If you wish the name, guardian, you pay with a kiss."
I stared at her, wishing I could read her mind. Wishing I knew her motives. Wishing I understood why the whole kissing deal filled me with such indecision. Hell, if it were a man asking the payment, I'd be doing it in a second.
So was it just the thought of kissing a female that was making me hesitate? Or was it more to do with the fact that I didn't know what she really was, or what she could do?
I'd love to say it was the latter rather than the former, but the truth was, I couldn't.
I didn't want to kiss another woman. It was as simple as that.
But I was a guardian, and sometimes guardians had to do things they really didn't want to do. Especially if lives were on the line.
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "No feeding, no aura - or whatever that sexual heat thing of yours is. If I sense any of it, I'll shoot the fucking lot of you."
She smiled. "I think you mean that."
I think I did, too. I flexed my fingers, feeling the dampness on my palms and not liking it. "And no tongue," I added. "I'll bite it if I feel it."
