Page 27 of Maksym

“Your senses are waking,” he said.

His voice was low, melodic in a way I did not want to find soothing. There were old-world edges in it.

“My hearing,” I said.

“Yes.”

I looked toward the closed door. “There is someone outside.”

“Taras.”

“And there is a clock somewhere down the hall.”

One corner of his mouth moved, not quite a smile. “There is.”

“That is not normal.”

“No.”

My eyes returned to him. “You knew I was a prosecutor because you listened through a closed bathroom door.”

His face stilled. Good. Some small part of me, petty and alive, was glad to see the sentence hit.

“I did not intentionally listen to everything,” he said. “But vampire hearing does not ask permission before it gathers sound. Especially not when one is... concerned.”

“Concerned.”

“Yes.”

“Convenient word.”

“Accurate one.”

I held his gaze. He did not look away. He also did not argue further, which annoyed me because arguments gave me something solid to push against.

“My vision is changing,” I said.

“It will continue to sharpen over the next several hours. The edges first. Details at distance. Movement in low light. You will see better in darkness than you ever did by day as a human.”

As a human. The phrase entered me like cold water poured down the back of my neck.

My fingers curled around the fork I had not used yet. “And smell?”

“That too. For some, scent is the most difficult adjustment. You will learn to separate what matters from what merely exists. Right now everything is new, so everything insists upon being noticed.”

“That sounds unbearable.”

“It can be.”

Not will be. Can be. A careful answer.

“You said your blood is remaking me.”

“Yes.”

“Explain that.”

His jaw moved once, as if he had words and chose the least dangerous among them. “A turning is not instantaneous in the way stories sometimes suggest. The death is quick. The return may be quicker or slower depending on the strength of the vampire who turns you, the condition of the human body, and the blood given. Mine is royal blood. Born vampire blood. Older and more potent than most. It’s accelerating what might otherwise have taken longer.”