Page 37
Their knees nearly touched. But Lord knew he wouldn’t go near her now. She’d likely jump off the porch, risking scrapes or a broken bone to escape him.
“You’re over seven hundred years old?” Though her voice was still a bit shaky, Charlotte’s chin lifted in defiance, reminding him of the first time they’d met.
When he’d thought her stuck up or at least slightly rigid.
Charlotte was neither.
“Yes. I was turned at the ripe old age of twenty-eight.”
“A year older than me.”
“Several hundred years older, but yes, when I was turned—”
“You drink blood?”
“Yes.”
“Does it hurt?”
He shifted, ignoring the tightening of his pants as he imagined burying his teeth into the sensitive skin of Charlotte’s creamy white neck. The other night, when they’d danced together, her ass pressed into him, her head thrown back, he’d wanted so badly to do just that.
“No.”
She blinked.
“We most often feed from the wrist. Feeding from the neck can leave us . . . vulnerable.” He tried not to stare but couldn’t resist. “For that reason, it’s considered an . . . intimate . . . act.”
Fuck it.
“Erotic even.”
Her eyes widened at that, just when he’d thought they couldn’t get any bigger.
“But it doesn’t hurt?” she pressed. “Or kill the person?”
“It doesn’t hurt, but it can kill if a vampire’s uncareful or inexperienced.” She looked worried again. He didn’t like that he was the one who’d put that look on her face. Hoping to soothe her, he told her about the Balance—how it had “softened the blow” of what they’d become—and the Cheld.
Charlotte’s poor hands. She gripped them together, pulled them apart and bent her fingers backward. An outlet for the adrenaline coursing through her, no doubt. But he’d be damned if she sat there afraid of him.
“We do not kill indiscriminately.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, angling toward her. “In fact, my brothers and I have dedicated ourselves to protecting our brother’s bloodline.”
“Protect them how? From whom?”
Grimacing as he pictured Kenton standing over the body of a dead Cheld man on a snowy open field in Alaska, one who had, admittedly, attempted to lob Kenton’s head off. Nonetheless, he chose to hold his tongue. For now. As much as it pained him to admit it, Alessandra seemed to have changed Kenton’s view on the Cheld. It didn’t erase the past, but at least it tempered it.
“Some vampires fear them, and perhaps,” he admitted, “with good reason. They can be as fast and as strong as our kind, and we are naturally drawn to them. When one arouses . . .” Her eyes widened. “Not that kind of arousal. When they come into their powers, they develop strength and senses that rival ours. Most of them also have additional abilities that help them sense and track us. All of that puts some vampires on edge, as you can imagine.”
“Because they can kill vampires,” she correctly surmised.
“Some do. But most do not become hunters. Those who are never exposed to vampires may never come into their abilities since they’re not needed. The Balance.”
He waited for the questions he knew would be coming. And they did. One by one, he debunked pop culture myths, including the most obvious.
“You can walk in sunlight!”
“And I delight in it.” Torr winked as Charlotte stopped mistreating her hands for the first time since they’d sat down.
“But wait.” She screwed up her face in the most adorable way, which was when Torr decided he really needed another drink.
