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“Bye. Don’t wait up,” I said and opened the door to find Julian leaning against the doorjamb in a shiny black suit and red tie. It wasn’t far off from his usual attire, but my breath caught anyway as his indigo gaze drank me in toe to head.
“Ready?” he asked in a low purr that set my nerve endings abuzz. He offered his elbow, and I slid my arm through, shutting the door behind me on the shocked faces of my mother and sister. I’d deal with that later.
Chapter Eleven
A Bite or Two
“You look beautiful,” Julian said, holding the car door open for me.
“Thank you. I’d say you look handsome, but you always do. I mean you always look so put together.” I bit down on my lip as I climbed in, mindful of the hem of my dress.
He laughed and shut the door, then appeared in the driver’s seat so fast I felt dizzy.
“So.” I smoothed the skirt of my borrowed outfit, though it was so tight there weren’t any real wrinkles. “I feel like so much has happened it’s hard to know where to start our debrief from earlier.”
“Then let’s wait until you have some dinner. In my experience, you don’t think clearly on an empty stomach.”
“You don’t know me that well,” I said, smacking his arm playfully. The truth was, he was accurate, and the fact he’d already picked up on that was as embarrassing as hell.
“I meant you as in humans, not you specifically. My apologies.”
Deciding to forgive him, I remained quiet as Julian zoomed off toward the village. I found myself excited to finally have time to explore the island a bit, until he took a sharp left and cut over to a two-lane road that circled the outer rim of the island. My disappointment turned to wonder as the night sky unfolded before us, a breathtaking black velvet backdrop with thousands of sparkling diamonds smeared over it. There was such little light pollution here that it felt more like a dazzling lightshow than the darkness I was used to in Seattle.
“Where are we going?” I asked, tucking a stray strand behind my ear.
“I’ve decided to share my favorite meal,” Julian said.
My eyebrows went up. He couldn’t mean feeding on humans. He knew my past. I opted for another possibility, refusing to freak out. “You’re cooking?”
He slid me some side-eye, but the amusement remained on his face. “I am taking you to the vampire estate. It is something like what you might call a clubhouse for my kind.”
“Do all sects have one?” I recalled Sam mentioning his meeting place was like a campfire party.
“They all have something like it. But none are on the same…scale. I have reserved a table beneath the stars. I thought you might prefer that to the rather drab interior. Very gothic and predictable, I’m afraid. All burgundy and wood.”
I laughed. “Doesn’t help the stereotyping, does it?”
Julian grinned and gunned the engine. He slid a finger over a control on the steering wheel, and the top of the car turned invisible. It had to still be there because I felt no wind, but the sky opened above us with a clear view of the night.
“I find that sometimes the dark holds more wonders than the light allows us to see.” He rested his hand on the console beside me, and I wondered what would happen if I slid my fingers through his now, when I wasn’t an emotional basket case.
“Very existential of you,” I said. “I think there is beauty in both. But since you started the philosophical discussion, I’ll add that when you try to vanquish the dark instead of exploring it, you miss the splendor within.” It was a lesson I was slowly learning to appreciate.
Rising from the trees before us, the vampire estate unfurled like a black rose with turrets for petals and spires for thorns. Its beauty was classic, but also a bit sinister, I had to admit.
“You’re taking me to dinner so I can eat, not so I can be dinner, right?” I confirmed, only half joking as unease crawled along my skin. I trusted Julian, but did I trust an entire mansion full of vampires?
Once again, Julian took his eyes off the road and captured me in his indigo stare. I caught my breath, waiting for him to speak, and when he did, his deep vibrato sent pulses of warmth and longing to hidden parts of my body.
“I swear to you, Charlotte, as long as I live, I will never let any harm come to you again.”
“Watch the road, drama king,” I squeaked out. But even as he turned back as ordered, the words he’d used and the intensity of his vow felt…strange. It held more than a promise to me. It was like he’d been speaking to someone else.
I pressed fingertips to my temples, still trying to puzzle out what I sensed. My abilities scratched at the experience, like tiny pokes trying to get my attention. But what I was supposed to see was still beyond me.
“Headache?” Julian asked as he pulled into the large U-shaped driveway in front of the mansion. The tires bounced over the cobblestones so old that grass had grown through the cracks. Forest surrounded us on all sides, the ocean stretching out behind the enormous, gothic-style house.
“I’m okay,” I said, reassuring myself as well as him. “How many vampires live on the Island?” I asked as a seven-foot man resembling Lurch from the Adam’s family opened my door.
