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“Exactly,” I said seriously.
“I cannot oblige,” he replied with the same seriousness.
We glowered back at each other until I felt an ache in the back of my throat. Glancing around the room, I saw his empty cup, wishing I hadn’t drunk it all in such a rush.
“You are thirsty.” He didn’t ask; instead, he was already lifting his phone, which I noted, he seemed very accustomed to using now.
“Who are you calling?”
“Pelopia,” he answered. “Would you prefer her to send a human?”
What? “Send a human? Like a living person delivered to the door?” I needed to clarify because he had said with such ease that I was a bit lost.
“Yes,” he stated, and from the way he was looking at me, he didn’t seem to understand how weird his comment was. Or was I the weird one? “Would you prefer to hunt them in the forest?”
Okay, I was definitely not the weird one. “You all have humans on standby that you can just drink from or hunt?”
“Well, it is their job,” he again said in a way that made me look completely crazy. But then again, I remembered Rhea drinking from a woman earlier like she was her own personal blood fountain.
“I shall just send a bottle.” I heard Pelopia’s dull voice on the other end of the phone.
“No,” I said quickly. I wanted to fit in, and if this were how they did things, then I would learn to do them, too. “You can send the human.”
“Are you sure?” Theseus pressed, and I just nodded because I wasn’t sure I trusted my voice. He hung up the phone and looked me over. “Have you ever drank straight from a human before, young one?”
“Of course, and don’t call me young one,” I said, quickly shifting to get out of bed. I wanted to take a showe
r.
“It’s hard not to call you young one when you act like a young one,” he said, rising out of bed as well, his abs exposed for me to see.
I turned back. “How so?”
“You haven’t gotten pleasure out of it, have you?” he asked softly. “All the times you have drunk directly from a human, you see the horror in their minds. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth. So that’s why you drank off the animals. You wished to avoid that.”
“Is that wrong?” I asked, defensively.
“No, it just proves your lack of knowledge,” he said gently. “Drinking is something your maker is supposed to teach you.”
My jaw set.
“Don’t be cross. I shall teach you. Is that your excuse for staying beside me? Wishing to steal my knowledge?” He grinned at me.
“What is there to drinking? You bite and suck in blood. Done,” I said back.
He shook his head. “Have you ever wondered why the humans have written off our kind as seducers? The allure of the vampire?”
“To sell books?”
“Because it is one truth they have discovered,” he whispered as if he were telling me a secret. “Many vampires seduce their prey to avoid that bitterness in their minds. Instead of fear, you taste their pleasure.”
My eyebrow raised. “So, you’re going to teach me to seduce a human?”
“Never.” His lips formed a hard line. “I am far too jealous a man for that.”
It wasn’t funny, but I grinned a little. “So, what’s my other option?”
“Bedside manner.”
