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"I guess that's the right word. She wasn't always so cold either. At one point, I'd probably even have called us allies."
"Not friends?" I ask, thinking about how sad that must be. Allies is such a cold word. Even though that's all I've ever had too. Friend's have been in short supply.
"Friends would imply we had something in common more than a goal. That was never really it. We tolerated each other. She knew she could have had a much worse husband, I knew that she wasn't going to bring disrepute to our name. It was win-win."
"Not really."
"You don't strike me as the romantic type, Ashryn," he says, drawing out my name a surprising amount. I like it. But I won't ever tell him that.
"I guess every little girl dreams of her prince charming for a while."
"Until they become ruthless vampire hunters." His voice is amused, which is a little surprising, but I'll go with it.
"It does tend to squash dreams of romance," I admit. "It's hard to think about dinner and flowers when you're being taught exactly where to stick a stake."
"If I didn't know you, I'd have thought that was an innuendo."
I let out a small giggle. And I can tell he's smiling despite himself. I have to say, this is kind of nice. Not the stuck in a bunker and potentially dying bit, but the talking to Bram and finding out what he's really like. This is definitely a side of him I can get used to. I just hope it doesn't disappear the moment we leave here. That'd be just my luck.
"You never know, we might have learned that too," I tease. He swallows loudly.
"Is that one of the way you've trapped vampires?" he asks, and I'm pretty sure he raises an eyebrow while doing it.
"I can safely say, I've never had sex with a vampire." But I'm starting to think I'd like to. Not that I'm going to be saying that out loud any time soon.
"Are you planning on changing that?" he asks, a note of interest in his voice. In me? Or just in the idea of me?
"I'm hardly planning on going through the rest of my life as a nun," I reply.
"Even if the rest of your life is the next few hours?" He moves his leg against mine, and I do my best to pretend to be unaffected by it. I am not going to fall for his tricks.
"Then a nun I'll be," I reply, but I'm smiling. This back and forth? I like it. Almost as much as the softer side of Bram.
Something tells me I won't be seeing much of that once we're out in the open again.
"What a shame."
"There's not enough room in here anyway," I point out. Though admittedly, we are already pressed against each other. It would be fairly easy for me to slip my hands between us and...
"Interesting that you've thought about that."
"I
t's a left over thought from when I was here before," I respond, a little too quickly to actually be nonchalant. Oops.
"And how old were you then?"
"Twelve," I answer honestly. It was for a training exercise. Pretty much a game of cat and mouse like we're playing now.
"Not for a game either." He sounds sad. Like he's genuinely upset by the fact my childhood was none existence.
"Training," I acknowledge.
"When did you actually start?"
"Learning to be a hunter?" I feel him nod against me. "About five, maybe six. I don't really remember. They weren't very subtle about it either. Just, here's a stake, here's somewhere to stab it, and go."
"That's sad."
