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His dark eyes narrow, brows snapping together. “You know I do. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
My swallow. “What do you mean?”
“There isn’t a person alive, vampire or human, who comes here who doesn’t know about the Book of Verimagiaa.”
“And that’s what you use the book for? Turning yourself into a bat? I thought you hated the fact that people called you Dracula?”
“Hated? No, that’s too strong a word,” he says with a shake of his head. “Let’s just say it got tiresome after a while.”
“And then after a while you decided to live in a castle and turn yourself into a bat. Is your life so boring these days?”
“These days?” he repeats, ice in his tone. His demeanor stiffens and I know I’m playing a risky game by getting him aggravated already, let alone on a balcony where he could easily toss me over the edge for fun. He’d probably laugh while I plunged the whole way down.
“People say you left Venice for the mountains because you were running away from something.” And yet, there I go, pushing my luck.
His eyes narrow into dark slits. “I wasn’t running away from anything. I was running to something.”
“And what was that? Salvation?”
He lets out an acidic laugh. “Salvation? Oh, dear girl, there is no saving me. Not anymore. Thankfully I have no wish to be saved.” He takes a step toward me, tilting his head as his gaze flicks over me. “Is that why you’re here? You think I need saving?”
That’s as good a reason as any. I decide to explore it, wondering how close I can get to the truth.
“I heard that you left because of a woman. Not just any woman either.”
His energy changes like a cold front has just blasted in. “I will tell you this much,” he says, his tone knife sharp. “There was a woman, but someone I went to great lengths to forget. As far as I’m concerned, the past has not only passed but it never existed in the first place. And if you dare to mention this woman, any woman at all that you think had some impact on my life, I will feed you to the demon and watch as it tears you limb from limb. You won’t be the first person who has made such a dire mistake.”
I swallow uneasily, my chest growing tight at his words.
I never existed in the first place.
Fuck if that doesn’t hurt.
“Got it,” I tell him, my cheeks going hot. I tear my eyes away from his gaze and glance back at the windows into the house. “Where is Abe?”
“The doctor left this morning,” Valtu says, striding past me to the door.
“Already?” I cry out, following him inside. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye! Now I’m truly alone here.
“Hmmm,” Valtu muses, shutting the door behind me before shucking off his coat and laying it on the back of the couch. “I just got back. Decided to fly the way back up in case you got into any more trouble with my creature.” He glances over at me. “Did you?”
I shake my head and make my way over to the piano, my fingers trailing over the keys. “No. Thank god. No bad things, no babies.”
His gaze narrows. “Bad thing?”
Oh shit. That’s what Livia had called the demon back in Venice. Is this information I shouldn’t know?
“Yeah, bad thing,” I repeat idly, pressing down on the D, E, and F keys. “I decided to call it—”
In a flash Valtu is on me, grabbing my face between his fingers and flipping me around so I’m pressed against the piano, the keys all crying out at once in cacophony of sound. “How did you know it was called that? Who are you? What do you want?” he hisses angrily, like a snake ready to strike. “Are you a witch?”
“I don’t think so,” I manage to say against his fingers.
His mahogany eyes search mine, his pupils angry little pin pricks. He blinks. “You don’t think so?”
I don’t say anything. It’s hard to when he’s holding me like he wants to snap my face in half. I keep staring at him, trying to figure out what I’m going to say, what my next move is.
He relents, just a little, moving his fingers down to my chin where he grips me hard. “What do you mean you don’t think you’re a witch?”
