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Meanwhile, though, I was having the best week of my life.
In between having Twilight in every position I could think of, I coaxed her to tell me about herself. I especially enjoyed hearing stories about her childhood. I could just picture a tiny, dark-eyed, pigtailed Twilight playing vampire and slayer.
“I’ll bet you were a baby badass,” I’d told her, and she’d snort-laughed.
“Yeah,” she’d deadpanned. “I came out of the womb kicking butt.”
I toyed with the idea of asking if she’d meant it about dreaming of becoming a vampire. Would she be willing to be turned? And did I want to risk losing her?
Because itwasrisky—some humans didn’t make it through the transition.
As for Slayers, Inc., she didn’t volunteer any information about the organization or what her work had entailed, and I didn’t ask. In return, I didn’t talk about syndicate business in front of her.
As far as I was concerned, she was never going to work for those SI bastards again anyway, especially after she shared why she was so terrified of being locked up a dark, windowless space.
One night I arranged a lobster bake in a secluded cove—just a fire, the ocean, and the two of us on a soft plaid blanket spread out on the sand.
As the lobster cooled, we sipped glasses of dry white wine and gazed out at the water. “I used to come here with Cain and Talon and some of the other teenagers,” I told her.
“Yeah? Sounds fun.”
“It was.” I smiled, remembering. “But before that, I used to come with my father.”
“To do what?”
“Swim. He’s the one who taught me. He was…more relaxed in the water. We’d race each other around the island.”
“What about those great white sharks?”
My mouth quirked. “That was part of the fun. Great whites are fast and sneaky as fuck. I could outswim them, but it wasn’t easy.”
She eyed me like I was insane. “That’s your idea of fun?”
“Jules’s way of toughening me up. But we both enjoyed it.” My smile faded. “But that was a long time ago—twenty, twenty-five years.”
And even though it had been a game, it had also been a test of my strength—mental and physical. A vampire wasn’t easy to kill, but we still felt pain.
Twilight slid me a look. “The primus—he’s okay?”
I instinctively smoothed out my expression. She’d broken our unspoken agreement not to talk about our respective professions. “Why do you ask?”
She compressed her mouth. “Because he more or less attacked me, up on the curtain wall.”
I straightened from where I’d been lounging on the blanket. “When?”
“Last week. He didn’t hurt me, but he scared the shit out of me.”
“Last week? Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“I didn’t want to cause trouble. I figured you couldn’t do anything about it anyway. Since then, I’ve been careful.”
My stomach tightened. She shouldn’t have had to deal with Jules at all, but at least he hadn’t hurt her. “I’m sorry he scared you. I promise that he won’t bother you again. He’s been confined to his apartment.”
Her brows raised. “I…see. That’s good, then.”
I waited for her to ask why he’d been confined, but she didn’t. Had she guessed or heard that Jules was going blood mad? But I didn’t press her. Frankly, I was glad to let the subject drop.
Going to the fire, I crouched on my haunches and ladled clams, corn and potatoes onto a plate. “It’s cool enough to eat now.”
