AllFreeNovel
Share Us
River shook his head, hopping onto a seat at the kitchen island. “I’m good, but thank you. Do you drink blood?”
An innocent, casual question, not the sharp demands I was usually met with, or the cold questions that made me feel like a bug in amber. For his tone alone, I answered it.
“No.” I shook my head, curls bouncing against my shoulders, and leant against the counter opposite. “I don’t need blood to survive. Once I’ve transitioned, I will. My parents think I’ll still be partly human when Iammade, but I’ll need to feed on blood.”
River nodded, open curiosity in his eyes as he watched me. No judgement. “You’re not what I was expecting.”
My stomach flip-flopped. But I pasted a polite smile on my face to hide the dread and disappointment twisting inside me.
“No, I mean you’re way better,” River added quickly, his hands fluttering with panic. “I thought you’d be all superior and full of yourself, and you’d have every right to be—you’re the only born vampire in a century. But you’re … normal. Nice.”
I hid a wince.
“AndI’m digging an even deeper hole,” River groaned, pulling a face. “What Imeanto say is I’d expected to marry for my family, and grow to tolerate my wife. But with you … I think I’d actually like you. I think I’d like you a lot. Honestly, I already do.”
His freckled face was again set in that open, curious expression. “So it’sgoodthat I’m not what you expected?”
“Definitely,” he agreed, nodding fast. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty easy going. Powerful women—and men—tend to take advantage of that. I was expecting a life full of obeying orders. I don’t think it’d be that way with you, though, would it?”
“No,” I agreed, frowning. I knew exactly what kind of vampires he spoke about—the haughty and high ranking, who thought the world was owed to them because they’d lived so long or had been born to a ruling family. “Why wouldIbe like that? I’m from a middle ranking family, and I’m … only part vampire.”
River’s smile was sudden and stunning, and my breath caught. “Roxana—”
“Roxie,” I corrected.
“Roxie,” he went on, his eyes glinting, “you’re rare.Sofucking rare. Like I said before, you have every right to feel like you’re better than the rest of us. Youare, not that Silas will ever admit that. There are hundreds ofus, and only five of you in known existence.”
“Yeah.” I agreed. Another thing that made me feel like a black sheep.
River was quiet for so long that I had to look at him to judge his expression, running through a dozen topics we could talk about. But before I could, he said, “You just want to fit in, don’t you? You want to be a regular vampire.”
That was scarily astute.
I crossed my arms over my chest, not liking that he’d found a vulnerable spot in my chest and poked at it so soon. “Maybe.”
“That’s like a unicorn wanting to be a horse,” he said, but sympathy shone from his crimson eyes. “I get it, though. Well, obviously I don’tgetit,because I’m not a massively rare, stunningly beautiful vampire—just a run of the mill vamp—but you get what I mean.”
Stunningly beautiful?
That was what I stuck on—stunningly beautiful.
Sure, I’d spent a lot of time on my appearance, making my hair exactly as I wanted it to be, applying make up, and wearing one of my nicest dresses, but … stunningly beautiful? Those were words for models and queens. Not quiet, bookish women like me.
“Sorry,” River said with a wince. “I’m being overzealous again.”
“I like it,” I replied quickly, honestly. “And you’re not what I was expecting from a suitor, either. In a good way.”
His smile was massive, and took him from handsome to drop dead gorgeous.
The moment was interrupted by the door slamming open.
No knock, just—slam!
My heart shot into my throat as footsteps sounded in the hall.
My second suitor was here.
THREE
