AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll have one drink,” he agreed in a low, husky voice that made me shivery, his dark eyes bouncing from one side of the hall to the other, from the floor to the ceiling to the door to the sitting room. Vigilant—so vigilant that there had to be a story there.
I gave him my softest smile and held out my hand to guide him into the kitchen. Instead, he threaded his fingers through mine, his expression awed and gentle.
I felt like crap for my initial freaked out reaction, but even now I was painfully aware of how dangerous he was compared to me. I’d been taking self defence classes for years, and I knew how to handle myself—and how to handle a knife—but I wasnothingcompared to a vampire old enough to show signs of age. He was as old as my parents, if not older. And every bit as deadly.
And yet his hand was gentle around mine, not crushing, and I didn’t think River would let Claude hurt me.
I let go of Claude’s hand when we were in the kitchen, opening the fridge and settling into my hostess role. “What would you like?” I asked.
Claude was close behind me, his nearness making my back tingle and his temperature icy cold. “All of it,” he breathed, staring at the bottles of blood on the top shelf. “All of it.”
“You don’t need to drink it all now, Claudey,” River said, his eyes crinkled. “It’s not going anywhere.”
“It’s supposed to last three days,” I said, chewing my lip. Mum and Dad had stocked the fridge with enough blood for all three of my suitors for their whole stay. If it all went today … well, I’d figure it out.
“Here,” River said, giving Claude a smile as he stepped close to us, his arm brushing mine as he reached into the fridge. I couldn’t explain why my skin tingled. “How about this one?”
Claude accepted the bottle River passed him, staring down at it in contemplation, but then he nodded slowly. It was strange, seeing him do anything slow. “Yes, this will be good.”
I tried not to stare as he unscrewed the cap and downed the whole thing in one go, already eyeing the rest of the fridge’s supply. “It’s not going anywhere,” he said to himself, echoing River’s words.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly as I closed the fridge door, unable to hold in the question any longer.
“Starved,” he replied in that hushed voice of his, his fingers smoothing silver hair back from his beautiful face.
“Oh, well you can have—”
“Iwasstarved,” he interrupted, louder. He shook his head fast, his expression shifting to curiosity. Not just morphing gradually into curiosity—there was no sign of his previous haunted emotion at all. I blinked, and he was across the kitchen, retreating from us. “A microwave. I haven’t seen one of these since the eighties. Do they still do that jaunty little ding?”
“Uh,” I replied, dumbfounded, still processing what he’d said—he’d beenstarved. “Yeah. Still dings.”
“Brilliant,” he declared, grinning as he pressed the button to open the door, clapping his hands together in joy.
No wonder he was so eccentric and frantic. How long had he been starved for? I had a sister I’d never met who’d been starved for several weeks long before I was born, and she’d never recovered her trust in people. She’d almost desiccated—nearly turned to ash.
“Who did—” I began, but I cut off the question at River’s subtle head shake. He knew, and knew enough about Claude’s moods to advise me when not to press him for answers.
“Hmm?” Claude asked urgently, his eyes wide and interested.
“Who did you say the third suitor was again?” I asked River, thinking fast.
“Silas Abraham,” Claude hissed sourly, answering instead of River. “Vicious man.”
My eyes widened, my heart quickening again. I leaned against the fridge, needing it for stability, very aware that I was alone in a house with two dangerous strangers. “He won’t … hurt me, right?”
“We’d never allow him, my Roxie,” Claude swore, his dark eyes full of—devotion. Something I hadn’t expected to see. “Never.”
River nodded, leaning against the small metal table in the centre of the room. “Silas wouldn’t hurt you, though. That’s not his style. He’d just intimidate you, and be a generally unfriendly bastard.”
“Speak of the devil,” Claude said in a rushed breath, crossing the kitchen in a blink. “He’s still driving unreasonably expensive cars judging by that engine.”
My breath went short, and I flattened creases from my dress, running my hands over my hair, my knees weak once more.
“Don’t give him power over you, Rox,” River murmured.
When I looked at him, he was watching me with a gentle expression, his hands tucked in the pockets of his sweatpants. He might not have been as old as Claude, but he was wise. I nodded. He was right. If Silas was going to be a bastard, he was going to be a bastard. Getting worked up wouldn’t change that.
I left them in the kitchen and waited in the hall for Silas to knock, refusing to open the door first when he was here to courtme. Inmyhouse, no less. I jumped at the four swift raps, but I didn’t spiral this time, so I was composed and welcoming as I opened the door, all my emotions hidden beneath congeniality.
