So instead of losing him into the night, and understanding nothing about what had happened to them, she’d rolled her own dice and taken a chance that he wouldn’t hurt her. Which was no chance at all, really. He’d only ever tried to keep her safe—
Wow, she thought abruptly. He was still half naked.
And what a view at her kitchen table.
Funny what you noticed… and didn’t, depending on how stressed you were.
She cleared her throat. And stammered anyway. “So you’re… she’s possessed you?”
He looked down at her empty napkin holder. When he nodded, that chill on her nape got worse.
“How can you get her out?”
“I need that Book,” he replied. “The one that was at the triplex. That’s why I was there the night I met you. And then tonight, I went to the bookshop because I Googled rare booksellers in Caldwell and it was the first that came up. I thought maybe I could get a lead or some background on the thing.”
“I went there for the same reason.” She tapped the side of the bottle with her fingernail—and then promptly irritated herself with the sound. “I have an idea about how we might be able to get some information on it. But it’s going to have to wait until morning.”
“What’s your plan—”
“What are you.”
There, she was out with it. The big question. The one that she was most worried about the answer to.
And when he didn’t immediately respond, she shrugged. “You might as well tell me. You said that the less I know, the more free I am, but that’s not true when you’re sitting in my kitchen in a sheet.”
After a moment, he nodded. “I agree.”
But then he didn’t say anything else.
As the silence stretched out, she got up from her chair. Maybe it was the half of a Miller Lite. Maybe it was just how much she had seen in the course of the night.
Maybe it was because of all the places life had taken her—most of them being really fucking god-awful—the idea that something otherworldly was in her house seemed more meh than emergency.
When she went around her table and stood in front of him, he looked at her, the heavy cords of muscle that ran up the sides of his neck flexing as he tilted his head back.
Don’t touch him, she told herself. You touch him right now and there’s no going back.
“There isn’t one anyway.”
“What?” he murmured.
“It doesn’t matter.”
She got so close that his knees had to part to accommodate her. And then she brushed at his hair, thinking of how she’d stroked it when he’d been lying there on the floor of that storeroom, in a pool of his own blood.
“Show me,” she demanded. “If you can’t tell me, show me.”
There was a heavy pause that seemed to have the same density as the aftermath of a bomb blast. Instead, it just turned out to be the preamble for what really knocked her over.
His upper lip rolled back off his front teeth.
And as she noticed that he had really, really long canines…
…they dropped down from the roof of his mouth, right in front of her very eyes.
Erika started to breathe hard, and even that didn’t do anything to relieve the crushing suffocation in her chest.
“Vampire,” she whispered.
“You have nothing to fear from me. You need to know that—”
“Oh… God.”
With an expression of exhaustion, he put up his hand as if trying to stop the conclusions running through her mind. “Hold on, you humans have it all wrong. There’s no biting and turning people, and a stake through the heart is no different than a dagger. And to hell with the defiler of virgins bullshit—and no, garlic and crosses don’t do anything.” He shook his head. “We are a separate species from you and we just want to live our lives in peace, something that’s really hard to do when there are so many of you around—and when we have other things unrelated to humans that want to kill us. It’s a battle, all the time. Good thing we’re really good at fighting.”
On that note, he linked his arms over his naked chest and sat back in the chair. Going by the jut of his jaw, she had a feeling he was offended by a lot of her kind.
Join the club, she thought to herself. Sometimes she wasn’t all that impressed with humans, either.
“Why are you smiling?” he said.
She reached up and touched her mouth, unaware that there was a wry lift to her lips. “Um… I guess I’m just surprised I’m not scared. And shocked that I don’t feel as though we’re all that different.”
“You shouldn’t be frightened of me.”
“I’m not. Instead, I find you…”
As she let the words drift, she focused on his mouth. And wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. Just bend down and press her lips to his.