Original Sin (The Order of Vampires 1)

“You attacked him, didn’t you?” But that thing she saw in the field wasn’t human. It was too fast to be... “It was an animal.” Even to her own ears her assessment fit like a flimsy excuse. “I heard the growls...”

His fingers closed around hers and she pulled her hand back, studying his face.

Adam. Adam. Sandy blonde hair. Piercing blue eyes. Golden, sun-kissed skin. Soft, kissable lips. Broad shoulders. Sculpted chest. A man in his prime, nothing more.

He’s thirty-seven.

The knee jerk excuse that his way of life kept him in impeccable physical condition—That’s not what this is.

That’s not what he is.

She heard an animal in the field. She saw it spring too fast for a human. It ... mauled.

Her brain rejected her excuses as much as it rejected the facts. She slid off the bed and paced, trying to work through what she saw. Why had Grace tried to cover her eyes? Why wouldn’t she let her look? What were they afraid she’d see?

His earlier screams for Grace to get her out of there... His sister yanking her away... The way his eyes sometimes flashed silver in certain light...

“Adam, look at me.”

His face lifted, his stare set on hers. Nothing appeared amiss, but she could read it in his eyes. There had been that one time his pupils looked elongated, almost feline.

And what about the way Grace read thoughts? The way Adam pushed his emotions into her last night? What if there was a bigger reason they lived in the middle of nowhere, removed from everyone else?

“Your heart’s racing.”

And shit like that. How did he know that?

Pressing a hand to her chest, the frantic pounding beat at her palm. “Can you hear it?” That wasn’t normal. People didn’t just hear other people’s organs functioning.

“You’re almost there, ainsicht. I sense your curiosity. Your doubts. Your suspicions. You’re on the cusp.”

She scowled at him. “The cusp of what? Stop speaking in riddles and tell me what’s going on. What...”

Her question evaporated on her tongue. If she voiced it, she’d have to admit she might believe whatever the answer would be. And if all of this turned out to be one big misunderstanding, she needed more help than she realized.

Looking him in his arctic blue eyes, she asked, “What are you?”

He didn’t blink away. “I’m not like you.”

“But not just because you’re Amish.”

“Correct.”

Her fingers pressed into the plaster wall at her back. She’d paced herself into a corner.

“You need not fear me. My promise not to hurt you remains.”

But if he was the thing in the field that attacked his brother... She glanced at his ribs and gasped. “Your cuts healed.” Nothing but dried blood and perfect skin. “How?”

“There are things you don’t know, Annalise. Secrets that have been kept for centuries in order to keep my people safe.”

“Amish people?”

“No. Our Amish culture is part of who we are. It’s the veil that protects us from the rest of the world.”

The scratches on his arms had healed to mere red marks. It wasn’t scientifically possible. The black bruises on his skin had yellowed and all but disappeared.

Her palms pressed into the wall, sliding until her fingers curled around the chair in the corner. She wouldn’t take her eyes off him, but she needed to sit before her legs gave out.

She dragged the chair closer and slid onto the seat. “Why am I here, Adam?”

He’d told her a hundred times, and not once had she believed him. All the mentions of mates and bonds and cryptic talk of life and death... None of it made any sense, but maybe she should have been listening all along.

“You’re here because I’m dying and only you can save me. You’re my salvation.”

“Is there a name for your disease?”

He tipped his head in consideration, taking his time to answer. When his gaze returned to her, he said, “Mortality.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Her head cocked. “Excuse me?”

“The best I can describe it is, mortality, a fragile life sentence that will meet its demise. Death is coming for me, Annalise, and without you, I can’t escape it.”

“Death comes for all of us. You made me believe you had some sort of disease.”

“My time’s limited. When I leave this world, I want to escape with my honor. Every passing day that outcome becomes less likely. I’m trying to be patient for your sake, but I grow weary of the task. Today, when I attacked my brother, only a shred of humanity remained, drawing me back before I ended him. Even now, I question if my mercy was overly generous.”

His reaction to the mishap with his brother seemed blown massively out of proportion. “He didn’t do anything.”

“He put his hands on you,” he snarled, and she stiffened.

There it was, that flash of silver in his eyes. It proved enough of a warning to remind her that his emotions still boiled from a volatile place. A dangerous place. She wished the bedroom door was open.