“Being a vampire isn’t all bad. I know you’re worried about the blood part. You’re probably thinking it’ll be repulsive and you won’t be able to do it. But trust me, it won’t be as bad as you think.”
“Was it that easy for you to accept being a vampire? One day you were human, and the next you weren’t?”
“Exactly. I wasn’t particularly happy with it at first, but I knew it couldn’t be undone and so I decided to make the best of it. And I’ve never been sorry.”
“You’ve never wanted to be human again? Not once in five hundred years?”
“No.” It wasn’t entirely true. Not long ago, he had thought he would gladly give up being a vampire to spend one mortal lifetime with this woman. But now that she was nosferatu, they could have many lifetimes together, if she would accept what had happened and move on. He held out his hand. “Come hunting with me.”
“What if being a vampire brings out the worst in me?”
“It won’t.”
“How do you know? I don’t want to be like Shirl!” Her eyes grew wide as a new thought occurred to her. “She was like Villagrande’s slave. He told her to kill you, and she would have done it. She would have killed me if he’d told her to. It was like he was her master and she didn’t have any will of her own.”
“He was a strong vampire,” Rhys said quietly. “And she was new. It was easy for him to influence her.”
“You’re a strong vampire,” Megan retorted. “And I’m new.”
“That’s true. The difference is, I love and respect you. I’m not looking for a sex slave or a sycophant. I just want to make this as easy for you as I can.” Once she had accepted being a vampire, he would take her to meet what was left of the Council so they would know she was under his protection. He had contacted them soon after Villagrande had been destroyed and informed Rupert, Nicholas, and Julius that he was staying on the West Coast. Odd, that the three who had been with him the longest had survived the latest conflict.
“So, what do you say?” he asked. “Are you ready to go out and face the world?”
“No, but let’s get it over with.” She wouldn’t admit it to Rhys, but she couldn’t deny that she was curious. Of course, Rhys being Rhys, he was probably reading her mind even now.
If she decided to stay with him, she was going to have to practice blocking him or she would never have any privacy, she thought irritably, and then frowned.
If she stayed with him.
That was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, wasn’t it?
After removing the cast from Megan’s arm and the last of the bandages, they made a quick trip to Megan’s house. There, she changed into something a little more appropriate than an open-in-the-back hospital gown, and then Rhys took her hunting down by the beach.
Megan felt surprisingly calm as they strolled along the boardwalk, perhaps because none of it seemed real. This had to be a continuation of her nightmare, some sort of extended fever dream, and she would soon wake up in her own room, in her own bed.
She followed Rhys into a small tavern, stood near the entrance as he studied the men and women inside. When he asked her which patron she fancied, she pointed at a young man with black hair and dark blue eyes. Moments later, Rhys left the tavern, and the young man followed him down the street into the shadows. Megan trailed behind them. Rhys hadn’t spoken to the man or signaled to him in any way that she had seen; nevertheless, the man followed at his heels like a well-trained puppy. When Rhys came to a stop, the young man stopped, too.
Rhys looked at her over the man’s head; then, slowly and deliberately, he bit the man’s neck.
The coppery scent of fresh blood wafted through the air, warm and fragrant. The smell teased Megan’s nostrils, bringing the world around her into sharp focus, and her hunger with it. The numbness that had gripped her, the odd sense of unreality, all faded away, and she wanted nothing more than to take the young man in her arms.
She looked askance at Rhys, who nodded once.
And Megan took the dark-haired man into her embrace, lowered her head to his neck, and drank his life’s blood as if she had been doing it for years.
“Will I be able to be awake during the day, the way you are?” Megan asked.
“Not at first,” Rhys replied, “but soon.” He had been surprised at how quickly and efficiently she had fed the first time. Now, walking back to his penthouse, he wondered at the wisdom of bringing her across. The thought of losing her had been more than he could bear, but now, with his head clearer, he couldn’t help thinking about Shirl. He hadn’t made many mistakes in his life as a vampire, but turning Shirl was right up there in the top two.
They walked in silence for several moments before Megan declared, “I’m going back to my place.”
A number of responses chased themselves across his mind, and then he shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”
“Aren’t you going to try to talk me out of it?”
“No. I’m through making decisions for you.”
Megan blinked at him, not at all sure she liked this new side of him. At best, she had expected an argument; at worst, she had thought he would tell her outright that she was staying with him, like it or not.
“A few things you need to remember,” he said, his voice cool. “You need to be inside before the sun comes up. Your preternatural instincts will tell you when you’re in danger. You’ll need to feed every night for the first year or so. If you kill anyone—”
“I’m not going to do that!”
He shrugged. “It happens sometimes, especially with the newly turned. They can’t always control their hunger. So, like I was saying, if you kill anyone in my territory, be sure to dispose of the body.”
His territory. How had she forgotten that Rhys was the Master of the City? Among the West Coast vampires, his word was law.
“You need to meet the members of the Vampire Council,” Rhys said. “I’ll arrange it for tomorrow night.”
When he came to a stop, she realized they were in front of her house. She had been so stunned by what he was saying, she hadn’t paid any attention to where they were. In a distant part of her mind, she was amazed that they had covered so much ground in such a short time, and that, in spite of the long walk, she wasn’t the least bit tired.
“I’ve rented a house near the beach,” he said, and rattled off the address. “Be there tomorrow around midnight.”