A flush on her face, she said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”
She must have been dropping off her till, he realized. His hands rested on her shoulders, steadying her. He barely touched her but it felt as if electricity flowed through them like a live wire. “Lilly,” he said, not wanting to move his hands.
She nodded and asked, “Talan. How was your trip? Did you accomplish everything you needed to?”
He slowly lowered his hands and said, “I did. I came back to a huge mess, though.”
She winced and said, “I heard what happened. I’m sure he was making great tips in the club. What an idiot.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he agreed. “Had you given any thought to my request?”
She nodded again. “It makes me a little uneasy.”
“Me too,” he admitted.
“If we can agree to keep work separate...”
He could tell she was incredibly nervous, and that made her all the more enchanting. Instead of jumping at the chance to date a millionaire, she was giving him conditions. She really was priceless. “Of course, Lilly,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Then, yes. I’d like to go to dinner with you sometime.”
He reached up, brushing a hand against her cheek and said, “I’ll stop by when you work next so we can pick an evening. I hate to leave you now, but…”
“Enough said. Go handle what you need to handle.”
“Good night, Lilly.”
“Night, Talan,” she said, smiling softly.
He brushed his thumb across her cheek one last time. Then he stepped
back and turned, watching as she walked away. He let out a ragged breath. She had said yes.
Chapter Five
When Lilly sat down at her desk, it occurred to her that she’d really put the cart before the horse here. She’d agreed to a date but she realized she knew literally nothing about the Transfigured except what she’d learned in school and what people had told her. Neither of those pictures particularly jived with what she’d come to know from Talan. In school she’d learned that essentially some dormant gene became active once they reached adulthood. At the time they thought it had something to do with the areas that had been stricken with the greatest famine.
Suddenly, they were allergic to the sun and had to drink human blood to live. They developed super-powers. Stamina, speed. Her fifth grade teacher had explained that it was mostly for hunting purposes, even though they didn’t hunt anymore. She was a little ashamed to say that her knowledge of them as a species ended right about there. She’d never given much thought to how they ate now or how frightening it must’ve been to go through that change before there had been testing.
Opening her laptop, she typed “resources for the Transfigured” into Google. She was immediately provided with several links. The first was an app called “Thirst.” She clicked on it and read. Apparently, there were humans that signed up on this website who were willing to be fed off. They were able to be located by Transfigured that were “their type.” There was an app that enabled the GPS from their phones to direct them to one another. Creepy but neat, she thought. She clicked the back button.
Ah-ha, she thought as she skimmed the next link. The Transfigured Experience. This gave detailed explanations about the development of synthetic blood, explained the way the blood banks remained fully stocked, and the recommended mixture of human/animal blood versus synthetic for optimum health. Some of them drank animal blood? That was news. It seemed they really were trying to keep a healthy balance between feeding off of human blood and the synthetic stuff. She had to admire the logistics that must have gone into the development of this system.
She read on, skipping over the portion about the Transfigured police force and governmental services. That wasn’t really what she was looking for. Honestly, she wanted to know more about the change itself. It was lowering to admit that she’d never even thought about it.
The Transfigured population amounted to one in every fifty humans. For such a large subset of the population, she had marginalized them. She needed to be careful of that. Even if he seemed aloof, Talan must have feelings too. This, she realized, gave her something to work with. She’d do more research later. Right now, she had a date to get ready for.
An hour later, Lilly’s hands shook as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. She finger-combed a few more times through her curls and then looked at Marissa. “Well? What do you think,” she asked.
Marissa took in the smoky eye, the black dress, and small accents of grey in her accessories and said, “Hot. You look totally hot. I still can’t believe you’re going on a date with Talan McKenna.”
“Me neither,” Lilly admitted as she put the lip gloss into her purse. “I never really considered the Transfigured an actual dating option. Not that I really date anyway.”
“He’s so stoic all the time. Even though he’s gorgeous, I practically feel an arctic breeze when he walks by. I suppose he’s different when it’s just you?” Marissa asked, renewing her attempts to pry.
“He is,” Lilly agreed, her voice muffled as she reached into her closet for grey suede heels.
Finally, Marissa asked the question that was on both their minds. “Does he know about your family?”