Page 107 of The Rogue's Curse

Her brows raised. “You did?”

He nodded. “When I was young, all of my family died due to a plague.”

“The Black Plague?”

“That’s the one,” he said.

Her brow furrowed. “So you’re like, seven hundred years old?”

“Fuck off,” he said. “It wiped out half of Europe in the fourteenth century, but it came back many times over the years. Your pitiful American education probably didn’t include an in-depth exploration plagues that ravaged French towns in the eighteenth century.”

“Pitiful… I graduated with a solid D average,” she teased. Her expression faltered. “I’m sorry you lost your family.”

“I am too. It was entirely unfair. Given my long life, the years that I had them were a blink of an eye. But the loss…it sometimes still aches,” he said. “I imagine if you were a proper psychoanalyst, you might say that’s why I care so much about this family. I was not some pitiful wretch endlessly lamenting my grief before I turned, but I also felt nothing holding me back in the world of daylight.”

“Like me,” she said.

“Like you,” he agreed. “But way better looking.”

“And blind, apparently,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee and flashing him that cocky eyebrow that he liked so much.

“There’s one other thing, and it’s important. You will never have children if you turn,” he said.

She shot him a sharp look. “Do I look like I want to have kids?”

“That’s not for me to decide, Danielle,” he said. “I know several vampires who were turned against their will who wanted to have their own children someday.”

She nodded solemnly, clearly chastised. “I’m still learning to take care of myself. I wouldn’t trust myself with a child.”

He took her hand. “I understand your sentiment, but I wish you saw yourself in a kinder light.”

Her brows arched, and she began to pull away. For a moment, he saw that steel spine, the fire that never went out in Danielle Pierce. “I appreciate that you do. Maybe I’ll eventually see what you see,” she finally said.

He nodded. “You don’t realize how much you do for us here.”

“I mix drinks and wipe up tables,” she said drily. “I’m not saving the world.”

“You make us feel normal and at home again,” he said. “There’s a beautiful light in you that brings people closer. And when you’re behind the bar, you make a stranger feel like a friend. You have magic just like Misha does.”

Her smile broadened. “Thanks,” she said, eyes glistening. “Why are you so nice to me?”

“I shouted at you just yesterday. Is that nice?”

She laughed. “We were just communicating with intensity. I yelled at you, too.”

“I like you,” he said. “I like that you speak your mind and that you haven’t let life put out your spark. You also have excellent taste in men’s clothing. The idea of having you around as a vampire isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever heard.”

She smirked. “You say the sweetest things.”

They’d spent another hour together, during which he’d lathered himself in Karina’s foul-smelling sunscreen and drove Danielle to the best-reviewed restaurant in Atlanta for a massive burger and fries, followed by a towering slice of cake from a bakery.

He would never have told her so, but there had been a strange moment before Misha arrived that he had wondered if old madam Fate had decided Danielle was meant to be his mate. As the lone vampire awake during the day, he became Danielle’s go-to connection with the court, and he’d come to enjoy her company even if there was no romantic attraction. Even without a magical bond, he felt a kinship with her, as if she was a little sister who’d simply come along much later in his life.

For all her bluster and certainty, Danielle was clearly afraid as she walked into the interior room he’d had prepared for her transition. Her heart pounded so loud he’d heard it from down the hall.As he always did, he did a double take when Olivia walked into the room behind her sister. Not only were they near mirror-images, but their scents were so similar that it made him feel as if he was drunk and smelling double.

Danielle gestured toward Olivia and said, “I asked Olivia to be here. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine,” he said, meeting Olivia’s fearful eyes.

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