Page 61 of The Prince's Curse

“I…” He chuckled. “I was concerned you might get up and leave during the day, and I was hoping to convince you otherwise.”

She let out a nervous laugh. “I was considering it. I was concerned one of you might drug me in my sleep.”

“That’s fair enough,” he said. He looked away. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay. I don’t think having clothes on would make me all that much more at ease,” she said with a laugh. “You can go back to sleep. I don’t plan to run, at least until I have clean panties.”

His eyes snapped open, and she could see the Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallowed hard. What was he thinking about? And why did it delight her to think he might have something much less innocent on his mind?

“I’ll give you your privacy,” he said, ducking out of the door quickly.

“Wait,” she said. “I need to stay up long enough to put them in the dryer.”

His brow arched, and then he nodded. “Sure. We’re going to meet Jonas Wynn at noon.”

Heart thrumming, she followed him through the living room and up the stairs, back to the bedroom where she’d slept. He crept past the bed and opened one of the curtains. Instead of hissing as his skin burned, he just winced at the light.

“The sun doesn’t bother you?” she marveled.

“The windows are all treated with UV-blocking film,” he said, closing them again. “The woman who used to live here was turned into a vampire unexpectedly, so her mate—her partner made the house sunproof so she could stay here.”

“Her mate?”

He nodded. “Not important right now. Can I ask you what your life has been like? Were you always with Armina, or…?”

She nodded. “She was always with me, as far as I remember. She told me when I was little that she was my aunt, and that my parents had died in an accident. When I was seventeen, she told me that vampires were real, and that one had killed my parents. You, or so she said.”

Shifting away from her, he winced. “Did you have a normal life before that?”

With a laugh, she said, “What’s normal? It was just my life, and I didn’t know any different at the time. But I suppose if I judge it by the movies, then no. I went to a very small private school through fifth grade, and then went to boarding school until I graduated. When I was home, she made me keep a strict schedule and insisted that I learn self-defense and martial arts very young. I think I was ten or eleven the first time Kova put me in a chokehold.” Noting the flicker of anger on Julian’s face, she put up her hands. “Not to hurt me. To teach me.”

He relaxed, shifting to sit on the bed. With his legs crossed casually, he looked far more human. Like a normal man sitting to have a conversation.

With her nearly naked.

No big deal.

“When did she teach you to hunt vampires?” he asked.

“I’d been home from boarding school a few days when she told me the truth. I knew vampires existed before that, but not what they had to do with my family. She said she’d wanted to wait until I was old enough, and when she told me how you’d killed my mother and father, I was all in. I’d been training so much with Kova over the years that it wasn’t much of a change to add in sharper weapons and aim for the neck,” she said. “I started working with the Shieldsmen when I was twenty, although there were long periods when I didn’t hunt because there was simply nothing to do.”

“With Jonas Wynn?”

She shook her head. “I only hunted with Jonas once or twice before coming here. There’s another team that works mostly—” She caught herself, then smiled. “I probably shouldn’t tell you. There are a couple of dhampir hunters that work together for big hunts. They were here in Atlanta, too, but they move around. Sometimes I traveled to hunt with them.”

“Do you know if the Shieldsmen are gunning for us still?” He toyed with one of the pillows, twining fringe idly around one finger.

“I really don’t know. I don’t spend time with them often, except occasionally training. I stay with Armina, and she tells me when it’s time to move,” she said. Just like she told her everything else. It was startling to look back and think of how long she’d been under Mina’s wing. How much had she missed out on? She’d been on a perfectly straight path from the day she was born, one neatly carved and laid out by Armina Voss.

“Did you ever get to do anything fun?” he asked.

“Hunting is fun,” she said. “I like to be strong. I like learning.”

His nose wrinkled. “I mean hobbies, not things your life depends upon. I don’t know…dancing or painting or playing soccer.”

Her heart thumped. “Tante Mina told me it was important to be focused on my purpose.”

A purpose she hadn’t chosen, one that had been dropped in her lap. And now, according to these people, one that wasn’t even real.

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