Page 38 of A Bond Beyond Blood

“Nod if you understand.”

Nod, because he could see me in the dark, while I was rendered blind.So I nodded.I would give him the answer he wanted, but I had no intention of going down easily.

And, this time, thanks to Vinny, I was armed.

“Is that so,” he drawled as he snaked one hand up beneath my coat to feel around at my hips, then inched higher, trailing his fingertips along the length of one pointed stake.

I swallowed hard, and he made an amused little sound, then leaned forward and breathed me in.“You reek of vampires.Do you offer yourself up to monsters, Jack?”

“No,” I forced through clenched teeth.

He sniffed and I went rigid as his nose came dangerously close to the skin of my cheek.“Two vampires.Young, the both of them.Babies, really.”

He got all that just from their scents?Jesus.How old was this guy?

“I was born in sixteen-oh-eight,petit colibri.”

I gasped and he laughed, the sound a deep rumble that sank into my bones.

“With age comes many things.Wisdom, yes.Boredom, most definitely—”

“And you can read my thoughts.”With one hand still held firmly within his grasp, as slowly as I could muster, I reached for my nearest stake.

He leaned closer and I froze, then shivered as his nose brushed that sensitive place just below my earlobe.“Only because my blood flows through your veins.”

My mouth dropped open.

The hand that had been reaching for my weapon flopped to my side.“Wh-what?”

The vampire sighed.“I, too, am surprised by this development.”He paused and I tried to still my racing heart, but it was no use.

His blood ran through my veins?

What the fuck?How?

“How, indeed.”He sighed again, and it wasn’t the sigh of irritation but something else.A bone-tiredness I couldn’t fathom.“Come.Let’s go upstairs and have a civilized conversation.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Oh,dotry to cooperate.We have so much to discuss.”

“I doubt we have anything to discuss.”

Hetskedagain.“Please don’t test me,petit colibri.I’m positively famished.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Because,” he said, his mouth dangerously close to my ear, “your heart beats as rapidly as the wings of a hummingbird.Fear has that effect on humans.”

My muscles went rigid and I straightened my shoulders.“I’m not afraid.”

“How very foolish of you.”He flipped on the light and I blinked against the blight fluorescents, struggling to focus, but when I did—

Holy shit.

He was absolutely stunning.

His face was chiseled stone, a jawline so sharp you could cut glass on it, but the way his full lips were so soft and pale pink beneath his broad nose.They were almost feminine in their fullness, and it softened him somehow, made him more beautiful than was humanly possible.

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