Page 158 of The Midnight Order
His eyes narrow as he tosses me a look over his shoulder.
He looks devastatingly handsome today.
He’s in dark jeans. Always in dark colors. His button-up shirt is rolled up at the sleeves, and the top two buttons are open. His thin, trimmed chest hair is peeking out at me. His thick neck hasa tattoo in some ancient language scrawled on it, and I suddenly want to know how to read it.
“Tell you about what?”
I steady my nerves as I round back in front of him, trying to take his attention away from that damn house.
I swear it feels like the house is watching my back, watching me square off with a vampire like an ignorant little girl who doesn’t know any better.
Or is that Soliel?
Is her ghost looming in the halls, staring out the front window right back at Lowell.
“Is Osanna the witch you know that could help me?”
He hisses, baring his fangs. “Don’t get into my business, Silver.”
This pisses me off. “Why? I’m only allowed to fuck you, free you of your curse, and follow you around like a lost puppy? Fuck that! That’s not me. I need to know these things if?—”
“If what?” He steps into me, nearly knocking me breathless with his proximity.
I can’t back down, and I can’t let him know how much he affects me. I step back into him, squaring off with the leader of the Midnight Order, a centuries-old vampire.
It’s not the brightest thing I’ve ever done.
“If I’m going to fall in love with you, I need to know you! All the dark parts. Every sticky bit of you that you seek to hide. All of it.”
“The dark parts? What good will my showing you those do me?”
I shrug. “Maybe I’ll plant flowers there. Make them lighter.”
His laugh is snide, and it echoes through the woods.
“It’s a sweet sentiment, little lamb. But anything you try to plant in me will only darken and die. The soil of my soul is tainted.”
That hits me dead center, causing a pang to ripple through my chest. “That’s not true.”
“No. It is. You’re just choosing to see what you want to see because of every part of me that draws you in. But that’s only a ruse; that’s the charm vampirism gifts me to lure unsuspecting little lambs in to feed upon.”
Even though anger is welling in me, about to boil over, my breathing has hitched as his hand lifted to my face, brushing against my skin and causing an ache in my center.
“Will you at least try to feed?”
He revolts in disgust. “I can’t drink that shit anymore. Not with your scent lingering around every godforsaken corner.”
I swallow, ignorantly feeling guilt swarm over me. “What if you drank it while smelling me?”
It’s not a half-bad idea. Though it could go badly… for me.
His eyes flick down to the blood in his hand, his intricate muscles flexing as he contemplates the idea.
The thick cords of his neck vibrate with his next swallow, like his mouth’s full of glass instead of venom. “I could hurt you, Silver. I don’t trust myself. I shouldn’t be trusted.”
“You can’t go hungry, Lowell.”
“And you can’t feed me,” he whispers, shoving some of my hair away from my neck and watching where my pulse ticks beneath my skin.
