Page 55 of Love Bites
"I didn't realize he was your partner."
"We always work in teams," Talon explained, sitting at the edge of the bed.
"That's nice."
"Not always."
"No?" I asked, wondering if maybe Talon didn't like this other vampire.
"He believes I need to laugh more and the way he goes about achieving this is often exhausting." Talon shook his head and I couldn't stop the grin that took over my face. Talon shot me a look. "Why does that make you so happy?"
"I'm just imagining you getting pranked by another vampire." Whoever this Aldrich was, I wanted to get to know him and hear his stories.
"I'm sure that must be very funny to you. He got me drunk once."
"How did he manage that?" I asked, intrigued. What would a drunk Talon even act like?
"Swapped the blood I was drinking with that of a drunk person when I wasn't looking."
"The blood of a drunk person?" Interesting. So if I wanted to get my vampire drunk, I'd just have to get drunk first and then get him to bite me—which shouldn't be too hard.
"You can order it at the club. Some vampires enjoy it." Talon's eyes wandered to my belly. "You order it by asking for a 'juiced up Bloody Mary'. I don't think you should try that, though."
"No, I guess not." My stomach clenched. Pregnant people weren't supposed to drink, right? "Are we really going to have a baby?" Not something I really wanted to talk about, but I figured we needed to have this conversation sooner or later.
"There's a high possibility of that happening." Talon moved to sit by my side. "We have to prepare for it, anyway."
"How do you feel about that?" I studied the vampire's face, but couldn't read his expression.
"To be perfectly honest," Talon said slowly, "I don't know. I have never thought about being a parent. I know that I had a child in my past life as human, but I can't clearly remember her. That life was taken from me. That family was taken from me." His features darkened. "All I know is I'm not going to let that happen again. I'm not going to let any harm come to you or that child."
Warmth washed through me at the possessive tone in Talon's voice. Even though I'd never thought about being a parent either, I could suddenly picture raising a family with this vampire, as ludicrous as that idea should have seemed. I felt like maybe it was my destiny. Drawing my knees to my chest, I glanced at my arm. "Can I confess something?"
"Anything." Talon drew me against his side. I huddled closer.
"I kind of love that you're a vampire," I said.
"Really?" Talon brushed his thumb over my cheek. "Most mortals would be disturbed."
"I like the concept of immortality," I explained, and then I felt stupid, because duh. Who didn't like the concept of immortality? "It's just that... I guess you're not going to die on me any time soon." Not like my bio parents and then my adoptive father. Talon wasn't going to die for some silly reason like sudden heart failure.
"I see. There's no true immortality, though. There's several ways to kill a vampire."
"I know. Dad taught me about a few of them. Stake to the heart, decapitation, fire..." I trailed off. "You're still sturdier than regular humans. Even if there's ways to kill a vampire, they're not easy to execute."
"We can hold our own against mortals," Talon said in a way that let me know there was a 'but' coming. I knew why, too. There were a ton of vampires who were going to want me dead when they heard about me, and Talon planned on standing in their way. I burrowed into his side.
"Just promise that you'll stay with me for as long as you can."
"Promise." Talon kissed the top of my head, and I let the feeling placate me. At least for now. We could just stay in hiding, right? Until the baby was born—somehow—and then we could live our lives on the run for as long as it was necessary. Maybe we could flee to another country. I was ready to do that.
Whatever it took.
Chapter Seventeen
The first three witches Aldrich tracked down for Talon were a complete waste of time. They knew nothing. After the third time a witch tried to hook up with him instead of exchanging information, Talon began to doubt if Aldrich was taking this seriously or trying to play another prank on him. Aldrich claimed that it wasn't his fault though, that it was tough to find someone who knew specific information when he wasn't allowed to give any details about Collin away.
Talon conceded that he might have a point. He still didn't want Collin's name or whereabouts to get out, but he told Aldrich to start searching for witches who were familiar with runes that presented as birthmarks in certain people.
