Page 12 of Love Bites
At least not without a kiss goodbye.
Jesus Christ, what was wrong with me?
"Who's Robert?" I demanded. "What the hell were you trying to pull just now, showing me that?"
"I wasn't trying to 'pull' anything, as you so eloquently put it. I don't know what that was."
He wasn't lying. I could tell by the soft worry lines on his face. But how could he not know? He wasinthat vision, or whatever it was we had seen. A younger version of him, but still. "You were hot when you were young," I said without thinking, because yeah, he had been, and apparently I was still thinking with my little brain.
One of his eyebrows arched up. "Only when I was young?"
"That's not what I'm saying." No, not at all. I took a step toward the vampire, closing the distance he had opened between us before I could think too much about what a terrible idea that was.
There was just something drawing me toward him that defied all logical explanation—and certainly all logical action. I should have run. I should have grabbed my stake and driven it through his heart, and yet I did neither of those things. My fingers went to my neck, to the wound that had already closed. My gaze locked with Talon's. His eyes were cold. The eyes of a killer. But there was a flicker of emotion there, however distant. He must have been human once. That was what I'd sensed when he bit me. That was why I wasn't scared.
After a second, Talon turned, facing away from me. "I've got to go."
"Wait." He couldn't leave yet. There were so many things I still needed to ask!
Talon didn't seem to care for my protests, though. Before I could utter another word, he took another step away from me and then he turned me completely speechless as his body was enveloped by a black mist and the next thing I knew, I was watching a falcon fly away.
Weren't vampires supposed to be bats?
And was that really the most pressing question I had?
Chapter Five
Iswapped my shift at the coffee shop with a coworker. She made me promise her several favors, but that was okay. After all, I had more important things to do than pour coffee. I strolled along the fences that lined my family's property. My siblings thought I was taking a walk, but in reality, I was inspecting what Dad used to call 'the wards'.
If Talon had found me at the cemetery, that meant he must have been keeping a close eye on me for a while, stalking me. I looked up at the trees sloping up on the hill outside our backyard and wondered if maybe he was stalking me even now. I wouldn't have been surprised if he was. The question then became why he'd waited to approach me at the cemetery rather than kidnapping me in the middle of the night.
He'd proven today that he could walk in daylight, even if he preferred the shade, but the night probably still gave him some advantages.
So why hadn't he caught up to me during the night? I'd hurt his eyes, but probably not enough to cause lasting damage. Which led me to another conclusion for why Talon hadn't chased me here last night.
If Dad had been right about vampires, everything else he'd told me about might be real too.
Like these 'runes' that he had scratched into the wooden fence surrounding the property to keep us safe from vampires.
But, Dad, don't vampires have to be invited to enter your house?I remembered myself asking, watching my dad with mild interest as he explained the fence to me.
He'd argued that we had a lot more property to defend than just the house, which made sense.
With the tip of my finger, I traced one of the runes. It looked like a squiggly T.
Every so often, Dad had come out here to make sure the runes were all still intact. It could take him an entire day to go over the whole fence. Once or twice, he'd made me come with him. I hadn't learned much from those outings, but enough to know that if even one of these squiggly lines was disturbed, the 'wards' would weaken.
And they could be disturbed real easily too.
I pulled out a pocket knife that Jared had given me for my 18th birthday and that I'd found lying around in my old room earlier. It had my name inscribed on it, and it was rare for Jared to give out personal gifts like that, so I'd taken good care of it. Popping the blade out, I rested it just above the squiggly T. I paused.
Was this really a good idea?
I wanted to see Talon again. I could spend hours arguing with myself whetherthatwas a good idea—and I had—but I couldn't deny that it was true. Which had led me here. If I broke the wards, and if my theory held true, that was almost as good as sending the vampire an invitation to my home. Only that it wouldn't actually allow him into the house proper. There was no danger to my siblings and I could redraw the runes I'd destroyed later.
Granted, I could also have stepped off the property, but there was a certain sense of safety in being at home that I wasn't ready to let go off.
Besides, doing it this way sent a clear message to the vampire that I wasn't scared of him. At least, I didn'twantto be scared of him.
