Page 45 of Mortal Blood
She cleared her throat and gave me a pointed look. I rolled my eyes.
“Fine, fine. Jax hasn’t been atotalasshole about the whole dhampir thing, either. But only to piss Kallan off.”
“At first,” she said.
I paused, and then slid back into the chair beside her.
“You really do like him, huh?” I said, arching a brow, but I guess I’d known for a long time. Since we all worked together after Cole’s arrest last year.
Her cheeks glowed faintly pink. “It doesn’t matter,” she mumbled.
“If you like him, then you should do something about it. He would be lucky to have a shot with you, Ling. Lucky.”
“I… It’s not that simple.”
She got that look in her eye that she tended to get wheneverthe conversation got too close to who she was, or what she was, or anything about her past.
“Whatever it is, I’m here for you, okay? Whether you want to talk about it, or if you just want to—” I feigned a shudder, “—fangirl over Jax.”
She reached over and slapped my shoulder with the back of her hand playfully.
“I donotfangirl.”
“Much,” I teased.
“Anyway, don’t think I don’t know stalling when I see it. Humans. Go. Now.”
“Yes, mom,” I grumbled as I got to my feet again. She was right, no point putting it off. It wasn’t like my absence was going to make things better. Of course, it at least wouldn’t make things worse…
“Go!”
I slipped out of the library with a chuckle.
“Something amusing you, pet?”
The mirth fell from my face as I saw Davorin lounging against the corridor wall, watching me.
“How long have you been there?” I demanded. Offence was the best defense, right?
“I asked first,” he said with a smirk that somehow looked completely natural on his preternaturally handsome face. But then, I wasn’t sure any expression could look ugly on him. That was just the way the fae were. The high fae, anyway. That, and sadistic as all hell, far as I’d seen so far.
“Well it sure as hell wasn’t you putting me in a good mood,” I told him stiffly.
He tutted, reaching for a lock of my hair and playing it across his fingers. “So rude,” he said wistfully.
“Would you stop with the touching already?” I snapped. “And can’t you go and find someone else to play your dumb games with?”
“There’s no-one else here quite like you, pet.”
Well, he had me there. For one thing, they were all a hell of a lot stronger than me. And most of them were immune to his compulsion. He seemed to pick the thoughts from my mind, and his eyes shimmered hypnotically with amusement as my breathing spiked.
“Do I scare you, pet?”
“Do you get off on trying to scare me?” I countered, fighting the urge to back away from him—we both knew I’d only be leaving if he let me, and trying to run was a surefire way of making sure he didn’t.
“Do you always answer a question with a question?” he countered, canting his head a fraction as amusement ghosted across his perfectly formed lips. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were fae.”
“Yeah, well I’m not, so why don’t you go and play with your own kind?”
