Page 7 of Midnight Serenade
The starlight lounge was empty now. A few staff members worked to clean up, but everyone left us alone. And I was trying to digest what Sebastian had been explaining to me for the last hour.
Supernaturals were real.
Iwas a supernatural, a siren.
Or, to the best of Sebastian’s knowledge, part siren.
I shook my head. “But I’m not predatory, Sebastian. I’ve never hurtanyone,let alone lured them to their doom.” Sensing my distress, Kazi, sensing my distress, was curled up, partly on my lap, rumbling up a storm with his purr-growl. I ran my fingers through his fur, feeling like I was going to cry.
Why, someone might ask, did I believe Sebastian so readily? A man I’d just met?
Because it felt right.
Not the part about me being a siren; that felt like a joke waiting for the punch line. But the part about supernaturals being real, and the part about me being some kind ofother.I knew there was something wrong with me. I’d labeled it a curse. It turned out I might have preferred the curse.
Sebastian had long since taken his jacket off, his shirtsleeves rolled up, his forearms making me shiver. What was it about a man’s forearms that were so sexy? Andwhywas I thinking about his forearms at a time like this? If I could have discreetly facepalmed myself without giving away my splintering thoughts, I would have.
Get it together, Gracie.
Sebastian shook his head. “You’re not predatory. There’s a distinct difference between theabilityto be predatory and thewillto be predatory. There are plenty of humans that have the ability to prey on those weaker than they are, but don’t.”
“And there are those that do.”
He nodded, conceding my point. “There will always be those kinds of people. Even in the supernatural world. But you are not one of them.”
I gulped my water. “And I won’t suddenlybecomelike that?”
His smile was gentle. “Do you have the sudden burning desire to lure men to their doom? To lure ships upon the rocks?”
I fidgeted with my glass. “No, I mean, some people probably deserve it, but no. And the only desire I have for this vessel is that it stays afloat.” Please let this ship not sink. I could readily imagine a ship going down on my very first vacation.
He sat back, relaxing deeper into his seat. “I have not yet told you what I am.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to. I already know what you are.” I mean, it was obvious. Maybe it was my line of work, or possibly my overactive imagination, but now that I knew he was a supernatural too, it was easy to see that he was a vampire. I hadn’t figured out the sun thing yet, because he clearly got around the ship during the day, but, yeah, he was a vampire for sure. An older one, if I wasn’t mistaken.
He looked intrigued. “What do you think I am?”
“An older vampire.”
His expression turned flummoxed, and I giggled. Kazi made a sound like he was choking on a walnut, or laughing at the flummoxed vampire, which made me giggle even more.
Sebastian eyed him grumpily. “I see that you’ve turned traitor,” he told the big cat.
Kazi snorted.
I hid my wide smile behind my hand. These two were a whole comedy show together. The more I was around them, the more relaxed and at home I felt.
“It’s my job. I write paranormal romance for a living. I can easily envision you in the role of the MMC suave vampire.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure if I should thank you or not for that assessment, but my reason for bringing this up in the first place is because my kind were also known in the past as predatory. There are still some in our current age that abuse this, but they are few. I myself haven’t drunk from a human in over four hundred years. We have blood delivery services that serve most our population well. Sharing blood nowadays is more for couples.”
I stilled in shock. “Four-hundred years?” And then I shook my head. That wasn’t the question I most wanted to ask. “What do you mean, sharing blood is mostly for couples now?” I was fascinated, utterly fascinated by all of this. And besides, it was excellent research for my books.
He nodded, a sudden gleam in his half-lidded eyes. He may notbepredatory, but he certainlylookedpredatory at the moment. But in a good way. I nearly facepalmed myself again. My brain was going in too many directions, and at least half of them were centered on the attraction I felt toward Sebastian. I had to keep reining myself in and reminding myself that finding out I was a supernatural was enough for the moment. I didn’t need more complications for a while. Even complications as sexy as Sebastian.
It didn’t matter that I was lonely. Over the course of this dinner, my objectives had shifted. I still wanted a family and a loving husband—that would never change. But I felt like I needed to give myself some time to adjust to all of this new information. It was a lot for me to take in. And even though I might be handling it better than most because of my vocation, I still needed some time to digest.
Sebastian got the attention of one of the waitstaff and held up a finger. The blonde server nodded and went to the back, then brought him out a drink in what looked like a glass Coke bottle. I pretended he was drinking a V-8 and had no problems. I was actually kind of proud of myself for how smoothly I was handling everything this evening. I’dsangin front of an audience, I’dkissedSebastian, and I’d found out that I was a supernatural and there were millions more besides me. I was killing it on the go-with-the-flow vibes tonight.
