Page 35 of Taste of Thorns
Our next few minutes are spent in silence and then my usual curiosity gets the better of me.
“What’s it like to feed?” He glances at me. Even in the pale light from the floating globe, I can see he has a little more color in his ivory cheeks than he did. “I mean, until I came to the academy, food was a necessity like air. If I didn’t have it, life was miserable. When I did, life was slightly better. But then coming here, I’ve been introduced to things like chocolate and coffee.” And really flaming hot sex. Honestly the academy isn’t as bad as everyone makes out. Okay, there are the frequent threats to my life, but I think the ups may be worth the downs for sure.
“Why didn’t you have food back in Slate?”
I throw him a look. He knows why there wasn’t any food. My dad’s a known drunk and by now we’ve definitely established that my stepmom was a mega bitch.
“As usual, Professor, you are dodging my question.”
“Like you said, it’s a necessity. I have to feed in order to stay alive.”
“Hmm, noted,” I say, with a tease. “One way to kill a vampire, you can starve them to death.”
“I doubt it,” he says flatly, “you’d have a very hard time attempting to restrain a ravenous vampire.”
“So it doesn’t taste good?”
He grimaces. “No, it’s pretty vile. Deer’s blood tastes like piss.”
“And … human blood?” I ask quietly.
“Depends on the human,” he says, his voice dropping an octave.
“Do different humans taste differently then?”
“Yes, of course they do.”
“So you have fed from humans in the past?”
I grin at him and he frowns back, knowing he walked right into that trap.
“When I was first turned and I didn’t have the ability to control myself.”
“Did you ever,” I swallow, “kill anyone?”
He doesn’t answer that question for a long time. “I don’t know. I never hung about long enough to find out.” He halts and I stop too. “That was a long time ago, though, Briony. I no longer do that.”
“But you’d like to?” I practically purr.
“We’re not having this conversation again. Now, what did you bring me into the forest in the middle of the night in a foot of snow to show me?”
The grin slides from my face. I’m not sure how Fox is going to take this revelation. But there’s only one way to find out.
I cup my hands around my mouth and call Blaze’s name.
The layer of snow on the forest floor is not as deep as it was out on the moorland, but it still coats the branches above our heads. It muffles my call and my voice doesn’t carry as far asusual. And yet, after just a few minutes, that strange sensation in my blood buzzes and then we hear the crack of wings.
“What is that?” Fox says, glowing eyes swinging around as he steps closer to me and rests his hand protectively on my shoulder.
“That’s Blaze.”
“And who the hell is Blaze?”
“Blaze is a dragon,” I answer as my not-so-little friend comes swooping towards us through the trees.
Chapter Ten
Fox
