“Why is everybody here so intent on calling me a virgin? And smelling me?”
“Vlad,” Lucian said, tone laced with warning. “You will keep your hands off the virgin. She’s mine.”
Vlad made a pouty face but wiggled his eyebrows as he slid backwards from me. “Another time, perhaps.”
“For the record, I’ve never confirmed or denied this virgin thing you two keep assuming,” I said, though it sounded like neither of them cared to listen.
“No. You will not be impaling Cara at any point,” Lucian said. “She’s not my food, either. The two of us are temporarily bonded, and I’m going to see to it that she gets to return to her normal life when it has passed.”
“Perhaps I could torture her just for a little while and clear it from her memory afterwards? Surely you wouldn’t deny old Vlad that small favor?”
“Surely I would,” Lucian said. He was standing now, and the way he was squared up with Vlad made me worried the men were about to start throwing punches.
Except Vlad belched loudly, then went back to take another swig of liquor, which he spit out in the trash can a moment later. “Suit yourself, Lucy Boy. I won’t poke your pet. For now.” he turned toward us both with a maniacally raised eyebrow. “But I bet you will let him poke you before long, eh?” Vlad wandered off, cackling at his own joke.
“I apologize for him.”
“Neither of you ever actually said how you know each other.”
“Vlad may not look like it, but he’s very powerful and feared. Well, he’s feared by those who haven’t met him recently. So long as I put up with his personality faults, Bennigan will not be likely to move against me and my family.”
“Right,” I said, not really sure I believed any of what he was saying. Then again, it was hard to deny what I’d seen with my own eyes, assuming that wasn’t all some fever dream.
I also couldn’t deny the fact that separating from Lucian didn’t feel possible right now. There was a physical need to be close. Even considering splitting up made me feel sick to my stomach, and that was something I needed to deal with, even if he was a delusional, hot lunatic who thought he was a vampire.
8
Cara
Lucian drew the attention of just about anybody we passed with a functioning pair of eyes. I assumed a man who looked like he did was impossible to miss on a good day, but the way he was dressed wasn’t helping, either.
I led him into a store where I hoped we’d find some updated clothes for him, even though he insisted on formal wear. At least it would be a modern suit, instead of whatever it was he was currently wearing.
“Aren’t vampires supposed to burn up in the sun or something?” I asked as I held up a suit to his tall frame and tried to decide if it was a good fit.
“No. The sun makes us mortal. It saps our energy, too, but it’s not fatal for an older vampire like myself.”
I studied him. “Is that why you look kind of high right now?”
His eyebrows furrowed together. “No. That would be because you are very short, and I am quite tall.”
“No, doofus. High is like—”
He flashed that disarming smile again. “It was a joke. Yes. I don’t feel myself in the sunlight, but the risk should be minimal. Bennigan won’t put himself in danger to face me in the open. He’ll want to find where we sleep and strike like a coward would, assuming that’s his plan.”
I worked my lips to the side, setting down the latest suit. “We need to work on the way you talk if you want to blend in. ‘The risk should be minimal’” I mocked in a deep voice.
“You’d prefer I talk like the locals?”
“Can you?”
Lucian’s eyes were half-lidded, and it was almost enough to make me laugh seeing him like that. He looked like he was about to start spouting off about how aliens were the ones who really built the pyramids. “I will increase my—” He paused. “I’ll try.”
“See? Maybe you’re not completely hopeless.”
It was taking everything I had to ignore the pulsing need I felt toward him. I was still allowing for the possibility that he was just a deranged hot guy who didn’t understand the effect he had on women. But I was also beginning to believe this was no ordinary attraction I felt. Even when I walked a few steps from him to go look for a tie, I felt pulled back to his side.
The more dangerous part was how I felt like my normal barriers had been knocked down ahead of time. Things that should’ve seemed like too much and too fast didn’t instinctively feel wrong. I could imagine wrapping my arms around his arm and leaning into him. I could easily drape a tie around his neck and run my hands down his chest before stepping back to see how it looked.