“So as far as ‘fun’ goes, I’ve been too focused on making this happen to stop and smell the roses, I guess. My life has just been school and chasing after this goal, no matter the cost. Well, until some asshole decided to bleed in my mouth.”
I still had my arm around her, and I gave her arm a little squeeze, grinning at that. “You are quite the impressive human, Cara Skies.”
“That’s highly debatable,” she said. “Goals and accomplishments are two dramatically different things. So far all I’ve accomplished is absolutely nuking my social life and focusing on nothing but school for most of my adult existence.”
“I’ve lived a very long time, and I’ve never seen someone truly determined fail to accomplish something impressive. It may not always be the goal they set out to reach, but energy tends to create outcomes. Put enough in, and something comes out.”
She smiled a little wryly, then pulled herself from my grasp and backpedaled to look at me as we walked. “And what is it you’ve put your energy in for your long, geezerly existence, Lucian? I imagine somebody doesn’t go on living for a million years without some sort of grand purpose?”
“I imagine we are close to your apartment,” I said abruptly. “I should make sure I know as much about you as I can before we arrive.”
She gave me a knowing look but let me continue asking any questions I could think of without turning the subject back to me.
“You know,” she said. “I looked at my blood under the microscope today. It’s fascinating. Have you ever seen what your blood does to a person? On a microscopic level, I mean?”
“No.”
Cara started trying to explain her findings to me, but I found I only understood about every third word of what she was saying. I instead lost myself in the fullness of her lips and the glimpses of her pink tongue pressing against neatly arranged, white teeth.
She was clearly passionate about blood, because she spoke about it for nearly ten minutes before I interrupted. “Will your roommates ask about anything else?”
“Oh,” she said. “What else… Okay, well, this is embarrassing, but I kinda told all of my roommates that I wasn’t going to date at all until I was done with school. So they are probably going to wonder why the sudden change.”
“And what do I tell them?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “Tell them you made me suck your blood and now we can barely stand twenty feet apart and the urge to let you fang me dirty is kind of all-consuming.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, cheeks going red.
“Fang you… dirty? Is that some sort of slang?”
“Does your blood normally make people say things they only planned to think?”
“No,” I said, grinning. “But if it makes you feel any more at ease, I am also finding it very hard not to dirtily fang you.”
Cara snorted. “I really didn’t expect a vampire to exist. But if someone had told me they were real, I wouldn’t have imagined it would be so much fun to hang out with one—even against my will.”
“You’re not so bad for a human, either.”
10
Cara
I let Lucian into the apartment and silently prayed the guys would be asleep or out. Instead, I found all four of them standing around the kitchen. They stared at us wordlessly, clearly in a state of pure shock.
“Guys,” I said. “This is Lucian. My… boyfriend.”
“We have very strong feelings for one another,” Lucian added. “And she’s deeply interested in the study of blood. Her parents—”
I elbowed him. So much for the whole smooth vampire charm. He was about as subtle as a baby bull.
“Boyfriend?” Mooney choked. “When did you even have time to meet somebody?”
“He was in my class. He’s really into blood, too,” I said, spit balling.
Lucian nodded. “It’s true. I love blood.”
“Talk less,” I hissed out of the side of my mouth.
“Do you play ball?” Zack asked. He moved a little closer, confirming Lucian was almost as tall as all of my oversized roommates. “You’re pretty tall.”
Lucian hesitated. “Ball… Yes. Quite often.”
The guys exchanged a look. I could see the idea forming in their heads and knew he would’ve been better off saying he didn’t play. “We’ll have to get you out on the court soon,” Zack said.
“The court. Yes. I have a great deal of experience in the court,” Lucian said.
I blinked, trying to get his attention so I could urge him to shut his stupidly hot mouth.
“Is that right?” Niles asked. “Did you play in Europe or something? You’ve got a kind of funny accent.”
“Yes. I was present at several courts across Europe. But it has been some time.”
They were all frowning. I could see they were on the verge of getting too suspicious and asking the wrong questions.