Lucian appeared to sense it too. “Gentleman,” he said in a deep, more confident voice. “Look into my eyes, please.”
What is he doing?
“You will forget you met me tonight.”
“Hey!” I said, whacking his arm. “What are you doing?”
Lucian looked down at me, ignoring the glazed-over faces of my roommates, who were still watching him. “I’m wiping their memories. We can try again tomorrow. And again, if needed.”
“You can’t just wipe people’s memories when you make a bad first impression.”
He gestured to my zombified roommates. “It’s quite easy. I can do this every night until we get it right, actually.”
“No,” I said. “Jesus. We need to teach you some etiquette or something. I don’t care if you can. You shouldn’t.
Lucian frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know? What if you’re scrambling up their brains every time or giving them cancer? No more memory wiping. Okay? That’s a rule from now on.”
He appeared to chew over my command, then shrugged. “Unless it’s to prevent direct danger to you, I won’t wipe any more memories.”
“Good enough, I guess. Now come on. I’m going to show you where you’re sleeping on the floor in my room.”
“Wonderful.” Lucian said. He paused, then stepped back in front of my roommates. “You will also clean up this kitchen in two minutes. It’s filthy. Have some self-respect.”
I was about to tell him to stop mind controlling my roommates but decided that I could let some abuses of his power slide. At least for now.
I normally took clothes off to sleep, but considering the circumstances, I went into my closet and threw on an extra thick hoodie and some pajama bottoms. I considered an extra pair of underwear too, but decided I was fooling myself. If Lucian started waving his vampire cock around, it was going to take more than a couple layers of panties to stop it.
I climbed under my blankets and eyed him suspiciously. “You’re not going to try anything, are you?” Cue my stupid, “bond brain” hoping he would.
“I’m going to try to rest. Though I usually sleep during the day. This will be an adjustment.”
I yawned. “Just stay on your side of the room and I’ll stay on mine, okay?”
Lucian looked unconcerned and sat down in the corner.
I was trying my best not to do anything that might tip the scales in the battle waging within my mind. Even a subtle act of kindness might be too much, but he looked pathetic sitting there with his long, sculpted legs on the hard floor.
I sighed, then lobbed a pillow at him. I picked up an extra blanket and threw it as well. “I don’t know if vampires use pillows and blankets, but there you go.”
Lucian gave a slight nod of appreciation, but it still didn’t look like he planned to lie down.
I sat in silence with my eyes closed for a while, occasionally sneaking a look in his direction. Half of the times I looked were to make sure he was still staying on his side of the room and the other half were because the man was a work of art. Pale blue light was filtering through my window, and it was hitting his smooth skin just right, making him look like some kind of god of the night.
I let out a frustrated sigh, then sat up a little, looking in his direction. “How does it work, anyway? The whole vampire thing, I mean.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like in some movies vampires have to kill people to feed. Sometimes they turn anyone they bite into a vampire too. Sometimes they sparkle in the sunlight. What are the rules?”
Lucian tilted his head. I’d already noticed a pattern with him when he wasn’t sure if he should answer my questions. He’d hesitate, then spoke slowly when he finally answered, as if he was reading from a script he’d just mentally scribbled down. “Feeding is not fatal for humans.”
I waited. When he didn’t say more, I decided to press him. “That’s it?”
“We use our power of suggestion to make them forget they ever saw us, and they are somewhat weak from blood loss the following day. That’s it.”
“Then why do you look like there’s something you’re not telling me?”
“Because it’s as I told you before. The less you know, the safer you are. Your goal should be to wait out the worst of the bond, then pretend you never met me and forget my kind exist. The more you know, the harder that will be.”
“Why can’t you just wipe my memory? It doesn’t seem to faze you at all to do it to other people.”
“The bond lends some of my power to you. Especially now, it would take a great deal of effort to wipe your memory.”
“Wait. When Bennigan came to Anya’s, he tried to make me forget I’d seen him. It didn’t work, and that was before you made me drink your blood. What does that mean?”