Lucian nodded, as if he’d already thought about that exact point. Then I saw the same unwillingness to divulge more.
I folded my arms. “I’m in danger. You said it yourself. I think it should be my choice to decide how informed I want to be about that danger. Don’t you?”
Lucian watched me for several long moments until I thought his eyes might actually be seeing straight into my thoughts. Finally, he looked down, nodding. “There have been cases where a human bonds with one of my kind without the transfer of blood. It’s extremely rare, and in every case I know of, the bond that developed from those instances was unusually strong.” He raised his eyes to meet mine again, and I felt a surge of heat flow through me from his smoldering gaze. “And every one of those cases resulted in a pairing.”
I didn’t need to be an expert in geezer slang or vampire vernacular to figure out what he meant by “a pairing.” I swallowed. “So far,” I added.
“So far,” he agreed.
“Do vampires get married?”
“Yes.”
I laid back down and rolled to the side, trying to sleep again. A few minutes later, I opened my eyes and turned toward him. “You’re not going to drink my blood while I’m sleeping, are you?”
“No,” he said. “Drinking your blood would consummate the bond and turn you into a vampire.”
“Oh, yeah. I remember you saying that. But what if—"
“Sleep, Cara Skies.”
I saw Lucian was lying on his back again with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs straight out. I grinned to myself, then tried to get comfortable. It was going to be a long night. And a long day after.
11
Lucian
Cara had let me borrow some clothes from her roommates. I was outfitted with a hooded garment, gloves, sunglasses, and an ample application of a substance she called “sunscreen.” Armored as I was, the sun seemed to take its toll all the same, if maybe a little more slowly.
I followed her to her academic studies and watched the changed world as we traveled. I had already lived longer than I thought the mind was truly capable of coping with. But I had always watched progress crawl by. It was only when I looked back that the technological and societal changes seemed startling.
Ever since Cara released us from what I’d begun to think might become an eternal slumber, I was struck by the way the world had moved on. It was like a dose of mortality. A small taste of death, almost.
I looked around and saw time would happily pass without me. It would keep plowing forward, relentless and unforgiving, whether or not I was still creeping in its shadow.
Today, Cara was wearing a torn t-shirt with lightning bolts and electrified puppies on it with equally shredded jeans and black boots. I frowned. “Do you need money for new clothing? Yours appear damaged.”
She laughed. “It’s a style. Kind of. I mean, I guess it depends who you ask. And if you asked most people, they’d probably say I was too old to even make an attempt to express myself with clothes.”
“I enjoy seeing the different things you wear. It’s interesting.”
She smiled wide and open, then chewed her lip. That was a new expression, I noted. Genuine happiness, maybe? Whatever it was, I decided I liked it. “Thank you, Lucian. That’s really sweet.”
“Yes, well, women in my time wore gigantic dresses and about ten layers. I am thinking I prefer the direction fashion has gone since I was detained.”
Cara looked suddenly thoughtful. “Do you… Did you date humans? Or are humans just like food to you guys?”
I had a vision of Marabella. The images of her as a girl of seventeen waving to me from the fence that separated our family’s land was faint. The more vivid image was of her hunched over, old, and wrinkled in a rocking chair. I’d been watching her from a distance, separate from the stream of time everybody and everything I’d ever known was chained to.
It had been the first time I sensed the real cost of what was done to me. The price I paid was knowing I’d outlive everything I ever cared about. I’d watch it all fade and die. Eventually, I’d feel like I did now. I would look at something pure, sweet, and full of life and feel only pain. Because I knew I couldn’t stay part of Cara’s life a moment longer than I had to. She’d grow old and live a life. She’d die and I’d carry on.
But she couldn’t be mine.
Cara smiled playfully, then bumped my nose with her knuckle, making me flinch. “You went all misty eyed there, Lucian. Were you thinking of some girl you had the hots for like a million years ago?”
I shook my head. “No. My kind do not make a habit of dating humans. Relationships where only one half of the equation gets old and dies tend to create complications.”