“Aye, and best you accept it, young one. ” He traced a single finger along my shoulder blade.
I took a defiant step forward. “Just because you’ve got a few hundred years on me. ” Determined not to cower, I planted my hands on my hips and turned to face him. “It’s not like you were so ancient when you became a vampire. You can’t have been much older than—what?—nineteen? Twenty, max?”
He looked amused. “As you say, little Acari. ”
“I am not little. ”
He was grinning now, and my words hung in the air, preposterous. Because next to Carden, I was little. I was tiny and delicate and frail.
It cast my mind back to when we first met. He hadn’t seemed so large, dying of thirst in a dark, dank cell, imprisoned by a bunch of evil vampire monks.
He’d b
een dying, and all I’d known was that I couldn’t fail on my mission. I had to help him survive. And so I’d fed him. My blood had pumped into his body, engorging muscles and flesh until he regenerated into this strapping hunk of a man before me.
Just the memory gave me a shiver.
I had to stop thinking of him as a man. He was a vampire.
“So?” I demanded.
He raised his brows, looking aggravatingly amused. “So, what?”
I scowled. “Don’t patronize me. So…how old were you?”
“You had the right of it the first time. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t you just answer the damned question like a normal person?”
He rubbed his thumb along my lower lip, stealing the breath from my lungs. “Careful, my wee dove. There are relics on this island who’d kill upon hearing such language. ”
“Dove?”
“Oh, aye. ” His laugh was easy, but the dark glint in his eyes made me shiver down deep. “And how I’d love to watch you fly. ” He licked his lips.
My body buzzed, the yearning for him pure anguish. My blood demanded more of his. My lips burned to kiss him once more. I had to fight to control my breath. “What have you done to me?”
He ignored the question, answering a different one instead. “I was indeed nineteen when I was turned,” he said calmly.
I thought my head might explode—the guy was impossible. “What are you doing even talking to me? You’re Vampire; I’m Acari. We’re not supposed to—how do you say it?—fraternize. ” I shook my head. Since when could I not remember a simple word?
I glared. “What did you do to me? What’s happening to me? I can’t think straight. ” I lowered my voice to a hiss. “And who killed Guidon Trinity?”
“Questions, questions. ” He pinched my chin, studying me. “What I did to you,” he mused. “It’s what you did to me. ” His pinch grew firmer. “You fed me, girl. And now we’re stuck with each other. ”
But then he let go, easy Carden once more. “You made the bed. And now we must sleep in it. ” He winked.
I flushed from head to toe. “Fine. Whatever. What about Trinity? You didn’t kill her, did you?”
He parted his lips, revealing the barest glimmer of fang. “Yours is the only nectar I’ve a taste for. ”
Vertigo spun my brain as I began to fall into those eyes. They were golden brown, like honey.
I gritted my teeth. I would not lose myself. I was Annelise Drew, and I was stronger than that.
“Does that line generally work for you?” I turned from him, and it took everything I had. “Look, I’ve gotta go. ”
With a gentle hand on my shoulder, he stopped me. “Little one. ”