“A confession?”
She nodded and felt her cheeks warm up.
***
Chapter Two
Willem couldn’t help but smile. With all he knew about Charlotte, he was pretty sure that her somewhat guilt-stricken look was unnecessary. “So, exactly what terrible crime have you committed?”
She smiled, supporting his belief he had nothing serious to worry about. “It’s not too horrible, but you might consider it invasive. The truth is, I surfed the Nine Realms Internet for every scrap of information I could find about you. Just wanted you to know.”
“You did?” For some reason, the admission pleased the hell out of him. Seems he wasn’t the only one after information.
Her gaze never faltered, excellent eye-contact. “I was so drawn to you, Willem, and you are such a notable in Grochaire, that I wanted to know as much as I could. I mean, you’re famous in this world. You’re a friend to Mastyr Quinlan who rules the entire realm and you served in his Vampire Guard, the elite of the elite. And is it true that you once single-handedly saved a troll family near the town of Ashland at the foothills of the Ashur Mountains? I heard you held off four Invictus pair.”
A shiver went through him as he recalled the incident. “I did. Almost got myself killed.”
“Susie, my troll friend who works at the RIU, is one of your biggest fans for that reason. She knows the family you saved.”
“Well, I’m glad.” He saw the admiration in her eyes and felt uneasy. He really didn’t want Charlotte thinking more of him than he actually deserved. A lot of worthy vampires served in the Guard, but that didn’t make him special, just committed.
“And now you hunt serial offenders. What made you switch?” She searched his eyes. Clearly, she wanted to know.
Normally, he didn’t talk much about his line of work, but for some reason he wanted to tell Charlotte. “We have more crime in the Nine Realms than we should have for such a relatively low population. There’s only about nine million of us in all, nothing compared to your earth, but we have double the crime rate of your States’s statistics. The Vampire Guard throughout our world works hard at keeping the wraith-pairs in check, but we also have too much crime involving serial killers and abusers. As for why I switched, I seem to have a gift for finding them.”
The latter he said without emotion and certainly without pride. His gift had come the hard way since he’d been the victim of torture as a child. He should have died, but his captor let him go.
He’d never forgotten the pain. Or the humiliation. Or the deep-seated fear.
He shifted his gaze away from her and for a long moment he was back on that table, the one his captor had tied him to while he’d hurt him. When he escaped, he realized he’d never once seen his abductor’s face. Either Willem’s eyes had been covered by a strip of fabric, or when his eyes weren’t bound his abductor wore a hood over his head.
* * * * * * * * *
Charlotte watched Willem fall into his memories, disconnecting from her at the same time. He even let go of her hand, though she doubted he was aware of it. She felt dizzy and very strange within her body, as though a faint vibration flowed through her.
He moved to the front windows to stare at the vast expanse of the dark ocean beyond. She swore she could sense what he was feeling, that some kind of deep pain held him captive, almost like guilt but more like shame.
As she settled her gaze on his muscular physique, desire once more rippled through her, a seductive sensation that rode her skin constantly like a breeze that wouldn’t die down.
The internal vibration strengthened and suddenly a warm golden light appeared all around Willem. She blinked hard, trying to make it go away, but it remained, shimmering in front of her. She knew she was causing the light and by the lack of response from Willem, she knew only she could
see it. But what was it and how was she, a mere human, doing something like this, something she believed many of the more powerful fae women could do?
Her best word for the phenomenon was that she was looking at Willem’s aura and from what she knew of the man, the color was just right. He was golden, a shade that felt very noble to her and which described him really well.
Then it came to her in a very realm-like way that he’d suffered as a child in an even worse way than she had, that he’d been brutalized when he was young. Her dad had used the palms of his hands and his fists, but she was sure Willem had been cut.
But how did she know that?
“Are you okay?” He asked, now standing in front of her.
When had he moved in her direction?
He took her arm in hand and squeezed gently. “I was lost in thought, staring out at the ocean when I felt your distress. Charlotte, you don’t look so good.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. The internal vibration finally subsided and when she opened her eyes once more, she saw that the aura had faded and finally winked out.
“Willem, something strange is happening to me and I’m not sure what it is or what to do about it.”