“Why’s that? Of course the reality is that I know very little about what it is to be a blood rose.”
“Well, I have a friend in Bergisson. You might know who he is. Detective Yolen? He works crime in the city of Cameron.”
“Oh, right. He was a guest lecturer about a year ago.”
“He recently hooked up with his own blood rose, although in his case he’d been dating her for months. At any rate, when I spoke to him, he said one of the main issues that came up right away was that the condition of being a blood rose sends a signal to all mastyr vampires.”
She put a hand to her chest. “Oh, God. I’ll be pursued.”
“Like hawks after prey.”
Her hand slid to her throat and his gaze followed. He’d just fed, but suddenly he wanted to tap into her vein again. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know.” She shifted her gaze away from him, her brow pinched. “A blood rose.” She took a deep breath, then another. “Well, I guess this is something I’ll have to deal with myself, but I won’t worry about that until Vojalie returns to break the bond.”
This
time, he drew close to her and stroked his hand up and down her back. “I won’t leave you to the wolves, Charlotte. I’ll protect you, no matter how this goes. Not all mastyr vampires are decent men.”
“Thank you, and you know what? That’s exactly what I would have expected of you.”
His smile was crooked. “And is that the opinion you derived from the spying you did on me?”
This time she laughed. “Yes. Exactly.”
His thoughts turned toward Davido’s comment about his life being mud if he didn’t get his act together. But how could the old troll actually know what Willem lived with, and how the deep pain of what he’d been through would always destroy whatever woman he was with. He couldn’t help that he believed Charlotte would be better off far away from him.
He thought back to the counseling he’d received from Davido and murmured, “He saved my life.”
“What?”
“Sorry, I guess I spoke the words out loud.”
“Who saved your life?”
“Davido.” When he met Charlotte’s gaze this time, something within his spirit leaned toward her. The bond he shared told him he could trust her and he wondered if this was the time to tell her the ugly truth about himself. He wanted to, but the words got stuck in his throat.
Davido had told him if he had any shot at a decent, normal life he’d have to release what happened to him. But if Charlotte knew the truth, would she ever want to have anything to do with him again?
On the other hand, he couldn’t bear the thought of continuing without Charlotte knowing what had happened all those years ago. The time had come to own the truth, all of it.
“I need to tell you why I can’t remain bonded to you, Charlotte, and it has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with what I’m going to show you.”
***
Chapter Six
When Willem held his hand out to Charlotte, she took it quickly, knowing that what was about to follow was at Willem’s core, maybe even the reason his relationships always lasted about a half minute.
He led her across the foyer and into his study. At first, she thought he meant to take her back to his bedroom, which made no sense since she didn’t feel anything sexual coming from him.
Instead, all she could feel was a strong wave of both anxiety and determination.
He took her back to the worktable and to the wide, antique-looking oak cabinet with several shallow drawers perhaps meant originally for architectural drawings.
He pulled out the second drawer and withdrew a large zippered case the size of an artist’s portfolio. After setting it on the nearby table, he unzipped. But before he opened it, he pressed his hand down on the black leather case and held her gaze. “There are pictures in here I’m not sure you can stomach, but if we’re to move forward at all, I need you to understand the scope of what I do on a nightly basis. This is my job, Charlotte. I hunt for killers, bad ones, the kind who get off on torture and murder.”
Charlotte nodded. “But this is as much about you, as about your cases. Am I right?”