“What? My town didn’t...they wouldn’t have...”
“How old were you when you left?” Matthew asks gently.
“Twelve.”
Too young.
Not quite a teenager, but damn, I felt like one.
“That’s why you never knew,” Eli says, as though this revelation clears everything up. “Vampire hunters don’t initiate their young until they turn 13. You left your home village before your birthright could be passed to you.”
“Then, when you went to Eagleton, they didn’t accept you as one of your own,” Matthew finishes.
Is this true?
Is any of this true?
Before I can question things anymore, Matthew continues speaking.
“When we were at that town...the one from ten years ago...we didn’t just slay the city,” he says.
“No?”
“We were there, and we scented something interesting as we were burning it to the ground.” Matthew pauses long enough that I realize he doesn’t want to tell me whatever he’s going to say next.
In the end, it’s Eli that speaks.
“Our mate. We scented our mate. We’ve been hunting her for years, trying to track her down. In the end, Tyana, we finally found you. Apparently, we just showed up early the first time.”
“Your mate?” I whisper.
It can’t be real.
A vampire mate?
As in, a mate for the three of them to...share?
“Yes,” Benjamin says. “Don’t worry, I’m not too pleased about it, either.”
“Well, excuse me,” I finally snap. “In case you didn’t know this, asshole, I didn’t exactly asked to be kidnapped.”
Benjamin dives across the aisle and this time, it’s his hand on my throat: not Eli’s.
“What did we tell you about bad girls?”
He hisses at me, and he’s so close that I can’t take it. I don’t think. I don’t try to talk myself out of it. I just push myself forward so my mouth crashes against his, and I kiss the vampire who hates me more than anything else in the world.
Chapter 4
He kisses me back without hesitation. I can taste his anger, his frustration, and his need. I can taste all of that and more. It’s strange to me that a kiss holds so many different things, most of all, desire.
Eli laughs as Benjamin finally pulls away and moves back to his side of the coach. I don’t say anything as I slide back against the seat. Eli rubs my shoulder, pulling me close to his side again.
“Well,” he says. “I think that settles things.”
I don’t know what it settles, if anything. They still don’t want me here. They definitely don’t like me, but kissing Benjamin was...
Well, it was incredible, and I hate that I feel that way.