“I know all about your kind,” I whisper to him. “How long have you been in this castle?”
He turns back to me and looks at my face for a long moment.
“Decades?” I ask. “Centuries?”
His gaze turns into a challenging stare. “What do you think I am? Exactly?”
I swallow hard and raise my chin. “A vampire.”
He flinches at the word, but he never breaks eye contact.
“You want to leave now?”
I shake my head. “No. I want to stay.”
He tilts his head as he watches me curiously. “Why?”
I don’t know why. I just feel… compelled to stay.
“You need my help.”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Every second is agony for him.
The taste of my blood must be what’s doing this to him.
He’s trying to restrain himself.
I don’t want him too.
I want him to use me. I want him to take whatever he wants from me.
I’m his completely.
“What can I do to fix the wound from the arrow?” I came here with Dustin so I feel partly responsible for the pain he’s in. “I want to take your pain away.”
“It’s not the arrow that’s hurting me,” he says. “Any other arrow would just bounce off my skin.”
His skin is so hard that I believe it.
“It was dipped in venom. A special venom that is deadly to my kind.”
“Can we take it out?”
Even as we talk about life and death, I still can’t stop admiring how gorgeous he is. The light from the full moon is cascading into the room, making him look unworldly. He’s so beautiful it hurts.
“It can’t come out,” he says as he leans against the wall. “It has to be overpowered.”
“With what?”
“Blood. Human blood.”
He looks at me and a shiver trembles through my body.
“Then drink.” I offer him my wrist and he turns away with a wince. It must be taking everything he has not to take what I’m offering him.
He shakes his head as he squeezes his eyes closed. “I haven’t drank in nearly six years,” he says with a shakiness to his voice. “I wouldn’t be able to stop. You’d die.”
“You’ll be able to stop. I know it. Take what you need from me.”
He puts up a hand, holding me back. “I can’t risk that. If you die, I’ll die. I can’t live without you now.”
I’m about to ask him what he means when I spot an old empty vase on the dresser. I rush over and scoop out the cobwebs as I look around for something sharp.
A painting hangs on the wall and my jaw drops when I see that it’s an original Rembrandt. There’s no time for that, so I just take it down and locate the nail that was holding it up.
Holding the vase under it, I drag my forearm along the nail, crying out and tearing up as it slices my skin. Hot blood drips into the vase and when there’s two shot glasses worth and I’m feeling dizzy, I bring it over to him.
“Is that enough?” I ask as I offer it to him.
His eyes shine a golden-red as he sees it. He’s practically licking his lips in thirst.
“You did that… for me? Why?”
“Drink it,” I say as I thrust the vase into his arms. He takes it and I wrap up my cut arm with my sweater. The cut is shallow so it won’t take too long to heal. It stings like a motherfucker though. A small price to pay to save his life.
I watch as Roderic lifts the vase and drinks from it. His body straightens and I can see the strength returning in him as he licks the last few drops up.
His back shoulder is exposed and I can see the wound from the arrow closing. It seals and disappears before my shocked eyes.
Roderic takes a deep satisfied breath as he puts the vase down and licks the blood from his lips. It leaves them a bright red and for some reason, that turns me on even more. I’ve always had an interest in the dark, mysterious things of the world, and Roderic seems to fit both of those.
There’s pure gratitude in his eyes as he watches me closely.
“Feel better?” I ask.
He nods. “Much. That should take care of the venom.”
His movements come easier now as he walks across the room and puts the painting back up. He runs his finger along the inside of the vase, trying to get any last drops before he puts it back on the dresser and turns around.
“So, how long have you been living in this castle?”
“Over two hundred years.”
“And how long have you been alive?”
He stares at me with such intensity that the throbbing between my legs returns.
“A few minutes. That’s it.”
I scrunch my forehead up in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I came alive when I saw you, Alice,” he says with a heaviness to his voice that makes my heart do a little flip. “Nothing I’ve done mattered up until that beautiful moment. I’ve been alive for centuries, but this is the first day of my life.”