“You bit me. ” I still struggled against his hold, the desire to claw off his face now all I seemed focused on. “You fucking bit me. ” If we were going to argue semantics, he actually bit me while we were fucking. But neither of us brought up that point.
“It was a dream,” he reminded me.
“So? If you bit me in a dream, you probably want to do it in real life. ”
“You let me do it in the dream. Does that mean you want to do everything we did in the dream in real life?”
I stopped struggling. Goddamn vampires, how could they be so logical all the time, no matter the situation? The problem was I didn’t know what the dream had said about me or what I wanted. I really didn’t need him to know that. Sensing the fight had started to seep out of me, he released my arms.
I slapped him with my unbroken hand, but it was more of a statement than an actual attack. “You’re an asshole. ”
“I needed to know if you were going to go through with the contract. ”
“I kind of want to now. ”
“You’re not going to kill me because I was the interruptus to your coitus. ”
Sighing, I looked up at my water-stained ceiling. H
e was still sitting on my legs, so I couldn’t go anywhere. A captive audience, as it were.
“You swear to God you aren’t rogue?”
“I don’t believe in God, but I swear to the true immortals and the wrath of the Tribunal I’m innocent of whatever charges they have against me. ”
“You mean you don’t even know what you’re being accused of?”
“No. I just know I’m being framed for something huge, because no one is willing to help me. I figured they would have to tell you, if they’d convinced you to take the contract. ”
“Sig didn’t give me a choice in taking the contract. I left, and he kidnapped me to bring me home so I’d complete it. ”
He let out a long sigh. “You have to help me. ”
“How am I supposed to help you?”
“You need to find out what it is I’m being accused of and prove I didn’t do it. ”
“Would you like me to solve the mystery of the JFK assassination while I’m at it? Or perhaps you’d like me to waltz up to the Tribunal and say ‘Well, he says he didn’t do it, so let’s brainstorm a new solution. ’” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Juan Carlos will eat the still-beating half-breed heart out of my chest before he tells me what you’re accused of or believes me when I say you’re innocent. ”
“What about Daria?”
“Daria follows the rules. She’d never break the council rule about guarding the accusation. ”
“Then you need to convince Sig. He’s their leader, and he already has a weak spot for you. ”
I ignored his comment. “You risked your life coming here. Why?”
He rolled off me, allowing me to sit up, and rose to his feet. “I had to believe our history meant something. That you wouldn’t immediately assume I was guilty. ”
“That was a big risk. ”
“Are you saying it hasn’t paid off?”
When I got up we were standing face-to-face at the end of my bed. He looked down at me, worry deepening the lines around his eyes and mouth. How could I say no after everything we’d been through and all the times he’d saved my life in the past?
“If I’m wrong about this, they’ll kill me,” I confessed. No sense in sugarcoating it, the reality of our situation was ugly. “And then they’ll kill you. ”
“If I’m wrong about you, I’m already dead. ” With cunning vampire speed, he dipped his head and kissed me. It sucked the breath out of my lungs and left my head spinning. Out of instinct I moved my hand to his neck so I could hold my balance, and then found myself kissing him back. The embrace was a whirlwind, and the cool electricity of the kiss swam all the way into my toes and sparked throughout my whole body. His lips were cold, but not in an unpleasant way. It felt like a kiss in the winter, one where you could see your breath when it was over.