"Why? Am Istrategic?"
"Every vampire wants someone like you because you can connect with us. Share emotions, sensations. Thoughts. Come on, Eve. Don't give me that. Haven't you thought about how touch telepathy would be very… enhancing to certain very intimateexperiences?"
My cheeks heat at the innuendo. God, he's acad.
"So you're saying it's purelysexual?"
"Oh, so you have thought about it." He grins, and his eyes widen as if indelight.
"You'rerude."
He laughs at that. "No, I'm not. I'm justhonest."
"Well, if you're so honest, tell me why things will never be the same again forme."
"I'm honest. I won't lie to you, Eve. But I won't always tell you things. It's not myplace."
"Whose place isit?"
"Michel's, of course, if he's going to claim you. Although by all rights, you should bemine…"
"Claimme?"
"Yes," he says and takes another sip, all the while staring at me, amusement clear in his bright blue eyes. "You know. Stake his claim. Takepossession."
"I'm not a goldmine."
"Oh, yes you are. The motherlode."
"I'm not apossession."
He turns away and finishes his espresso. "Like I say, you better catch up on your reading. There's a lot you don't know about how things are done withus."
"Withwho?"
"Between vampires andhumans."
"I've read about the Treaty of Clairveaux. I know you can't kill usanymore."
He nods. "Yes, but there's a lot more we can do than just kill you and the treaty says nothing about that. In fact, it gives us license to do everything but. Eve, I hate to be the one to tell you…" And then he hesitates, looking at me, frowning abit.
"Yes?" I say, impatient to hear what he can tellme.
"I shouldn’t. Michel should be theone."
"Can you at least tell me what an Adeptis?"
He sighs. "An Adept is a human who shares a vampire's ability to enter into another's mind and body, sense their emotions, their sensations, their thoughts. It's very rare and so it's very coveted. Your mother was Adept. Usually, it doesn't pass from one generation to another but in your case, it was given a bit of help. There's a lot about you that isunique."
"If she was Adept, who claimedher?"
"Like I said, that's not for me to say. Ask Michel. Read the files at the SCU when you get a chance. For example," he says and eyes from under a frown. "You can't becompelled."
He takes my hand and turns to me abruptly, staring in my eyes, moving closer, so close that his mouth is just a few inches from mine. "Kiss me,Eve."
I frown and try to pull away. "Not on your life." I try to jerk my hand out of his grasp, but he's too strong. "You can't compel me so don't eventry."
"No, I can't, but I can do this." He must release a brain hormone that makes me unable to resist him and he leans in closer, his head tilting, his lips almost touching mine. A little jolt of something goes through me. Fear? Orattraction?