He widened his eyes. “Maci?”
“It’s bad.” That was all I could manage. “Please.”
His mouth came down on my neck and he bit me—still gentler than anyone else ever had, despite the urgency. My pain cooled, and he sighed against my neck. I wrapped my body around him, with my back still pressed against the wall. I closed my eyes. Caesar only fed from me for a long moment before he licked the wound closed.
I shook in his arms—not in pain, but in the contrast of pleasure rushing through me after the sudden onslaught of pain. He rocked me in his arms. “I’m not leaving, and you aren’t going to tell me to again.”
“You didn’t drink much. You can’t be done already.” I didn’t want to open my eyes. It felt too nice. Pleasure not nothingness. I could drown in the sensation and be happy to do so.
“I’m full.” He set me on the counter. “Eat your eggs.”
Caesar fed me as he had the night before. I chewed and swallowed. Took my pills. Drank my orange juice. It was quiet but not uncomfortable, probably an aftereffect of his venom. Maybe that mattered, and was something he should know?
“I don’t feel the same after you bite me. I don’t get numb. I become happy, relaxed. Maybe that’s what’s different between us.”
Caesar strode from the room. “I’ve fed from hundreds of people before. That’s never happened with anyone but you. And it’s not your blood, because the bottom feeders you give your blood to would have certainly noticed if they were suddenly sexually alert. Presumably one of the elders would, too.”
With that parting shot, he left me in the kitchen.Where is he going now?It didn’t matter. I needed to go home. Tomorrow I had to go to work. Caesar could stay if he wanted, I wouldn’t tell him to go. That was fine. We hadn’t said anything about my needing to stay put, too.
It would take hours to walk home.I might as well get started now.One thing I’d like to be able to do like the vampires was glide and move at their speed. It was impressive.
I opened the front door, but a second later, it slammed in front of me. Caesar closed it right in my face. “You’re not going out there tonight.”
Well, that is annoying. I lifted my eyebrow. “I missed work today. I can’t tomorrow. I have to go home so I can get there on time.”
“Quit your job. Text them, tell them you won’t be back. Or just don’t show up, I don’t care. You’re done with working for the moment. You’re in no condition for it.”
Strong doses of pleasure aside, him ordering me around wasn’t really going to work for me. “I have to work. You’ll leave at some point, then I’ll still have to make a living.” I put up my hands. “I’m not telling you to leave, I’m simply acknowledging that you will. Due to reality, I can’t just quit my job.”
Caesar pulled a wallet out of his back pocket then handed me a credit card. “Here. You never have to work again. Buy whatever you like. Forever.”
I stared at the card in my hand. “You can’t be serious with this. You have vampires under your service who need money, that’s why they took it from me. You can’t justhandme an endless pit of cash.”
“It is simple for me. I’m very important, and I have no interest in monetary possessions unless they make my life more manageable. Take it.”
I handed it back to him.Not today, bloodsucker.I wasn’t going to be under his command, even if it was only money related.Everything in their world came at a price, and I knew I couldn’t afford whatever strings came attached to his card.“No, thank you.”
“Fine.” He put it away. “Then I will buy you whatever you need. You’re still not leaving. Come with me.”
He really wasn’t understanding me. I hustled to keep up.Where is he going?“Slow down if you want me to keep up.”
“Sorry.” He waited until I reached his side. “I forget you’re only human.”
I cheerfully replied, “Betteronly humanthan a cold, heartless bloodsucker who ruins people’s lives.”
He smirked. “You’re very amusing.”
I really wasn’t trying to be. We ended up back in the basement, in a storage room filled with the former household items. Sheets—which at least explained where Caesar had found them the night before—sat stacked in the corner. But there were lots of other things. Clothes. Televisions. Books.
“Things were stacked away fast in here. We obviously took all the original manuscripts with us, but they left copies of things in their rush to finish. We’re going to locate those manuscripts and read them until we figure out what is going on with us.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Caesar, you read all of these before you died. Surely you’d know if there were answers there.”
“I didn’t really read them. I was too busy thinking of you. We all passed because Ace read some of them earlier, and Griffin did the rest. We cheated. I need to read them now.”
Okay, it sounded reasonable. Plus, I sort of loved knowing they’d spent as much time thinking about me as I had them. My days had been consumed. I scooted into the tight squeeze and started to pull out any books I could find. I handed them to him. He looked at each one and started sorting them into piles.
“What were you thinking about specifically? Back then?”