Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“And did I?” he asks, his voice growing fainter. “Save you, that is?”
“I don’t know. I woke up.”
“And decided to run for your life?”
I give him a weak smile. “I’m not always the most rational person.”
He nods slowly, seeming to think that over. “Being rational is overrated, in my opinion. There’s less surprises that way. I think surprises are what make life fun, don’t you?”
I glance at him, the way the streetlights cast shadows in the hollows of his face. To think I saw him last night getting his dick sucked by some human. To think that this is the sort of lifestyle he leads when he’s not lecturing about Bach or teaching us proper hand placement on the keys. The sexy yet respectable Professor Aminoff on the outside. A depraved bloodsucking vampire ho on the inside.
I feel it again. The pressure between my legs, the blood pumping thicker through my veins, my nipples getting harder against my bra, all at just the image of him last night, all the things I wanted to do to him, the things I wanted him to do to me.
He breathes in deeply through his nose and fuck, I know he can tell. The only thing I can hide from him it seems is who I truly am.
“If you feel like going for a longer walk,” he says, his voice now taking on a silken quality, like a warm bath, “maybe I could persuade you to help me with the donations at the library.”
Normally I would said yes, but after the dream, the demon, and the vampire sex dungeon of last night, I feel like I need to stay in public. I may find my guard lowering around Valtu, but I also don’t fully trust being alone with him either, no matter how concerned he seemed to be about me. I mean, he actually called me on the phone. Found out my number because he was so distraught that I wasn’t at class, and when he couldn’t get a hold of me, he actually showed up almost outside my front door. I know vampires are known for stalking their prey, so this does have me a little on edge.
Remember what he is and what he’s capable of, I remind myself. He may seem to have morals, but he is still the predator and you are still the prey.
For now.
“Or,” he says, seeming to read me, “since you look like you should take it easy and relax a little, how about I finally take you up on that drink?” He flashes me a wicked smile that makes me weak at the knees. “I promise I won’t bite.”
Oh, if you only knew what I knew.
“Sure,” I tell him. “But I’m afraid I don’t have my wallet on me, so I’ll have to owe you.”
“I’m sure I can manage.”
“And I also request it be one nearby because I have to pee like crazy.” His brows go up. “I guess that was information you didn’t need to know.”
He laughs. “I plan on getting a lot more information out of you. I find you beguiling, you know. I can’t quite make heads or tails of you.”
Good, I think to myself. Keep it that way.
“Depends on how many drinks I have,” I tell him.
“Duly noted,” he says. “I know of a good bar that makes some gorgeous negronis. Just up here.”
I look up the narrow street and at that moment I spot Livia walking toward us in a hurry, like she’s running late to meet me.
Oh fuck.
Please don’t say anything, please don’t say anything, I think. My eyes are trained to her and I can tell when she spots me, her eyes brightening for a moment, then they go to Valtu and she quickly looks straight ahead, her face impassive, like she never saw us at all. Luckily he wasn’t looking at Livia at the moment she was looking at me or he would have seen the recognition.
However, as she does pass us, along with the rest of the people on the street, Valtu’s head practically snaps around, his nostrils flaring.
I stare at him and hold my breath as he zeroes in on Livia, nothing but pure hatred distorting his face.
Holy shit.
He knows a witch just by smelling her.
Chapter 10
Dahlia
I watch as Valtu keeps craning his neck to follow Livia as she hurries along the narrow street and eventually gets lost in the crowd.
“You okay?” I ask him, because that’s what a normal person would do.
“Hmmph?” he practically grunts and looks back at me. Quicker than a flash his face morphs from something terrifying and enraged to blank and passive. “What was that?”
“I said, are you okay?” I press, wanting to see what he comes up with. “You look like you saw a ghost. But like a ghost you wish you could kill all over again.”