"I'm tired."
Atreides was studying her when he should have been worried about the women, especially his girlfriend. "You don't look well. Your skin is flushed. Is your head hurting again?"
"I'm just tired. And…." She frowned. "I thought I heard someone say, 'They killed her.'" She took a deep breath. "And someone else said I shouldn't have lived." She shook her head. "I'm just tired is all."
Atreides was frowning. "Did you hear the women talking?"
“Of course. My hunter hearing is as good as a vampire's, you know. Anyway, Iconia said she plans to kill me if I stay with you much longer. She could try. She wouldn't be successful."
"Can you hear what I'm saying?"
"Of course. I'm not deaf. I'm just tired."
"Hell. I'm not speaking openly to you but telepathically."
She frowned at him. "No way." She didn't believe it, one iota.
He looked really concerned about it. "Yeah. I wouldn't lie to you about it."
Wait, that meant she'd been turned? She was a vampiress? Oh, just great! She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. "You think I'm one of you?"
"Yeah, that's about the gist of it." He rubbed her back consolingly.
"No way. I can't be." Wouldn't she be able to do all the things Atreides could do? She didn't want to think of all the ramifications of that. Or how it would affect her standing with her family. Or the League!
"The vampire who bit you could have shared his blood with you after he took your blood. You were unconscious for a while, you said. That's possibly why he knocked you out." Atreides sounded sympathetic, but a little worried too.
She shook her head. "You said he was dead. That I had killed him. I couldn't have killed him if he had turned me."
"Hell, maybe the rogue vampire dumped ashes and clothes there to cover that he was still alive," he said, “so we wouldn't hunt him down.”
"And then the rogue just told me I should have died. That he meant to kill me. So it wasn't as we thought, that he was trying to direct me to the vampire club and get help." Telepathically. Ohmigod, she couldn't have heard the two vampires any other way. Unless…unless she just imagined she'd heard them.
"But you heard two voices? Two distinct voices? Both male?" Atreides asked, his attention focused on the vampiresses again. Where it should have been all along.
"Yes, they were distinctive. The one who said they killed her—did it mean one of the vampiresses? That the hunters killed his mate?" Selena glanced around the area, looking for anyone else who might be in the area watching them.
"Now that could be." Atreides didn't say anything more for a moment as the vampiresses continued to walk along the street talking to each other while Selena was lost in her thoughts.
She kept trying to think of any other time she had heard anyone talking like that—in her head, but she didn't recall any voices like that. Unless someone had talked to her in her sleep and she didn't remember it.
"Maybe, you're naturally telepathic, Selena. Like Tezra is."
Tezra was a borderline rogue and she'd had the odd gift of being able to read vampire's minds. They hadn't known it either and that meant they didn't hide their thoughts from her. Fatal mistake on their part. But no way was Selena telepathic. If she had been, she would have heard everything that the vampires were saying in the club that night she went inside looking for Twilight.
"No."
"Maybe your concussion has something to do with it."
“But…if a rogue had turned me and he was still alive, he could control me then, right? Nothing like that has happened,” she said.
Atreides was grinding his teeth.
"What are you doing?" she whispered to him.
"Controlling my fangs."
Her lips parted. He immediately looked at her mouth as if checking out the size of her teeth. She ran her tongue over them. "I don't have teeth like yours. Let me see yours."
Usually, a hunter would not ask to see a vampire's extended teeth. A vampire only showed them to a hunter when he was angry and ready for a fight.
Okay, so they were darned wicked looking, she thought. "Why are they out?" Because of the hunters talking to the vampiresses?
"Because I'm furious that the rogue vampire might have turned you."
"You think he did for sure." There was no "might" about it. At least she thought he felt that way. "All right," she said, "I'm damned angry, ready to bite the bastard and no vampire teeth are coming out." She ran her tongue over them again, just in case she might not feel them unsheathe until she had more experience at this.
He smiled at her and because of his extended canines, he looked a lot predatory.
She frowned at him. She was serious about this! If she was angry, why wouldn't the vampire teeth just—appear? "I tell you that nothing is happening. And I am angry. So if I had been turned, they would extend, right?"
"You're not angry enough. If you were, there's a good chance you would have no control over your fangs."
Suddenly, Iconia was in their space, realizing Selena and Atreides were nearby and together. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?” Iconia said to Selena, then sliced Atreides a glower. “And with Atreides?" But she was in Selena's face, too close for comfort and her fangs were fully extended!
"We're protecting you," Selena said, matter-of-factly.
Iconia sneered at her. "As if one of your kind could actually do that."
"Well, I did before." Selena wasn't going to allow Iconia to intimidate her.
"See how well that worked out for her," Iconia said, her tone biting.
"You're right. I couldn't watch her twenty-four seven. But had I been there when they came for her again, I would have fought any rogue hunter to protect her."
"Believe me when I say I wouldn't fight a vampire for you to save you," Iconia said.
Well, that was a given.
But if Selena were one of them now, why didn't some saber tooth fangs appear? Iconia was in her space, baring her teeth, giving her grief, and when Selena ran her tongue over her teeth again, there were still no vampire-size teeth anywhere.
"She's here to fight hunters on your behalf, believe it or not," Atreides said, sounding highly annoyed with Iconia. His teeth were still fully extended.
"Why are you growling at me?" Iconia asked, undoubtedly incensed that Atreides would take a huntress's side over hers.
Which couldn't help but amuse Selena. Still, she was worried about this other issue though, that she could truly be a vampire. What if she pushed Iconia, and the vampire made a threatening move toward her? Then would fangs finally erupt? Selena was halfway tempted to force the issue, but she didn't want to have to have Atreides break up the fight when they were supposed to be watching out for the vampiresses.
Selena started thinking more of the consequences of what could have happened to her. Could she fly? Vanish? Transport herself to somewhere else? Would she crave drinking blood? She couldn't do any of those things. Atreides had to be wrong about Selena hearing vampiric conversation in a telepathic way. Iconia had to have been talking aloud to her friends and with her superior hunter hearing, Selena had heard. That was all. And the other? She was tired. The two male voices she'd heard had just been a figment of her imagination.