“I can see why he likes it out here. It’s beautiful.”
The breeze picked up, blowing her hair into a wild frenzy around her head.
Charlotte didn’t squeal, didn’t try to smooth her hair back into place. She only laughed, throwing her arms out and twirling into the breeze, spinning until she was out of breath and the air finally stilled.
When she stopped and looked at him again, there was so much light in her eyes, it nearly blinded him.
“You’re beautiful, Charlotte D’Amico.” He grabbed her and pulled her close, pressing his lips to hers. She stiffened in his arms, but then relaxed, parting her lips for him as he drank her in, her mouth warm and soft, her gentle murmurs stirring him into a frenzy.
Entirely too soon, she broke their kiss and gave him a playful shove, glaring at him with a mix of amusement and annoyance. “Just talking, remember?”
“Forgive me.” Dorian gave a slight bow. “I was… overcome.”
“Don’t let it happen again.” She found a flat spot on the ridge and took a seat, patting the space next to her for Dorian to join her. When he did, she said, “Okay, enough about shifters. I need Vampire 101, lightning round. Ready?”
“What’s a lightning—”
“Garlic. Myth or fact?”
He laughed, understanding her meaning. “Myth. Like any good gourmet, I adore garlic.”
“Holy water?”
“Mostly myth, although witches can enchant water with certain spells that vampires find… uncomfortable.”
“Witches? As in, broomstick riding, spell-casting, fortune-telling—”
“Wait, is this still the lightning round? Because witches are a topic all their own.”
Charlotte blinked rapidly, then sighed. “Okay, we’ll save witches for later. What about walking in daylight?”
“A feat made possible by… witches.”
“Seriously?”
“Witches and vampires have a long, complicated, and mostly symbiotic history which I’ll tell you more about after the lightning round.”
“When you go to someone’s apartment or house, do you have to be invited in?”
“We haven’t for a good seventy or eighty years now.”
She cocked her head and smirked. “Witches?”
“You’re an excellent student,” he said with a wink. “That spell was born of necessity in modern times. As cities became more crowded, with a high percentage of renters and property turnover, tracking down owners to ask for permission to enter became more challenging. So, for the vampire who can afford it, there’s an easy fix.”
“Sounds like witches do a lot of favors for you guys.”
“For which they’re extremely well-paid, I assure you.” Dorian sighed, still bristling about Marlys’s exploitative prices.
“What about stakes?”
“Deadly. But only when they’re made of wood, and only if you manage to pierce the heart, like I told you last night. Otherwise, you’ll just piss us off.”
“Can vampires be killed by anything else?”
“Several things,” he said with a wry laugh. “Forgive me if I don’t readily disclose them.”
She peppered him with a few of the other popular myths—sleeping in coffins, turning into bats, no reflection in the mirror—which Dorian quickly dispelled. But soon they reached the end of the lightning round, and in the heavy pause that followed, he knew whatever came next was going to alter her reality forever.
She knew it too. Her face had changed, the playfulness dimming from her eyes. More than anything, Dorian wanted to hit the proverbial pause button, take her into his arms again, and kiss her until she’d forgotten that he was a vampire, forgotten she’d ever wanted to know about the dark world that existed alongside hers.
But it was too late for that.
“Dorian,” she said somberly, “how do you get your… blood supply?”
“Vampires are not required to feed from live humans,” he said, hoping to put her at ease.
“But some do anyway, right?”
“Yes—usually through a consensual arrangement with a human donor. Of course, the system is imperfect, and the balance of power isn’t exactly even, but we have laws that forbid the killing of humans. For the most part, they’re honored.”
“Do you? Drink from live humans, I mean?”
“Not in… many decades.” Sensing this wouldn’t be enough to satisfy her, he added, “Vampires only need to feed about once per week. I have an arrangement with a local hospital for blood bags, and short of that, I occasionally consume the blood of demons.”
“Demons?”
“They’re entities of hell, bound to human vessels but void of human souls. Since the vessel itself is human, their blood still contains the same basic nutrients, though it’s not winning any points for taste.”
“Holy shit.” She shook her head, her voice dropping to a shocked whisper. “Everything you tell me is crazier than the last. All of it.”
“It isn’t a simple conversation, Charlotte. There is so much you don’t know. You claim you want answers, but perhaps it’s not—”
“Last night,” she said suddenly. “You told me I wouldn’t turn into a vampire, even though you bit me. How is that possible?”
“Vampires are made by vampire blood—it has nothing to do with being bitten. It just happens the two activities often go hand-in-hand.”
“How so?” she asked. When he hesitated, she folded her arms across her chest and said, “A deal is a deal, Dorian. If you don’t want to talk about this, then we’re done here.”
Dorian nodded, turning to look out across the vista. He didn’t want to see the look of fear and disgust in her eyes when he shared the rest.
Last night, she’d called him a monster. She had no idea how right she actually was.
Bloody hell, it felt like he was opening up a vein. But she was right—a deal was a deal, and he owed her an explanation.
Even if the truth sent her running out of his life for good.
“In order to become a vampire,” he began, “a human must be very close to death, and then they must ingest vampire blood—usually by drinking or injecting it. Some humans willingly turn, often through a mutually beneficial arrangement with their vampire sire.”
“And the ones who aren’t willing?”
From the corner of his eye, he caught Charlotte pulling her shirt collar close around her throat, an unconscious gesture she probably didn’t even realize she’d done, but one Dorian couldn’t unsee.
His chest burned, hating that he’d put her on guard, fearing for her life.
But he had to press on.
“What typically happens there,” he continued, “is that a vampire bites the human, drains enough blood to stop the heart, then forces the victim to ingest his blood. Vampire blood has rapid regenerative properties and will almost immediately restart the human’s heart and begin transforming his remaining blood into vampire blood, thus initiating the change.” Dorian leaned back, bracing his hands against the cold rock slab. “On the plus side, our blood allows us to heal quickly, and can also heal human wounds, provided the human isn’t already near his death.”