Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
22
“Where are you from?” I’m sitting on my sofa, my feet up under me when he strides in. I’ve made a vow to myself not to mention what happened the night I was drunk. I’m pretending it didn’t happen. I simply added it to the previous night when he almost had me naked and begging. Never happened.
“What?” He has blood spattered on his shirt.
“Shit, are you injured again?”
He smirks. “It’s not mine.” When he sinks onto the other end of the sofa, he sighs. “Progress?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.” He turns his head, his dark blue eyes taking me in. His stare is always too direct, almost like he’s seeing through all my layers. At least he doesn’t seem like a gloating asshole, so maybe he’s put that night behind him, too.
“Where are you from?”
He throws his arm up on the back of the sofa and lays his head back. Like this, in profile, he looks like a Renaissance sculpture. Sharp nose, straight jaw, the curve of his adam’s apple, the fullness of his lips.
“Drunk again?”
Shit. “No!” I can feel my cheeks heating with embarrassment. “I’m not.”
“What a comfort.” His smirk only grows more dastardly. “Why do you want to know where I’m from?”
“I don’t know anything about you.” Except the way you taste, your smell, the feeling of your skin against mine.
“I was born in a village on the outskirts of what is now Budapest.”
“When?”
He closes his eyes, his long lashes like brush strokes against his cheek. “A long, long time ago.”
“And when did you become a vampire?”
“What makes you think vampires aren’t born?” His voice is soft, smooth.
“That’s …” Honestly, that’s never occurred to me. “I thought you had to be bitten and—”
“Gregor has always enjoyed the stories Hollywood tells about us. It allows us to stay hidden in plain sight. Key to our survival.”
“So you were born a vampire?”
“I didn’t say that.”
I swear I’m not naturally violent, but I’d love just once to knock the smug look off his face. “Why can you survive the sun?”
“Do you still love your sister?” he asks.
Whatever balance I thought I had is knocked askew with that one simple question. “What?”
He turns his head, his eyes opening as he gives me that undressing stare of his. “I thought we were asking questions. That’s mine for you. Knowing what you know now, do you still love her?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” He turns back and closes his eyes.
“Why ‘hmm’?” I ask.
“She’s committed some of the greatest sins against humanity of anyone in history. All for power. And yet, you still love her.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“She made a deal with Gregor.” He clucks his tongue.
“She knows what she’s doing.”
“Because you still believe in her?” He smirks.
“Yes.”
“You’re lying to yourself.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I snap back at him. I clench my eyes shut and take a deep breath. Why do I let him rile me up so easily?
“I think you’ll find that’s incorrect.” That smug smirk is back. “Orphaned or abandoned as a child, not sure which, adopted by a fine family where you met your sister Juno. She was both a friend and a mother-figure for you, looming large in your life and encouraging you to continue your path of excelling at your studies. You would’ve easily outshined her had you desired to; however, you never craved the spotlight as she did. Instead, you locked yourself away in an attempt to learn the secrets of immortality—”
“What?” I make a choked noise I don’t recognize. “Immortality?”
Eyes still closed, he nods. “Of course. Why does anyone become a physician, truly? You are searching for ways to prolong life. As I was saying, you allowed your sister’s star to burn artificially brighter than your own, and you followed in her wake. Your bleeding heart saved many, many lives until you met your match with the plague. This clash of titans led you to the governor’s mansion, then here, where you are currently both Juno’s sister, her captive, and in many ways, her unwilling co-conspirator. You still follow her light despite knowing full well it’s simply the glint of the moon at the bottom of an endless well that will drown you and everyone else around you.”
“Shut up.” Stunned is an understatement.
“As you wish. Besides, I feel I covered most of the highlights.” He gives a non-committal shrug.
I sit there fuming, a dozen comebacks flitting in and out of my gray matter. I settle on, “I believe in Juno because I know she’s doing the right thing even if it looks on the outside like it’s the wrong thing.”
“Good.”
“Good?” I don’t think I could be more confused. “Why is that good?”
“Because it means you can love something evil.”
I swallow that statement, unsure of its bitter taste. “She’s not evil.”
His smirk only grows. “That’s love talking, isn’t it? Because you know—in your human heart—you know what she’s done. But you won’t admit it to yourself.”