“Did you love her?” he asked. “My mother?”
Not a flicker of emotion crossed Greyvian’s face. “No.”
Great conversationalist, this guy. He could see that getting information out of him would be like pulling teeth.
“She’s dead, you know.” He was hoping to raise some kind of reaction, but he got nothing with the statement. “I’ve been an orphan since before I can even remember.”
Still nothing. This guy was ice-cold. It was downright eerie. He’d gone from slobbering monster to the Poker Faced King in a matter of seconds. Jacob found himself almost preferring the raging beast to this lack of... anything.
“Did she ever tell you about me?” He didn’t know what he was hoping for, asking that question. Even if his mother had told the guy, did he really wish he’d had this mercurial male for a father?
“No. I only knew her for a very brief moment.”
Wow, a whole sentence.
“Did you rape her?” By the look of the guy and the way he’d had Sienna so aggressively pressed to the wall, it wasn’t a leap to think he might have.
“No.” Greyvian didn’t elaborate or show any reaction to the jibe.
Damn, he’d been hoping for at least a little bit of outrage, but still nothing.
Suddenly he was too exhausted to ask any more questions. This was all too much. The fight earlier, having his blood drunk by a frickin’ vampire, finding out he wasn’t just sick because he had the flu but because he was actually about to turn into one of the bastards. Now this? How the hell was anyone supposed to cope with this many shocks in one day?
In the silence that followed, nobody moved. It was like they were each processing the whole episode and needed a moment to organise their thoughts.
Knox was the first to speak, coming back to reality with a shake of the head that said more than words about how weird this situation was. “So, who’s the female? She smells delightful.”
Jacob looked over at Sienna, feeling strangely numb. She hadn’t moved from her wilted position and was still staring mournfully in Greyvian’s direction. “Sienna. My best friend. We live here together.”
As if the sound of her name snapped her out of whatever mind-bend she was dealing with, she looked over at him, her eyes widening.
“Jesus, Jacob! What happened to you? Are you alright? Are you hurt? There’s blood all over your shirt!” She came rushing over to him, once more herself, and turned his head from side to side as if looking for a wound.
“It’s not my blood,” he assured her quickly. “Well, mostly not my blood.”
“Mostly? You were hurt? Where? I don’t see a wound,” she noted, checking over his arms and then turning an accusing eye to Knox and Lucas. “Did you have anything to do with this?”
“Jesus!” Knox yelped in surprise, his gaze darting over to Greyvian. “She’s Aware?!”
“Obviously,” the guy replied, completely deadpan.
Knox looked at her, expression intense. “How old are you?”
Sienna looked at him like he was insane. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just answer the question, please.”
She frowned, but humoured the guy. “Twenty-five. Why?”
“When’s your birthday?”
“May.”
“Five months ago. You’re sure?”
“That’s what it says on my birth certificate,” she said, a frustrated look on her face. “Why do you want to know?”
Knox just shook his head as he exchanged a look with Lucas, and then Greyvian, obviously troubled by something. Jacob was too tired to remember why that might be.
“Whatever,” she muttered, dismissing the vampires as she looked back at his shirt. “So, what happened?”
“Ah, yeah,” he muttered, glancing down at his blood-splattered shirt before meeting her eyes again. “Well, some douchebags that don’t like these two,” he began, aiming his thumb at Knox and Lucas, “wanted to fight. I stepped in and one of them bit me, drank my blood, then Knox ripped his throat open and the guy bled all over me.
“At least, I think that’s what happened. It all feels so surreal now.”
Sienna’s only reaction was to ask, “Where did he bite you?”
“Here. I think,” he said, putting his fingers to his neck and rubbing slowly at the remembered pain. Had it really happened? Had a vampire really bitten him and drunk his blood? What reality had he stepped into?
Sienna’s expression said that she believed him, but that she was having a hard time reconciling his information with the obvious lack of a wound. The fact that she didn’t question that someone had bitten him and drunk his blood told him that she had pretty much already figured out that they were dealing with vampires—unsurprising, given what he’d walked in on—but he confirmed it for her anyway.
“Yeah, these guys are vampires,” he explained. “And, get this: they have healing saliva.”
“Healing saliva?” she echoed, looking immediately at Greyvian, and then over to Knox and Lucas. “Well, that’s one I’ve never heard of before.”
“I know, right,” he smiled half-heartedly. “Other than that though, they tell me they’re just like regular humans, but with big teeth and a thirst for blood.”
A sudden thought had him turning to Knox, “Hey, if that’s true, how could those guys get up so damn fast? I’m sure I hit them hard enough to put them down for longer than that.”
Knox smirked and said, “They’re used to pain. They should be—they get their asses handed to them often enough. But, seriously, we do tend to have a higher pain threshold than a human. Nothing to get too excited about though. If you get knifed, shot, or your throat ripped open, it’s still gonna hurt.”
Turning back to Sienna, Jacob shared a look of disappointment with her that vampires weren’t everything Hollywood had made them out to be. He felt like he was forgetting a really important piece of information, but he was too tired to focus on anything but the next thing he wanted to say to her.
As her gaze drifted to Greyvian, he drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then said, “But that’s not even the best part.”
Her eyes snapped back to his and she looked at him expectantly.
“You know how I’ve been feeling pretty crap lately?”
She nodded slowly, her gaze darting over to Greyvian like she had an inkling as to what he might say next.
“Well, turns out it’s not the flu or anything. The fact is, that guy’s my father,” he pointed at Greyvian, “and I’m about to become a vampire. This thing that’s happening to me is the first part of my transition.”
“Holy shit,” Sienna replied, her gaze drifting to Greyvian again. “I guess that explains your resemblance, huh?”
Jacob smirked, ready to rib her for having the hots for the guy, but a fresh wave of fatigue hit him and his body felt suddenly heavy, causing him to sway. Luckily Knox was on the ball and provided a solid support for him before he face-planted onto the floor.
“Is he going to be alright?” Sienna asked, reaching out a hand in concern.
“With Greyvian here?” Knox replied. “Eventually. I won’t lie, the transition from human to vampire isn’t easy, but his father’s blood will help.”
Jacob was too exhausted to react to any of that.
“Now, I think I’d better put him in bed before he passes out and is completely useless. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy lugging ninety kilos of dead weight down the hallway.”
Sienna was hyper-aware of Greyvian as she watched Knox lead her best friend out of the room. She tried not to look directly at him, like maybe that would help, but her eyes kept darting back to him again and again.
She couldn’t begin to express the depth of her disappointment at the interruption earlier, but it was a distinctly physical ache that began in her core and bloomed throughout her entire body—or maybe that was the lingering effects of all those hormones still racing through her system? She wasn’t a virgin, an
d she wasn’t unfamiliar with being turned on, but she’d never felt it quite this intensely before.
And to think—the vampire was Jacob’s father. How bizarre was that? She had the hots for her best friend’s dad! Ha! Hilarious! But, even better: the two of them looked the same age, could almost pass as twins, and yet, she was only attracted to one of them.
How the hell did that work?
Looking him over from top to toe and back again, she thought it must be due to Greyvian’s undeniable sex appeal. It wasn’t just his clothing that gave him an edge, but the way he held himself; he stood tall, didn’t slouch, and yet seemed relaxed in his stance. He didn’t fidget—at all—not even a slight shifting from foot to foot like any other human would when left standing for a while. He was statue still—and that was sexy as hell for some reason. As was the way he seemed to be watching her with a similar regard, as if he were cataloguing all of her desirable traits. Not that you could tell from his neutral expression what was actually going on inside that brain of his, but she liked to think that maybe he was thinking dirty thoughts about her.
Suddenly aware that they weren’t alone and that the silence was stretching to infinity, she cleared her throat and asked the first question that popped into her head. “So, ah, how long will the transition take?”
Greyvian’s eyes rose from where they had lingered on her neck, completely unreadable. When he spoke, his voice was impersonal, as if he hadn’t just had his erection and his fangs pressed intimately against her only a little while ago. “Judging by his scent and level of exhaustion, he should be entering the final stage very soon. I’d give him no more than a day or so.”
Awesome. The thought of Greyvian sticking around until it happened had her stomach doing little flips and forward rolls of excitement.
Glancing at the other vampire—Lucas—she marvelled at the resemblance to Knox and wondered if the two were also a father-son duo. If so, then it seemed that physical appearance bred true in the vampire bloodline. Keeping track of family lineage would be a snap if that were the case. Also, pretty damn weird at family get-togethers!
For a vampire, the guy looked harmless enough. He was about her height, lean, and good-looking—but not intimidatingly so. He was watching Greyvian with a thoughtful expression on his face but smiled briefly when he caught her looking his way. He had really nice green eyes—a pretty colour, and a nice shape. Best of all, they looked friendly. Was it real, or only an act? He was a vampire after all.
Although, they did say that they didn’t have any super powers other than their healing saliva and a slightly higher pain threshold, so if worst came to worst, she could always knee them in the balls and then run like hell.
Or revel in the experience, she thought, her eyes drifting back to Greyvian, who was still looking at her with that neutral expression that hid his thoughts so well. God, she was nuts. He’d probably kill her if he ever got his fangs into her neck and here she was thinking it wouldn’t be a bad way to go. She’d never thought of herself as especially fatalistic before, but there you had it.
“So, does this mean that vampirism is purely a genetic thing?” she asked, needing to distract herself from dangerous thoughts once again. “Or can anyone join?”
Okay, maybe that wasn’t the safest topic if the darkening of Greyvian’s eyes was anything to go by. The look he gave her sent a shiver of delight down her spine.
“Yes, it is genetic.” It was Lucas who replied this time, as Greyvian seemed to have run out of words for the day from the silence that stretched before the other vampire stepped in. “And sorry to disappoint, but no. No blood conversions.”
“That is disappointing,” she murmured, her eyes drifting to Greyvian’s once again. He looked like such a predator with his unwavering gaze fixed upon her that she had to bite her lip to stop herself from ordering him to jump her. She wanted his body pressed against hers again. Wanted his mouth on her neck, his tongue…
Searching for a safe topic of conversation, she managed to pull her eyes from Greyvian and focus on Lucas instead—a much safer place to rest her gaze.
“What triggers the transition in the first place?” she asked, wanting to fan her flushed cheeks, but at the same time not wanting to draw attention to them.
“Maturity,” Lucas said, the slight smile on his lips telling her that he was enjoying the situation. “Around the age of twenty-five is said to be the age we reach peak development, bodies fully formed and brains fully developed. That’s when the gene is triggered. It’s usually a few months before we turn twenty-five, but sometimes a few weeks afterwards. Never more than that though,” he finished, eyeing her thoughtfully.
“And then what happens?”
“The body stops producing red blood cells, you quickly become anaemic, exhausted, your immunity goes down the crapper, and you generally feel like death. Once that reaches a certain point and can’t go any further, your whole body feels like it’s on fire as every cell in it transforms itself to the new and improved you.”
“Sounds like fun,” she said dryly.
Lucas smiled wryly. “You couldn’t even begin to imagine. The end process takes less than ten minutes, but it feels like an eternity. ”
“God, poor Jacob.”
“Grey’s blood will help,” Lucas assured her. “It actually takes some of the pain away and makes the whole process a lot smoother.”
She opened her mouth to ask if he spoke from experience, but Knox chose that moment to come back into the room, distracting her.
“Out like a light,” the blonde said, smiling cheerfully as he looked at each of them in turn. “Anyone for dinner?”
For a moment she thought he meant her and her heart skipped a beat in a mixture of fear and excitement, but he wasn’t looking at her, so she figured she wasn’t on the menu.
It was a damn shame, really.
“You eat food?” she asked, a tad warily.
He smiled at her knowingly and said, “Of course we do. We also drink fluids other than blood, sweat, sleep, and all that other normal stuff. Just think of us as blood-drinking humans who live a long damn time unless killed by accident or malice, and you won’t be too far from the truth.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said dryly, thinking that was going to be utterly impossible with Greyvian in the room. Knox and Lucas —sure—but Greyvian? No way.
Handing Knox the takeaway menus, she motioned for the others to take a seat at her small, round dining table. Thankfully Jacob hadn’t left a mess all over it, so she didn’t have to clean it first. Normally there were crumbs and papers scattered about the surface—evidence of him eating while he did the paperwork that went with running his own business—but, being too sick to even think about paperwork, and without an appetite for food, the place was unusually clean for a weekday. Lucas took the offer of a seat immediately, sliding a chair out with a slight scrape of wood on hard flooring, but Greyvian seemed reluctant.
“You’re not going to stand the entire time until Jacob transitions, are you?” she asked, gently teasing.
He seemed to contemplate doing exactly that for a long moment, but eventually gave in. Somewhat grudgingly, he lowered himself onto the padded yellow surface but didn’t move any closer to the table, instead, leaving enough room (so it seemed) that he could jump up at a moment’s notice. The distance looked inviting to Sienna. Just enough room for her to straddle his lap...
Tingling at the thought, she forced herself to sit on the chair beside him instead and felt a little sadistic rush of pleasure when his nostrils flared and his fingers curled into fists as a fresh wave of her scent washed over him. Especially when he turned his head and met her gaze, his grey eyes impassive, but at the same time, unable to fool her into believing that he felt nothing.
She wanted to ask him if he thought she smelled so good because he hadn’t drunk any blood for a while, which would have led to the question of how often he needed to feed, but from the way he was still reacting to her, she thought maybe it was be
st to steer clear of the topic of blood for a while. As exciting as his reaction might be, there were two other vampires in the room to consider as well, and while she might fantasise about being the center of a vampire feeding frenzy, she probably wouldn’t make it out of that alive.
Best to add that one to her fantasy-bank and move on.
“You lot okay with me ordering?” Knox asked as he looked over the menus.
“Knock yourself out,” Sienna replied, more interested in finding out about vampires than ordering food. Lucas waved a hand to show his lack of interest, and Greyvian just ignored Knox completely, his gaze never leaving her face.
“Suit yourselves,” he said, moving a few feet away to place the call.
They listened in silence while Knox began the process of ordering food until Sienna’s curiosity loosened her tongue.
“Healing saliva,” she said, looking from Greyvian to Lucas and back again, throwing it out to whoever wanted to respond. “That’s a pretty handy thing to have if you don’t have super-healing.”
Greyvian said nothing, so Lucas filled the silence with, “Yup. Personally, I’d prefer that we healed spontaneously and that just drinking our blood could heal others, but you take what you can get.”
She nodded in agreement and then grinned as an image popped into her head. “Speaking of healing others, who licked Jacob’s wound away?”
Impressively fast at ordering takeaway, Knox hung up the phone and said, “I did.”
Looking up at the blonde as he pulled out a chair, she said, “I would have loved to have seen that.”
“Why’s that?” he asked as he sat, expression amused.
“He’s not exactly into having other guys licking him, if you catch my drift.”
Knox looked surprised. “Really? He seemed okay with it to me.”
Sienna looked to Lucas for confirmation. The male shook his head slightly, the expression on his face causing her to laugh. It vanished before Knox could see it, but the blonde narrowed his eyes at Lucas like he knew what the male had been doing, making her laugh some more.
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