The ring of steel being drawn caused him to flinch and he stared in horror as his father stood before him, weapon at the ready.
“Monster!” his father cried again, taking a step towards him.
Horrified now, Greyvian took a step back, unable to comprehend what was happening.
“Father?”
“Do not call me that.” His father’s expression set into hard lines as he committed himself. “You are no son of mine.”
Without conscious thought, Greyvian spun around and bolted. Heavy footsteps rang out as he was pursued, causing tears of terror and grief to stream down his face as he fully realised that his own father meant to kill him.
“The blood has driven you mad, Greyvian!” his father called after him, his voice farther away than he would have expected. “It’s better this way!”
Unable to put words to what he was feeling, he put his head down and ran faster. He had no idea how long he ran, or how far he travelled, but suddenly he couldn’t run anymore. Collapsing, he put his arms over his head and waited for the killing blow.
Panting and sobbing, he waited. And waited. The sobbing and panting subsided, and still, no blow came to him. Slowly, he removed his arms and lifted his head.
He was alone in the middle of a forest. There was no sign of his pursuers, no sound besides that of a lone bird tweeting somewhere in the distance. He was safe.
He was free.
Coming back to himself, Greyvian realised that he was sucking at a dried corpse. Disgusted, he dropped the man and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, noting absently that the blood had tasted odd. A little weak, a little stale, nothing close to the usual dark sweetness he was used to. The human must have been ill and receiving treatment. Greyvian had come across a few of them in the past few decades and was always affected in some way by the drugs in their system. He hoped that this cocktail would make him feel exhausted, as had happened in the past. He had a feeling exhausted would be a good way to feel around Sienna; less chance of leaping on her and treating her to the same fate he had given those villagers so long ago.
Images flashed in his mind’s eye. Village after village of shrunken corpses, each reaching out for someone to save them, none of them wanting the fate he had thrust upon them. It had taken him a long time to get his fill. A long time to finish the growing his body had put on hold for his adolescence. A long time to finally come down from his blood high and realise the horror he had visited upon the human race. And, an agonisingly long time to realise just what his father had seen that day so long ago: a monster, covered in blood, fangs elongated, previously grey eyes pitch black and soulless.
It was no wonder his father had tried to kill him.
Pushing the memories to the back of his mind, where they had been for the past century and should have stayed put for a few more, he disposed of the body. It was easy to make the male’s death look like a run of the mill stabbing instead of a vampire draining—just one more murder in the big city, just one more statistic; another case that the over-worked police didn’t have time to look into. Not that it really mattered. Even if the humans wanted to think it was a vampire, it wasn’t like they would ever catch one. You couldn’t catch what you couldn’t see; what your brain wouldn’t acknowledge even if it were standing right in front of you.
Which brought his thoughts back to Sienna. What made her different? Why could she see them? Was she the first step in an evolving population of humans that would be unaffected by their Awareness tampering? The mere thought would horrify his father: a male who hated humans for reasons that had finally become clear to Greyvian only a century ago. Those reasons even made him seriously consider whether they could allow the female to remain alive.
Not wanting to think about that right now, he headed back to the apartment. His hunger wasn’t sated, not by half, but he didn’t think his chances of coming across another suitable candidate were very high right now and he didn’t want to be left alone with his thoughts. Not with the direction they kept heading in. At least he was feeling more level-headed now, less likely to jump Sienna and either fuck her brains out or drain her dry.
It had to be her scent that had caused him to react that way to her. That, and the fact that he needed to feed. There was no other explanation for it.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that Greyvian. One day you might actually believe it.
He resisted the urge to verbally tell himself to shut up and simply shook his head.
The female was bad news. The sooner this transition was over with, the better.
Arriving back at the apartment, he pushed the door open and braced himself for a fresh onslaught of Sienna’s scent. He found that it wasn’t as bad as he remembered.
It was worse.
Like a physical force, it pushed at him as he slowly eased into the living room, softly closing the door behind himself. So sweet. So tempting. And there she sat on the lounge opposite Knox, looking calm and comfortable, smiling at something the blonde was saying. She hadn’t noticed him yet and neither had Knox, so he took a moment to study her profile.
What was it about someone that made them attractive? Was it the arrangement of their features? The size and shape of their eyes, their mouth, their nose? Or was it something more? The depth of their personality, or, in Sienna’s case, the light of life that seemed to shine from her like some kind of ethereal presence?
Too soon her head twitched in his direction, the smile fading from her lips as she took in his silent dark form as he stared at her. When their eyes met, he felt the connection and it irked him. He didn’t want to feel connected to anybody, most of all a human. He’d been happy in his catatonic state. As happy as anybody could be feeling little to no emotion, caring for no one. He didn’t even know the woman for Christ’s sake.
When Knox turned his head towards the door to see what Sienna was looking at, Greyvian felt the force of the male’s stare like a physical touch. Ignoring the look and without apology for his behaviour, he made his way over to them, his eyes flicking around the seating arrangement with a calm that should have come naturally to him, yet for which he had to strive.
He made the decision to sit on the armchair a good distance from the female but changed tack at the last instant when he caught Knox eyeing him speculatively, as if he were judging whether or not Greyvian was going to behave himself around the human. Lowering himself gently beside Sienna, he met Knox’s green-eyed gaze and purposefully stretched his arms along the back of the lounge so that one hand was but a hair’s breadth from the back of her head. Knox smiled slightly in return and tipped his head, acknowledging the slight.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Sienna’s posture had straightened, her body tightening itself in readiness for flight no doubt. Calmly, he turned his head towards her and met her wide blue eyes. She stared at him for a long moment before losing her nerve and looking down at her hands.
The silence was palpable. Normally he was fine with silence, preferred it even to the mindless prattle that people seemed to think was necessary for group situations, but right now it only served to draw his attention to the steady in and out sound of Sienna’s breathing. If he listened hard enough, he could even hear the rapid beat of her heart, pushing her blood around her body.
“Did you feed?” Knox’s voice cut through the silence, loud as a fog horn to his straining ears and thankfully served to divert his attention from the thought of Sienna’s blood. Just in time too, if the sudden snap of Sienna’s face coming into focus was anything to go by.
Damn. He hadn’t even noticed himself slipping into feeding mode. Closing his eyes briefly, he willed his fangs to retract before turning his head in Knox’s direction. Safe in the knowledge that his expression gave nothing away, he nodded.
“I did.”
“Really?” Knox replied with a sceptic half smile. “Cause you were looking at Sienna as if she were lunch.”
An uncharacteristic wave of irritation flowed through his body and he had
the irrational urge to rip the male’s throat out with his teeth.
“Was I?” he asked, keeping his tone completely neutral—again, with an effort that wasn’t normally required. He turned his head slightly towards Sienna. “I apologise if I gave any impression of intensity.”
The female’s vibrant blue eyes locked onto his and she smiled slowly, her posture visibly relaxing for the first time since he’d sat beside her. “Don’t sweat it.”
Looking back at Knox with an effort that made him uneasy, he raised an eyebrow at the male in challenge. Knox smiled in answer, but there was little humour in his eyes—as if he knew that Greyvian was struggling for normalcy and worried for the female’s safety.
As well he should.
“So, I’m curious,” Sienna said after another long moment of silence. “Just how old are you all?”
“Knox?” she prompted when none of them answered.
An irrational part of Greyvian was annoyed that she hadn’t asked him first.
“I guess it’s only fair that you know our age—after all, I did ask you yours,” the blonde replied with a smile. “I’m one hundred and fifty-six years old.”
Sienna pursed her lips, looking disappointed. “Is that all? Lucas?”
Another wave of annoyance flowed through him.
“I’m just a baby,” Lucas replied nonchalantly. “One hundred.”
“Ah.” Finally she turned to him, her blue eyes luminous and twinkling: as if she had deliberately left him till last. “Greyvian?”
The way she said his name was like a slow caress, sultry and smooth, appeasing the annoyed beast within so that he could answer her without inflection in his voice. “Three hundred and fifty.”
“Now that’s more like it,” she replied with a grin that caused another unexpected stir of some unknown emotion within. “A real renaissance man. Where were you born?”
“The Netherlands.” He hadn’t made a conscious decision to answer her and was uneasy that he had spoken so readily.
She looked at him speculatively, her blue eyes searching his face as if cataloguing his features. “Yeah, I guess I can see that. Have you travelled much these past few centuries?”
“Quite a bit, actually.” Again with the mouth opening, the words spilling out without conscious thought. What was the matter with him? Was this a side effect of the drugged blood he had ingested? This loosening of his tongue? Pressing his lips together, he bid them stay shut.
“What did you do for money? I’m sure you must have had a hundred different jobs by now.”
She was looking at him so expectantly that he couldn’t keep himself from answering her. “I was in the military for a bit.”
“Really?” Knox asked, surprise evident in his tone. “When?”
He sent a brief glance Knox’s way. He might be unable to keep his mouth shut for Sienna, but he found no trouble in ignoring the blonde. When it became evident that he wasn’t going to answer, Sienna prompted him with the same question.
Grimacing slightly, he looked back at her. “Sporadically, but mostly in the early 1900s.”
There was a moment of silence and then she seemed to catch on to all that he’d left out. “But you were born in the 1600s. What did you do before then?”
Damn her and her questions and his inability to deflect them with silence. Fine, she wanted to know what he did before then, perhaps this answer would deter her from asking any more questions.
“I wasn’t interested in working back then. I was invisible to the human race. I took what I wanted.”
“Oh.” Sienna pressed her back against the sofa, suddenly deflated.
There. Finally. No more questions.
“What changed?”
Oh, for the love of God. He was not going to answer that.
“Early 1900s,” Knox mused as the silence stretched, his expression thoughtful. “That would be right around the time that I met him, I think?”
“Really? Isn’t that interesting?” Sienna said archly, looking from him to Knox and back again.
He would have liked to tell the male not to get any ideas, but the truth of the matter was, Knox did have a big hand in his change of heart when it came to money and living in the economic world. Knox had had a hand in a lot of things that he would never admit to: unless a certain blue-eyed female managed to magic the answer from his tongue. Thankfully, Sienna’s attention was successfully deflected from asking him any more questions, her gaze instead focusing on Knox. He should have been grateful, but it seemed he wasn’t in his right mind at the moment and her attention to the blonde made him itchy.
As the two of them talked about Knox’s early days of being a vampire and what it’s like having a son who looks the same age as you, he realised that he was brooding. He’d never been a brooder. Well, not since his adolescence when he had nothing better to do than lay in bed and ask the question ‘why?’.
Why was he the only vampire in existence who couldn’t seem to stomach the blood that should keep him vibrant and healthy? Why was he doomed to an existence of being weak and pitiful while those around him were strong and lively?
Enough. He made a conscious effort to stop the inner ramblings from his youth from getting any more air-time than they had a right to. Those days were long gone. He knew the kind of blood he needed and he knew how to get it. The ‘whys’ were no longer important.
The thought of blood had his eyes drifting back to Sienna.
5
As Knox and Lucas occupied themselves playing the Wii, Sienna was left free to contemplate the mystery that was Greyvian Kobussen. Was his silent Zen expression real, or was it just a cover for the aggressive beast that lay beneath the surface? Or should she say, the sexy beast—the one who had pushed her up against the wall and ground his erection into her belly. The memory sent a small shiver of desire through her body. Every woman should have that experience at least once in her life. She’d never felt more alive than at that moment. Of course, not just any man could have pulled that off. There definitely had to be some chemistry happening or it was just some creep on an ego trip.
Glancing sideways at Greyvian, she couldn’t help that her eyes lingered on his perfectly formed, soft lips. She well remembered the feel of them brushing against the sensitive skin of her neck and wanted desperately to feel them once again. She didn’t see that happening anytime soon, however, as he was back to doing his cardboard cut-out impersonation. No emotion touched his face as he sat beside her. So silent. So still. His eyes staring straight ahead at who-knew-what, once again an unmoving statue without a nano-second of fidgeting to put to his name.
Or perhaps he was less a statue, and more a coiled Cobra waiting to strike. Even as he sat there, motionless, expressionless, there was an intensity to his presence that made him impossible to ignore. He was the giant white elephant in the room. Even Knox and Lucas seemed to feel it, if the constant glances thrown his way were any indication.
Not that she was really paying that much attention to Knox and Lucas. Most of her attention was focused on Greyvian.
On her next glance, her eyes were drawn to his dark hair. Long at the fringe and short in the back, it had a gloss to it that many a female would have given anything for and the style suited him to perfection. Oh, who was she kidding? He could probably have a mullet and she’d think it looked good on him.
She really had it bad. Giddy, obsessive schoolgirl wasn’t generally her style, but there was just something about Greyvian that lowered her IQ about thirty points. She had a vague thought that perhaps she’d read something about that happening in the presence of attractive people. If so, then she could definitely vouch for the accuracy of the information.
On her next inspection, she focused on his jaw. Strong and chiselled, it was covered with a uniform sprinkling of dark hair, a five o’clock shadow that made her fingers itch with the need to feel whether it was rough or soft to the touch. From experience she expected rough, but it would be her pleasure to test the theory.
With a mental shake of her head, she tried to lift herself out of her inner lust-fest by trying, once again, to find a rational reason as to why she should be attracted to Greyvian when he looked almost exactly like Jacob (whom she had no romantic feelings for whatsoever). She just kept coming back to the same conclusion, however. It had to be something more than physical appearance that had her so hot and bothered over the guy. Surely it wasn’t just that he was a dangerous vampire capable of ending her life on a whim?
She couldn’t be that sad, could she?
But she had to be, because she’d barely spoken to the male, yet here she was, practically salivating on the guy. The fact that she wanted to ask him a million questions about his life was small consolation, but at least it meant she didn’t just want to get physical with the male because of his sex appeal.
Not that there was anything wrong with that.
She opened her mouth to ask him what part of town he lived in at the same time as his head turned towards her slowly, his eyes dark and brooding. He didn’t say anything, just looked at her as if daring her to talk to him.
Damn, he was intense. She had never met anyone like him before. As her question stuck in her throat, she could only return his dark gaze. Suddenly she was transported back in time to when he’d had her pressed against the wall, his teeth against her throat and his erection pressed against her, grinding.
Again, she wondered what it would feel like to have him drink from her. Would it really hurt that much? She assumed it would, because how could it not hurt to have two fangs sink into your flesh? But what about afterwards? Would it continue to hurt as he sucked the blood from her neck? Maybe not...God, how she wanted to find out.
“Do I really smell that good to you?” she asked, as if it had only been a moment ago that he’d had her pressed against the wall, lusting after her blood. She drew in a sharp breath as his eyes darkened further, turning black in an instant. “I guess so.”
Curiosity got the better of her senses. “What do I smell like?”
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