Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(23)

The wry smile on his face disappeared in the blink of an eye. “You will do no such thing.”

“Beg your pardon?”

He frowned at me. “I believe I’ve made it perfectly clear that I do not wish for you to get in between vampires and those who seek to harm us.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you always get your way, do you? Whoever they are, they thought it was perfectly acceptable to feed me to a vampire, remember? I think I have a right to get as involved as I want. Which isn’t much, by the way. But I could just go to the butcher’s during daytime and ask casually about the blood. Probably less suspicious than if a ghostly guy shows up and starts chatting to them about their suppliers, eh?”

Warin’s frown deepened. “Liv, I am serious. You are not to get involved. Do you understand?”

Well, wasn’t he Mr. Domineering? Get a little corpse blood in him and the polite young man I’d let into my home earlier in the evening turned all patronizing. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my drawing kit again.

“Right, whatever. So what does it mean to Compel someone?”

If he was suspicious of my quick capitulation, he didn’t show it. “It’s a hypnosis, of a sort.”

“And you use it to make people forget what you are?” I asked, arching my eyebrows at him. That sounded pretty fucking creepy. “What else can you do with it?”

His looked down, and I resumed my drawing to capture the way his dark eyelashes shadowed his cheekbones. “We can capture the mind of any human. Make them do whatever we ask. How long it lasts depends on the strength of the vampire and the will of the human.”

“That…” My pencil came to a halt as I stared at him. “I’m sorry, are you telling me you can… mindfuck people?”

“Yes. If humans truly understood what we were, what we can do, it wouldn’t be our physical strength you feared.” He looked up at me then, capturing my gaze with the magnetic pull of his. “Would it?”

“I…” I frowned, unable to ignore the icy tendril traveling up my spine when I remembered all the little things he’d told me about his kind. Things most humans didn’t know—shouldn’t know. “Are you going to Compel me to forget?”

“No.” He didn’t move his gaze from mine. “I can’t. You’re the only human who’s ever been able to resist my Compulsion.”

“Oh, that’s… Wait, you tried?” Mild outrage made me scowl at him.

“Of course I did. You know about our weakness for silver, you know the location of my home, benefits of ingesting vampire blood…”

“Pure safety procedure?” I asked, still feeling kinda miffed about his apparent attempt to mindfuck me without my consent.

“Yes. And that’s why you can never tell anyone what you know. Other vampires are unlikely to let you wander around with so much information and a free mind.” He finally released my gaze, settling back into the couch as if the matter was fully discussed.

But I only had more questions.

“But why? Why can’t you Compel me? I’m as ordinary as ordinary can be,” I said, frowning at the vampire.

“There is nothing ordinary about you, Liv,” he said softly, flicking those long eyelashes up to look at me once more with the most intense stare I’d ever received in my life. “I do not know why you can resist my Compulsion, but I know you are far from ordinary. I’ve known it since we first met.”

Predictably, the deepest blush of my lifetime heated up my entire face, until I was pretty sure I was glowing like a lighthouse. Before I could think of a joking deflection, a sharp shrill cut through my living room.

I jolted, dropping my pencil in my lap.

Warin slid his hand into his pants’ pocket and withdrew his fancy smartphone. Faster than my eye could follow, he’d lifted it to his ear. “Yes? Yes. I’m on my way.” He hung up without another word.

“Running late?” I asked, glancing at my own phone. To my surprise, it had been four hours since he’d arrived. Huh.

“Yes. My apologies—I will have to leave now.” He got to his feet, but turned toward me before he’d gotten more than a few steps toward the door. “Would it be acceptable if I come back another night?”

I smiled—I’d been low-key worried he wouldn’t want to repeat the evening after the blood incident. “Yes, you have to. I’m nowhere near done with my drawings. I have time tomorrow night, if you do?”

He frowned, regret flickering across his pale features. “It would be hard to fit it in tomorrow night.”

I reached out my hand. “Give me your phone.”

He obeyed, eyebrows raised in question.

I quickly typed in my number and gave it back to him. “There. Give me a call when you have time, and we’ll figure something out.”

Warin nodded. “I will. Thank you for tonight, Liv.”

I grimaced and got up to see him out. “Yeah, sorry again about almost poisoning you. I promise, I’m done attempting to play Better Housekeeping hostess. You’ll have to bring your own dinner next time.”

I didn’t miss the look of brief relief on the vampire’s face as he turned to leave.





8





I drove back to the supermarket after work the next day.