Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(29)
He shook his head at me. “My kind is not fascinating, Liv. We’re dangerous.”
I shrugged as I drew the frown of his brows. “So are lions, crocodiles… sharks. Doesn’t mean they aren’t fascinating.”
“You’re—“
“And odd human?” I interrupted him with a grin. “So you keep saying. But you’re the one who’s patiently answering all my dumb questions. And letting humans donate blood rather than drink from them. I dare say, you’re an odd vampire too.”
He chuckled, a rumbling sound that seemed to vibrated through the room and seemed to warm the air and even my skin. “Perhaps that’s why I enjoy your company so much.”
“Yeah,” I said, unable to hide my happy smile as the warmth in my skin sank in deeper.
We sat in pleasant silence for a little while as I sketched the vampire on my couch, until the quietude was interrupted by a demanding growl from my stomach.
Warin shot my midsection a look. “Have you not eaten?”
I grimaced. “No.” I hadn’t been able to eat since the slaughterhouse.
“I don’t mind if you eat while I visit,” he said. “You should not go hungry for too long—humans need regular feedings, correct?”
I snorted at his phrasing. “No, I’m good. Don’t think I’ll be eating anything but veggies anytime soon, anyway.” I glanced at him and sighed. I’d been dragging my feed at bringing up what I’d spent my day doing, because judging from how stern he’d been about his whole “thou shall not investigate the local butcher” thing, I was reasonably certain he wouldn’t much appreciate me going to the slaughterhouse. But, I’d gone there to help with his investigation, so keeping what little I’d learned from him wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“Uh, so… remember the whole blood incident?”
He arched his eyebrows in question. “I do.” There was just the slightest note of warning in his tone.
“Yeah, so… I went and talked to my butcher, who confirmed that their supplier uses a different technique to harvest the blood now, due to vampires breaking into several butcher shops lately.”
“After I specifically told you not to get involved?” There was no mistaking the clipped disapproval in his voice this time.
“Yeah, well, free will and all.” I gave him a half-smile that ended more in a grimace at the sight of his narrowed eyes. Okay, so I wasn’t afraid of him, as such, but he could still project and awfully effective “don’t mess with me, human” aura when he wanted to.
“Anyway, the butcher gave me the number for their supplier, and today I went to speak with the people at the slaughterhouse,” I continued.
“You did what?” he growled. “Liv, do you not understand how dangerous this is? If you are suspected of being a vampire sympathizer, they will target you. Does your life mean that little to you? You experienced firsthand how easy it is for these people to hurt anyone they suspect of being on our side.”
“I didn’t think there’d be any harm in it. Though the PR dude made it quite clear that they definitely are using dead blood to weed out what he believes to be the weaker vampires.”
Warin muttered what sounded distinctly like a curse, even if I didn’t catch the words. “You do realize that this is exactly the same information I have managed to procure? There was zero reason for you to risk your life in interacting with them.”
My shoulders slumped. “Oh. How…? I mean, you can’t exactly go there during the day, and they are quite on edge about vampires coming around.”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “I tracked down one of their employees at his local bar and Compelled him.”
“Oh.” Well, way to deflate the importance a girl’s detective-skills. “Did he say anything about any chemical they’d added? The PR guy made me look at all these formulas, but to be honest, I didn’t understand any of them. And he didn’t explain further.”
Warin frowned. “There’s no chemical added. There doesn’t need to be.” He was silent for a bit before his eyes widened ever so slightly. “Liv, what did these formulas look like?”
“I dunno, chemistry-like. Apart from one of them—it was pretty odd. Like a circle with squiggles. Why?”
This time, I was certain he spat out a curse. He got to his feet, agitation suddenly rolling off him in waves. It was such a vast difference to his usually so calm aura, unease penetrated my brain and sank into my gut.
“Warin? What is it?”
“And this circle—did it glow?” he asked, not bothering to answer my question. “Did you feel anything? A headache? Confusion?”
My eyes widened. “How did you know that?”
His angry snarl made me jolt, my pencil clattering noisily to the floor as I lost my grip on it.
“Witches!” he hissed. “Of course. I should have known.”
“Wha— witches?” I blinked up at the agitated vampire as he began to pace back and force in my small living room. “I’m sorry, did I hear you right? Witches?”
“Yes,” he said, still pacing. “I’ve clearly been too lenient for too long.”
“I’m… sorry, do you mind catching me up?” I looked at him, both eyebrows arched as high as they would go. “And can we maybe start with ‘witches are real’?”