Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(44)
I shuddered at the memory. “Yeah?”
“If he was under vampire Compulsion, the vampire who Compelled him would have to be… very strong.”
I perked up, my fingers pausing from drawing the angle of his jaw. “You’re thinking royalty-strong?”
“Yes.”
“So… What? You’re thinking you can suss out who might be behind it if you get everyone under the same roof?”
He nodded. “Perhaps. But it will be… tricky. And… then there is the thing with us… with our friendship.”
“Which thing?” Something in his tone made my fingers twitch around the charcoal with an unpleasant sense of foreboding.
He hesitated for a moment. “It is… very clear you have become a target due to our relations, despite my efforts to be discreet when visiting you.”
“Way to make a girl feel like a dirty secret,” I muttered.
He ignored me. “I would like you to accompany me to the meeting with the other Lords.”
I blinked. “Uh… sorry, are you asking me to waltz into the middle of a vampire gathering? ‘Cause I gotta tell ya, the last time you brought me into a crowd of your kind, I nearly ended up on the menu.”
“Regrettably, Liv, I’m not asking.” Despite Warin’s still-quiet voice, his tone was like velvet-wrapped granite. “It is the only way I can restore a measure of safety to your life, and so you will go. And I will claim you, among my equals, as my… special companion. As such, you will be untouchable to them. And even other supernaturals will think twice before harming you.”
A hot flush of anger made my blood boil alongside a trickle of desire his no-nonsense attitude shot through my abdomen. Damnit, now was so not the time to picture him brandishing a leather belt in one hand!
“Excuse the fuck out of me?” I snapped, opting to lean into the anger and avoid the disturbing images my hormones were conjuring. “Since when did our friendship turn into you bossing me around?”
“I am truly sorry, Liv,” he said, and he sounded it too. “I am sorry I pulled you into my world. I thought I was careful, but I was only selfish. I should have kept walking when I saw you in that bar, but I…” Warin looked down, his voice faltering for a moment. When he looked back up, there was steel in his eyes. “But regrets are useless now. I am the cause of your current predicament, therefore I am responsible for your continued safety. You will accompany me to this meeting, and you will allow me to ensure your continued safety until the threat has been eliminated. What you wish to do thereafter… will be your decision. I will not make any further demands of you. But this, Liv… this will happen.”
If he hadn’t sounded so anguished, I’d have kicked him straight out of my home. But as I glared daggers at Warin, the regret on his marble features took the edge off my anger.
Drawing in a deep breath through my nose, I reined in my hostility. “What do you think ‘claiming’ me will do to these witches? I mean, if they try to kill me just because they’ve seen us hang out together, wouldn’t putting attention on our friendship just make things worse?”
“There are… certain procedures in my world,” he said, and the hesitance in his voice made it clear he was anything but comfortable with the topic. “Certain rules every supernatural being will adhere to, if they do not wish to suffer… serious consequences. I am the vampire Lord of this territory. Should anyone harm my claimed companion, I would be honorbound to hunt them and their kin to extinction. Even witches would be hesitant to touch you, once you are truly mine.”
I bit my lip as I looked at Warin’s perfect profile, trying to fight back the roil of conflicting emotions in my gut.
Normally, this would have been simple. I’d picked up and moved for a lot less in the past. I never stayed long enough anywhere to form lasting bonds with anyone. The smart thing—and what the panicked clenching in my gut told me was the only rational choice—would be to tell him thanks, but no thanks on his “special companion” offer. And skip town.
Let’s stay in touch. I’ll email.
But…
If that was really what I wanted, then why hadn’t I done so already? Why had I gone to visit the slaughterhouse? Gotten myself tangled up further in crazy-ass supernatural mysteries?
The answer was glaringly obvious… and currently sitting on my couch with a a faraway expression of gloom painted across his features.
I’d never felt so… connected to another being as I did to Warin. Maybe it would have been easier to shrug it off if it was just sexual attraction, but it wasn’t. Not even close. Sure, he was smoking hot, and if things had been different I’d have happily dragged him to bed for a few rounds of commitment-free sex. I had eyes.
And ovaries.
Only I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the moment I fucked my vampire friend, things would be completely and irrevocably changed between us.
And I’d lose him.
Like I would if I high-tailed it out of Chicago with a big “no-thank-you” to dealing with any more of this mess.
That’s why I stayed, I realized.
For reasons I didn’t understand, reasons that made no sense, this man—this nightwalker—I’d known so shortly meant more to me than the very real threat to my life.
More than the panic in my gut at the realization that I’d let someone all the way in.