Page 16 of Snowed in with the Vampire Prince

He studied me for a long moment with no anger in him at all. Something pivotal had just changed between us, and we both knew it.

“It’s weird, but I think I believe you,” James replied, his voice growing soft. “But you know the wolves are going to come back. You know it, and I know that you do. I thought we were being honest with each other.” He said it quietly, but it was such a direct hit that I winced before I could stop myself.

“When the sun rises, I will personally see you home,” I told him, suddenly realizing, even as I spoke, that was exactly what I was going to do. I wouldn’t merely take him to his vehicle. I would see him home. Whatever it took, I would see him back to his human life as safely as I could before I slipped away from him again. I couldn’t do anything else now. Because he wasn’t a stranger to me at all. Not anymore. “I will make sure you are protected, James. That’s the sort of—well, I guess not man, but vampire—I want to be.”

The words hung between us for a long moment. For the very first time, I saw James give in to me, and I knew that he wouldn’t leave now. Not even if I released him from his promise.

“Man and vampire… they’re not mutually exclusive,” James informed me, speaking at last. He sounded every bit like he meant it. That serious look was still there, but he seemed almost hesitant now. “You’re more of a man, I think, than most guys are. At least, most of the ones I’ve met so far. The fact that you have fangs is totally beside the point.”

“I thought we were being honest with each other,” I replied, the impulse to push him away flaring before I could even consciously stop it. I added, more quietly, “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Why do you do that?” he asked. His question was, again, without any kind of heat. But I suddenly wanted his anger to come back. Without it, James was really asking me, and that was somehow much worse. He went on, “I’ve known you for only a couple of hours, but you keep implying that you’re this big monster that I should be afraid of. Like you think you’re damaged goods or something. Why?”

“You look annoyed,” I told him, hoping that might make him annoyed again. That version of James seemed way safer for me to be around than this more serious, quiet version of him.

“I’m not,” James replied. He gave me an unhappy look that was almost… sad. Intolerable. “Anyway, it’s your game. If you want to break your own rules, go for it.”

“You might be the most vexing person I’ve ever met,” I told him. I didn’t mention that he was also the most alluring, that he was the one person I had actually wanted to understand in a very long time. That in my eternity, he was the only person, apart from Nathaniel, that had burned bright enough to make me even look twice, to make me feel anything at all. Mentioning it wouldn’t have helped my cause any.

“The feeling is mutual,” James replied, the tiniest trace of annoyance coming back into his voice at last. He even glared at me, though it was half-hearted. “Do you kill people?”

I blinked at him, confused by the sudden—albeit entirely sensible—switch in the direction of the conversation. He should be wondering about things like that in the presence of a vampire. But the fact that he was now, belatedly, recognizing how inhuman I was, made me feel far more vulnerable and exposed than I would have ever imagined.

“Never,” I answered.

He didn’t even look surprised. “Do you torture people?”

“No. That doesn’t mean?—”

He went on, bulldozing past me. “Do you ever feed on people without getting their consent first?”

“The king has well-paid donors for that. They very much consent beforehand.”

He raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t ask me to elaborate. Instead, he gave me the most serious look imaginable and asked me, “Do you cut people off in traffic for no reason?”

The question was so ridiculous that I laughed, and he surprised me by laughing too, right along with me. The tension between us broke all at once.

James just looked at me and said, “Well, I hate to break it to you, Pierce, but apart from your being stereotypically broody, a little controlling, and very unfortunately for me, extremely uptight when it comes to having sex with a willing participant, it doesn’t seem to me like there’s anything monstrous about you at all. So you can try that whole tortured vampire crap on someone else, but not with me. I don’t buy it.”

I hated myself for how badly I wanted to believe him. The impulse was sudden, laughable, and easily the most dangerous thing I had ever felt.

But I was saved from having to reply. Because right at that moment, there was a loud crash at the door. Wood splintered.

Beside me, James froze, his eyes growing big and round with fear.

Then, from outside the door, I heard a low, ominous growl.

The wolves had come back for James.

Chapter 8

James

My stomach plummeted. The wolves were at the door. They were here for me.

They would no doubt resort to violence to get to me.

I should have asked him better questions when I had the chance. For instance, how a single vampire stacked up against a pack of werewolves in a fight.

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