Page 55 of Obsidian Prince

"Why didn't you kill him, then?" Alexander leaned forward. He seemed fascinated by the story.

"I looked into him and didn't want to kill him. He has a compassionate soul filled with love for Ben Harper."

"How did you convince him you weren't a murderer?"

"I bit him."

Alexander's face went through a series of subtle expressions. Liliana recognized, surprise, then anger, curiosity, then back to anger. Anger seemed to be the one emotion the prince expressed freely. "You bit him." His voice showed no emotion at all.

Liliana had begun to learn more about him. When his voice went all bland and flat, he was carefully hiding his often very intense feelings. "The killer Pete sought was a spider-kin who killed her victims by biting them. I bit him to prove that my bite was not deadly, so I could not be the killer."

"And he let you?"

Her cheeks heated with shame. "He did not. I ..." Liliana swallowed a sip of water, took a deep breath, and admitted what she had done. "I forced him." She ran the tablecloth between her fingers under the table where she hoped Alexander wouldn't notice. The linen fabric was rough, but the movement was soothing in its familiarity. She looked down at her lap, watching the movement.

"That bothers you," he observed neutrally.

"Pete has forgiven me, but it is not an act I am proud of."

He nodded slightly. "I'm glad."

"You're glad that I bit Pete against his will?"

"I'm glad that you're ashamed of it, even though you were under extreme circumstances."

Oh.Alexander had been keeping his distance from her ever since she told him she wanted to bite him. "I give you my word that I will not bite you unless you give me permission."

His lips twisted in that way that made a dimple appear on one side. Not amusement, irony. "I already know that you keep your word scrupulously. If you’d said that earlier, we might not have left your house."

Liliana smiled as she remembered what he was thinking when he picked her up. "I really do want to bite you, though. If we talk, learn more about each other, then you might let me."

He sipped his wine, then set down the glass. "Liliana, I don't think there are enough words in the world to convince me." Colonel Alexander Bennett was not a man who liked giving up control.

"I have three years. I am patient."

"What happens in three years?"

"In three years, I will be one hundred fifty, an adult, and my body will change. If I have not chosen a mate, my body will impel me to mate with the nearest strong, fierce male to produce a spider seer child. I would much prefer to choose my mate."

Alexander chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "You know, it's generally considered bad form to discuss children on the first date."

Liliana cocked her head sideways. She had broken an important social dating rule. Somewhere in the endless stream of words Janice Willoughby flooded her with, the rabbit-kin had mentioned that rule. She said something about it scaring men away. Liliana considered the unseelie prince smiling at her over his wine glass with banked heat in his eyes. "You are not easily frightened."

"No, I'm not." He took a sip of wine. "Three years."

"If you and I are still together in three years, then I will choose you to be the father of my daughter." The spider seer desperately wished either that she could open her third eyes in the public restaurant to look into his mind and heart, or that he would be more overtly expressive. Her prince was all subtlety and hidden layered motives. He was far more accustomed to hiding his emotions than expressing them. She had to work hard even at the best of times to parse the complex language of expression.

"Can't you just look into the future and see if I will be?"

"It's difficult to look into my own future. My actions alter it constantly. Plus, your future is very hazy. Several paths of probability lead to your death within the next week. Some of those paths lead to my death as well. Death tends to overwhelm my sight. I have a hard time seeing more than flickers of possibility past that point."

"I'd nearly forgotten what you said in the parking garage when I confronted Periclum. I didn't take your warning seriously at first. Now, I know to always take what you tell me seriously." He sipped wine thoughtfully. "So, either I'll die in the next week, or you'll save me, and spend the next three years trying to convince me to let you bite me." A ghost of a smile teased the edges of his mouth.

"I hope it will not take that long. I really want to bite you."

His lips quirked up further. "I gather biting is sexual for you?"

Liliana thought about that for a moment. "It is more intimate than a kiss, but not like sex."

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