Page 9 of Dragon Exposed

I smirked and rattled off my drink. “And some answers, Mr. Blue Jeans. Don’t forget about those.”

As he walked off, I pulled out my phone and checked my texts, glancing up to check out his ass, because...damn.

Nina: It’s a no go on lunch. I’m ordering in, and he’s eating out.

I rolled my eyes and tucked my phone back in my pocket. I couldn’t hold it against her to enjoy herself, and the fact that she was alive. But Nina had no idea how close she’d come to dying last night. How close we’d all come to almost dying. It was stupid of me to take her there in the first place when I was on the hunt.

Levi came back with two cups in his hand, and a barista followed behind with two orange cranberry muffins on plates. “I hope I got your order right. I know if I screwed up my sister’s coffee, she’d gut me with a swizzle stick.” He set a mug down in front of me, smiling hopefully.

I waited until we were alone to lean in and say with a grin, “Even if you ordered it wrong, the baristas here know me well enough to get it right.” I picked up the mug and took a sip. “Are you going to tell me how you knew about vampires? How you knew what he was going to do last night?” I leaned in closer. “And if you’re so certain you know that my stake wouldn’t have done jack shit, how do you kill them?”

Levi scowled. “First of all, that wasn’t just any old vampire, and he wasn’t going to let you close enough to get that toothpick anywhere near his heart. Plus, unless you have super strength, the stick was just going to jab him uncomfortably in the chest, you weren’t getting through ribs and the breastplate. If you’d gone back in there, he would’ve killed you.” He leaned closer, dropping his voice down so low I could barely hear him. “I’m not saying that to be the brave, badass guy here, Izobelle. He likes to make his victims suffer.”

I stared at him like he was crazy, which was a lot coming from me. “What makes you so special that you don’t think he would’ve killed you just as easily as me?” There was no way I was admitting to Levi that the vampire from last night was the same one who’d already had a taste, the same guy who almost killed me right along with the rest of my family.

“Trust me, he wouldn’t have tried.” Levi practically growled it, and then he took a sip of his coffee as if it weren’t a completely strange thing to state.

“I need you to give me some real answers, Levi, if we’re going to keep talking here. Not half-truths, not riddles.”

He sighed and set his mug down again in front of him. “I don’t think we should discuss this so cavalierly here. I’ll tell you what I know, and how I know it, but not in public like this. Not where the average human could overhear.”

Okay, this was all getting a little too weird for me. Why the hell did he refer to humans, like he wasn’t one? “You’re not…a vampire, right?”

Nothing about him fit the lore, and he’d certainly had plenty of opportunity if he’d wanted to make a meal out of me, but that didn’t rule out the possibility.

Levi just chuckled. “Not remotely, Izobelle.”

The way he practically purred my name sent a shiver down my spine, and I swallowed hard before taking a sip of my coffee, using the oversized mug and hot beverage to hide the blush that was undoubtedly tinting my cheeks a rosy pink.

“Give me something then. Something true, something to make me believe that you’re not working with them, that you’re not one of them.” I wanted to trust him, but I couldn’t do that without more. I couldn’t just believe that he wasn’t here to kill me, that he wasn’t sent here by the vampire to find the survivors, to make sure there were no witnesses.

With as quickly as my body had reacted to his, it was hard not to think there might be something supernatural at work.

Levi looked around the café, with the budding screenwriters and novelists staring blankly at their computers, as if they could will words into existence, the couple in the corner who looked more like they were just getting coffee to make it not seem like they’d met up for a hook-up, and the baristas, who were pointedly trying not to spend too much time lingering around the customers. After a long while and a deep sigh, he leaned in close and whispered, “There are a lot of things in this world that don’t fit into the standard category of human, things that humans wouldn’t trust. Things that have been considered monsters, demons even. I’ve seen more than my fair share of them, and while not all of them are bloodthirsty creatures like the vampire we saw last night, there are plenty who would cause humans harm, and who would be elated to torment, to torture, maim, even kill. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with life in a city like this, and I could tell by the look in your eye last night, you would’ve fought to the death against his bite, but it’s not like a movie. Viktor takes a special pleasure in gorging on blood, leaving his victims in the most gruesome ways possible. He considers it art.”

Viktor. Levi knew this vampire’s name? How? Memories of last night flitted through, and I remembered him saying it then too. I just had too much adrenaline pumping to catch it then.

The memory of running into the reception hall where my family reunion was going on, late, out of breath, and slipping in a blood streak on the floor washed over me, making my heart pound in my chest, making my whole body feel too hot.

Art wouldn’t be even close to how I’d describe it, but I could see a certain…care…he used to arrange the bodies.

I couldn’t think of them as my family, not right now, not if I wanted any chance at continuing this conversation at all.

Levi watched me with a cautious look, and I took a couple of slow, calming breaths, trying to steady myself.

“What’s your vampire story?”

I didn’t register his chair moving closer, but he was now sitting next to me, rather than across, close enough that our knees touched, and he could cover my hand with his own. The hand that I hadn’t realized had a death grip on the edge of the table. “I don’t…I can’t talk about it. Not now.” I looked over at him, turning my hand over in his, so that our palms touched. “But Viktor, as you called him, was to blame.” I discreetly brushed my hair back from my shoulder, revealing the scars that I usually took care to hide with makeup. “I don’t ever want to risk being victimized by him again.”

The snarling growl from Levi sent a shiver down my spine, the sound was so animalistic. “He bit you?”

I nodded slowly. “I was lucky to survive.”

The look in his eyes was unreadable. Part of it seemed like it should scare me, full of a rage that I felt all too well in my soul. The other part, though, was harder to interpret. At least it didn’t seem to hold pity, and for the first time since it happened, there was nothing that read as him thinking I was crazy.

Levi really believed in vampires.

It should’ve soothed me, made me feel like I wasn’t alone. But there was still so much I didn’t know, didn’t understand about Levi. What if he thought I was the crazy one, and he was just going along with it because I looked like I needed someone to believe me?

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