Page 6 of After Darkness Falls

And Levi's mocking grin was firmly in place.

"Look," she said, finally unable to ignore him any longer, "I've never traveled outside of the States. It’s my first time in a train. Let me enjoy this."

"By all means." He gestured for her to carry on.

"Preferably without your condescending smirk. Being a tourist is no crime."

He lifted the menu to his eyes. "I'll endeavor not to ruin your fun. But for your information, I'm not amused by your novel enthusiasm—if anything, the fact that you've seen nothing beyond your corner of the world at your age is quite depressing. I'm just intrigued by your resilience."

She lifted a brow. "Resilience?"

"Just so. This morning, you were looming over a corpse, and looking quite shaken, if I might say. Now you're effectively distracted. Would you say it's typical of your kind these days? I've not dealt with mortals in some time."

Chloe's good humor had effectively evaporated. "That's called avoidance, not resilience. Yes, it freaked me out. No, there's nothing I can do about it. So…distractions."

"Does it work?" Levi questioned.

He seemed genuinely interested.

Chloe was learning something about him, something that made him feel real—not just some too-perfect, too-cold stranger who might evaporate in a cloud of smoke.

He was curious. Helikedobserving, guessing, and understanding things around him. As a regular, she was an oddity, and therefore interesting to him. She certainly could relate. Chloe had never encountered a puzzle she didn’t wish to solve. So she indulged him.

"You mean, until you mentioned this morning? Yes, it worked. This is all new to me and suitably entertaining, so I can put everything behind me. But in the middle of the night, I've no doubt I'll remember him. The bald man. The others, too, but I saw him up close. Not his face. But the smell. The blood…” She shook her head, as if willing the very memory away—ineffectively. “I doubt I'll sleep easily for a while."

Nor should she. People shouldn’t be able to see that kind of horror and shrug it off. That was what psychopaths did.

Levi frowned. "I'll have Alex brew you a sleeping draught."

Thoughtfulness.

That was also unexpected of him. Another piece of the puzzle.

Chloe was doing her best to draw a mental picture of the vampire, knowing that he’d fade from her life before she knew it. And she didn’t want to forget a thing.

"Now,” said Levi, “we'd better order soon. We aren't riding this train for very long, and we don't want to miss dessert."

* * *

The food was delightful. Halfway through their main course, Chloe's mouth betrayed her again, babbling before she could question herself.

"Wait, you're eating. Do you guys eat? I've never seen Charles eat."

The vampire didn't roll his eyes, but she could tell he wanted to.

"Yes, Chloe, we do eat. We have bodies quite similar to yours that need sustenance in order to function adequately."

A billion questions popped into her head, but she closed her lips firmly and kept them that way.

Levi grinned. "You can ask. Curiosity is no crime."

"So, what about blood? Is that just a food supplement?"

She wasn’t supposed to have askedthisdirectly. She knew that. The air changed around them, becoming thicker, stranger.

He smiled broader, flashing his extra white teeth that seemed so very sharp, and she knew the answer before he said anything.

"No. We do need blood. Less frequently as we age, but without it—" He interrupted himself. "Let's just say it's not very pleasant."

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