Page 28 of Incandescence

He raised a dark eyebrow. “We look like hobos.”

I nodded. “Good.”

I stayed in his shadow when the brothers’ sedan throbbed past twenty minutes later. Not one of the passengers or the driver looked at the down-and-out couple walking their half-starved mutt.

We turned a corner of the block and my breath whistled through my teeth. I bent and ruffled the Rotty’s ears. “Good boy...Jasper. I’m going to buy you the biggest bone I can find.”

“Jasper?” Alexander queried with a wry smile.

I shrugged. “I can’t keep on calling him dog or Rotty.”

Alexander tightened his arm around me and I rested my head against his shoulder. “You did great.”

I smiled up at him. “The clothes and dog worked a treat.”

“They did. Now we just have to keep out of sight.”

In unspoken agreement, we headed to the doctor’s house. It was risky, but we were certain the brothers would have looked there already and discovered we didn’t live there. The doctor would have set them straight.

I looked up at the man I craved to be with more than anyone else in the world. If my wish had half a chance of coming true, now was a time to think clearly. I blinked, ignoring the sexual thrill pulsing through me. This tough, smart, gorgeous man had been my first ever lover. I couldn’t have chosen better if I’d tried.

I cleared my throat, forcing my mind back on survival. “You’ve lived with that vampire leech for forty-six years.”

His lips tightened. “Yes.”

“Aside from sunlight, does he have any other weaknesses?”

He shrugged. “Everything has a weakness.” He drew a hand over his face. “Our strain of blood is extremely rare. And he’ll grow weaker every day that he doesn’t drink.”

“Until he finds us or another donor,” I finished for him. “What are the chances he’ll find someone else?”

“Slim to none. It’s why he’ll do whatever it takes to get us back. It’s also why he spends so much time looking through his telescope. He can see the auras of people, and different blood types show different auras. Our blood type gives off a distinct aura all of its own.”

I stored away the information, not even thinking beyond the fact that other vampires might well see that same aura and kidnap us. “In all the time you were in the nest, how many donors did the vampire procure?”

Alexander didn’t hesitate. “Twelve.” Clearly those numbers were branded into his head, no matter how much he undoubtedly wished he could forget every one of those women.

“So, fourteen, counting you and me?”

“Yes.”

I did the calculations. “In the forty-six years of searching for donors every night, he’s only found one suitable candidate every three years.” I stared up at him. “If he found no more donors with our blood type, would he survive?”

He shrugged. “For as long as I was in the nest, I was always his main blood source, so I have no idea how long he’d survive without me.”

Hope swelled inside. “If you were his primary food supply, what were the women? His appetizer? His dessert?”

I couldn’t think about those same women also being Alexander’s sexual release, not if it replaced hope with despair and bitter jealousy.

His face drained of color. “Yeah. I think keeping the women in the nest was his insurance against me dying. Those women prolonged the vampire’s need for my blood. If something happened to me, then his own mortality was at risk.” He blew out a slow breath. “But you were different. The vampire was excited about you and I think...”

“Yes?”

“I think your blood might be as pure as mine. A perfect and potent vampire food.”

I frowned, my mind spinning. But I wouldn’t be distracted by the shudders of revulsion filling me, knowing I was a vampire’s ultimate meal ticket. Instead I concentrated on the possibilities to outmaneuver the vampire. “So he’ll be expecting us to run and hide. He’ll also expect our own hunger will flush us out long before he starves.”

Alexander scraped a hand over his face. “Without a doubt.”

---