Page 17 of Dragon Slayer

~*~

“Killed by sunlight–”

“Wrong.”

“…aversion to crosses–”

“My brother is a Roman Catholic.”

“What about the garlic thing?”

Val snorted. “Absolutely not.”

“And we’ve already established you can’t turn into smoke.” Mia tried to keep her grin in check. Val sat cross-legged on her kitchen island, eyes slanted almost shut, nose lifted to a comically superior angle. He looked every inch the prince in his traditional Romanian formalwear. “But what about turning into a bat?”

His eyes and mouth sprang open, an expression of such blended offense, dismay, and horror that Mia couldn’t help the laugh that punched out of her.

“Oh my God, yourface!”

“You’re horrid,” he said, sniffing disdainfully. “Here I am trying to disabuse you of all the ridiculous notions you’ve picked up from novels, and you mock me.” He splayed a hand over his heart, pressed the back of the other to his forehead. “Poor me, locked away in a cell for centuries, and you treat me so cruelly, when I’ve only offered you friendship and wisdom.”

Mia’s laugh died down to a low, tense chuckle. It was easy to forget, in moments like the one just before, that he was being held against his will. That his visits to her were the only positive human contact he ever had.

Still in his dramatic, disparaging pose, Val cracked one eye open to peer at her. “What?”

“Val,” she said, growing serious, setting down her wineglass. “Where are you? I mean, where are you really?”

He let his hands fall slowly to his lap. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Are you in Romania?”

“No. Mia–”

“Maybe I could come visit you in person.”

His reaction, the abject horror that flashed across his face, startled her. “No. No, no, absolutely not.”

“Val–”

“No!”

She waited a beat, then said, patiently, “In modern-day prisons, prisoners can receive visitors.”

His face flushed. “I’m notina modern-day prison.”

A shiver moved down her spine. “Val, where are you?” She said it with a touch of desperation now.

His jaw set, and he stared at the wall a long moment. Finally, he said, “Virginia,” and then vanished.

~*~

It was a coincidence, she told herself.

Val was in Virginia.

Her father was in Virginia.

Val was a Romanian vampire prince being held as a prisoner.

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