Page 121 of Taste of Forever
“Closer. I need to make sure the recorder won’t pick it up.”
“You try anything, vampire, and I will rip your fangs out with a pair of pliers.”
My flinch at that was not an act. I remembered Kalix’s fangs, how they had been filed down flat. If I somehow lived past this moment, I couldn’t comprehend the shame and lack of dignity at being defanged.
Kal endured it. So could you.
“Got it,” I said. “No funny shit, I swear. I just need to speak right into your ear.”
After another moment’s hesitation, Soren leaned down until the side of his head was right next to mine. He flinched when I turned in his direction, but he stayed put. Waiting.
“I just realized, Soren, buddy, that we’re not so different after all,” I whispered.
He snorted with disdain. “How do you figure?”
“We both got a thing for Heather. That’s why you chose her, right? I might have stalked her a little too. Witnessed some private things. But here’s the difference between you and me.”
I paused for a breath and he remained still, waiting.
“She chose me because I have more humanity than you ever will.” My lips brushed his ear as I said at full volume, “I’m not the one who’s pathetic and monstrous.”
He snapped straight up, and I had just enough vision to see the outrage on his face. The knife came down again and I was ready. But it wasn’t a killing blow. He plunged it into my opposite shoulder, starting the whole cycle of burning ice and blinding pain again.
This time he left it in there while he stomped to the basement stairs. The last thing I heard before passing out was him calling out to the others.
“Come down here and hold his jaws open. I’m about to put some vampire teeth on a necklace.”
Chapter 34
Heather
“Anything?”
I shook my head, fighting tears of frustration. The Blood ‘til Dawn vampires and I were sitting in a vacant lot across from the gas station where the kind attendee had let me use her phone. I had insisted on them not making themselves visible to her, considering she’d recognize me and would be alarmed that I was surrounded by a bunch of scary-looking guys.
“I don’t know what to feel. How am I supposed to sense him?” I looked at Cyan as if I hadn’t asked the question a dozen times already.
“You just do. I’m not sure how else to explain it.” He rubbed a hand over his buzz cut. “Like when you know he’s in bed next to you without seeing him. You can feel how near he is, right?”
“I mean yes, but there’s way more physical and contextual clues to that.” I rubbed my leg, nursing an odd ache above my knee that seemed to come from nowhere.
“Can you try turning off the science part of your brain?” Des suggested. “I know it’s hard not to rely on logic and what you know to be true, but there is magic to the blood bond. Turn off all your filters and try to tap into the magic.”
“There’s no fucking magic out in this world.” Rhain rubbed his massive arms as though he were chilly. “The air here feels…wrong. Can you feel the difference, Heather? Between here and Sanguine? What if you focused on that?”
It was a good idea. Despite his rough, intimidating appearance, Rhain’s suggestion was spoken gently. He hadn’t said a word on the drive out here and I convinced myself he was pissed off at me and everything else in the world. But maybe I was wrong.
“It does feel different. I don’t know how though. The air in Sanguine does feel…not humid exactly, but heavier somehow.”
“That’s the magic.” Des wiggled his fingers.
“What time is it?” Thorne grunted.
Cyan checked his phone. “3:17 a.m.”
“Under two hours.” Thorne leveled a heavy gaze on me. “We need something, Heather.”
“I know. Fuck! Trust me, I know. I want him back more than anything. I just don’t know how.”
