Page 6 of Love Heals
Then again, neither did I, and I had killed many of their kind. Never another vampire, though. Never my family. I wasn't like Talon or Aldrich.
Except now I was.
I drew my knees up to my chest and rested my head against them.
"Would you like some water?" Jared asked.
I shot him a brief glance, wondering if he'd forgotten that I was a vampire. I should have given him credit for trying to help, but I didn’t know why he wanted to help, and something about that irritated me. He shouldn’t be so nice to me. We were supposed to be enemies—and yet there he was, sitting in that chair, almost every time I opened my eyes. He had to be getting uncomfortable, and yet…
Was it because he wanted to get into my pants?
"I could get you a glass," he offered.
"I don't even remember what water tastes like."
His eyebrows went up ever so slightly, but other than that, his expression didn't change. He had a handsome face. Strong jawline. I'd always liked that in a man. At least, I thought so. It had been a long time since I'd looked at anyone but my sire that way.
Even now I was chiding myself for the thought.
How long had it been since Nicolai's death?
Not long enough for you to be salivating over another man’s jawline, a voice inside of my head reminded me.
"I'm sorry," Jared said. "I keep forgetting you don't drink water anymore."
"It's fine." Turning my gaze away from him, I stared at the wall again.
"Is there anything else I could get you?"
"Why do you care?" Even though I didn't want them to, my eyes darted toward him again. If he could just leave me alone, it would be far easier to ignore him. And his jawline. And his tallness.
Jared took a moment to respond, then said, "You helped my little brother."
"I didn't know what your little brother was about to do. That I helped him doesn't mean I'm not still your enemy."
"We don't have to be enemies," Jared said. He took his time to speak, choosing his words. In a way, that reminded me of Nicolai, because my sire had always selected his words carefully too, but Jared'stonewas nothing like my sire's.
"Mortals and vampires can't be friends," I said. "We're predators, you're prey. You're food." If these mortals thought they could make friends with every vampire, they had to be stupid. Or maybe they just didn't consider me a real vampire, in which case, I couldn't really blame them. Even my own coven used to say that. Usually, they waited until I was out of earshot to make their jokes, but I knew what they thought. I was a pet, not a vampire.
Maybe these mortals knew that too. Maybe Crimson had told them.
The thought of Crimson made my stomach draw tight. It had been a mistake to turn him. The fact that Nicolai must have realized that too, in the end, gave me no satisfaction.
Jared studied my face in a way that made me uncomfortable. "Is that really what you believe?"
I hugged my knees closer to myself. "It's the truth. You know that too, or you wouldn't have chained me up." There. He couldn't argue with that, could he?
"It's a precaution. You weren't at your most lucid the past two days."
What did that even mean?I searched the room with my eyes, turning Jared's words over in my head. "How long have I been here?" I asked, struggling to separate individual days in my memory. There was the explosion, and then there was a lot of nothing. It was almost as if I'd had a large serving of animal blood poisoning my mind, only I knew that wasn't true. It would have been easier if it were just that.
If it had been animal blood instead of fire, my sire wouldn't be gone.
He would be taking care of me now.
"It's been about a week," Jared said.
I looked at him, but for a second or two, I didn't know what he was talking about. The thread of our conversation had lost itself somewhere in my mind.
