Page 51 of The Highwayman's Bite

“Calm?” A hysterical laugh bubbled from her lips. “How can I be calm when you’ve told me that you may have sentenced my friend to death?”

She tried to kick him, but he was too quick. He pulled her closer to him and rolled so that he lay atop her, pinning her with his weight. “Be still!”

The shock of this new position knocked the breath from her body. She tried to buck beneath him, but only succeeded in becoming more aware of his solid frame.

“Why did you tell us what you are?” She fought for mental clarity under the dizzying sensation of his body pressed so intimately against hers. “You already held me as a hostage. Why risk our lives?”

Rhys closed his eyes in silent concentration before opening them to meet her gaze. “As I’d told you and Madame Renarde before, your uncle thought he was dealing with a mortal man. Now that he knows his opponent is another vampire, perhaps he’ll take the threat of you being in my care more seriously, especially now that you lack a chaperone.”

“You could have released her without divulging knowledge that endangered us!” Vivian shifted once more, trapped beneath his weight and iron grip on her shoulders. “What would be the difference between the threat of my being ravaged by a man or by vampire?”

She squirmed beneath him once more, then froze as she became aware of his hard length pressed between her thighs. Madame Renarde had told her that men’s members grew large and firm when they were ready for the marital act.

Rhys seemed aware of it too, for he spoke through gritted teeth as if her movement had pained him. “Do not speak of my ravaging you. Not when you’re... not now.”

Was he not going to...? Some strange recklessness overtook her. “Answer my question,” she demanded.

“The difference is that a vampire cannot marry you. Not unless he Changes you into a vampire as well.” Rhys panted with ragged breaths as if he’d been the one struggling rather than her. “And either way, a vampire cannot give you children.”

She frowned in confusion as his erection pulsed between them. “But you’re not... ah... impotent.”

He growled, and his eyes took on that eerie amber glow once more, yet Vivian wasn’t afraid, even when he bared his fangs as he spoke. “Our bodies are capable, but our seed does not take root.” He muttered what sounded like a curse in some foreign language. “You are making it very difficult for me to focus on the point.” His lips brushed against hers so quickly she could have imagined it before he shifted off her and pulled them both back up to a sitting position. “If I release you, will you refrain from trying to pummel me?”

She nodded. Only when he set her beside him and moved his hands from her shoulders did she realize that the bodice of her dress was soaked with spilled tea. Rhys’s shirt was also drenched. She could see the outline of his nipple through the damp fabric.

He turned slightly to conceal the bulge in his trousers and cleared his throat. “As I was saying, your uncle should be concerned that I may take it into my head to make you a vampire.”

“Why, if he will have to turn me into one anyway?” The circular reasoning escaped her. The distraction of his presence had her mind at sixes and sevens. Her gaze narrowed on his face as she tried to avoid looking at his lap. Tried to avoid thinking of the effect their closeness had on him.

“He may be able to avoid turning you.” Rhys handed her a handkerchief to blot at her damp bodice. “But if he did Change you, then you would be a legitimate vampire, under his authority and protection. Whereas, if I did so, you would be a rogue vampire.”

His ominous tone made her shiver. “What is a rogue vampire?”

“Madame Renarde aptly read me,” Rhys said, his face drawn as if confessing something heinous. “A rogue is an outcast among our kind. One who was banished by his lord for committing a crime not deemed severe enough for an immediate death sentence. But in a way, it is still a death sentence for many, because rogues are hunted and killed by most legitimate vampires. Sometimes, they are given a trial by a lord of a territory and even more rarely, granted legitimacy under the new lord. But those who were Changed by rogues do not have that good fortune. They are perceived as worse than bastards, for their Change was not sanctioned by a Lord Vampire.”

Dizziness threatened to overtake her at this influx of information about this society of creatures she’d only just learned about. “What crime did you commit, to be banished by your lord?”

“I continued to disobey him and leave his territory without permission,” Rhys said. “A vampire must always have a writ of passage from his lord before he travels out of a territory. But my former lord would not grant me leave to see my family. He firmly believed that vampires should abandon their mortal descendants. Emily and the children needed me. I had no choice but to go to their aid.”

Vivian’s heart constricted with sympathy. “Your lord exiled you for seeing your family? That is so cruel!”

“Many could see it that way.” Rhys leaned forward, elbows on his knees, resting his chin on his hands. “However, it can also be regarded as pragmatic. Vampires are discouraged from maintaining connections to their human relations because the risk of our secrets being revealed is heightened and brings danger to both the vampire and their kin.” His voice lowered. “Just as I’ve endangered you.”

“And Madame Renarde,” Vivian reminded him sharply. She was still furious and terrified to learn about the implications of that situation even though her companion could have died had she remained in the cave. Then something else niggled in her mind. “But my uncle is a Lord Vampire and he took me under his roof when I created a scandal during my London Season. A Season that he paid for when my last one failed to bring a match.” In fact, she suspected that Uncle had paid for her previous failed Season as well. “Clearly, it is not an anomaly for vampires to care for their families.”

Rhys shrugged. “Not an anomaly, but most certainly a privilege few can afford.”

Undaunted by his cynicism, she pressed for solutions to his problem. “Are vampires permitted to move? To seek another lord?”

“In theory, yes.” His mirthless laugh gave her chills. “But first one’s lord must permit a vampire to seek a new territory. Then the vampire must apply to the lord of the place he wishes to move to and pray for acceptance. Do you think I would not have tried doing so before becoming an outlaw?”

Vivian flinched at his bitter tone. “Your lord refused to allow you to petition to move?”

“Oh, he allowed me to apply.” Again, that bitter laugh erupted. “Yet he refused to provide me with a reference. The vampire who made me gave me one, but it wasn’t good enough. Blackpool and all neighboring Lord Vampires denied my applications with alacrity.”

She sucked in a breath at his words. He’d tried to appeal to Uncle Aldric the honorable way first, but had been turned away. Much as she wished she could disapprove of him turning criminal, she could understand his motives. “References? You are like servants!”

“Serfs, more like.” Rhys spat in the fire. “Servants have more rights.”

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