Page 28 of The HalloQueen

“We can start with how you got into my house?”

Thomas chuckled, repeating, “You invited me in.”

“But I didn’t answer the door, and I know it was locked.”

“Ah. Well, once a mortal invites one of us into their home, no lock can keep us out. We can kind of come and go as we please.”

I cried in outrage, “Well that’s not fair!”

“Says the woman who woke up to a clean kitchen and a good meal?”

“Says the woman who had a vampire staring at her ass when she was half asleep.”

He nodded at that, “valid.”

The stool allowed me to spin slightly to face him, “Can you kill me?”

“Easily.”

Groaning in exasperation, I rolled my eyes at his blasé, “Thomas.”

He smirked, gesturing to my bowl to indicate I should continue eating, “You’re going to have to be more specific in your questions,amour.”

“Alright… are you going to kill me? Can taking energy kill someone?”

“I suppose it could. I personally have never killed anyone that way, but I’m sure when there’s a will there’s a way.”

“Hmmm… are there blood vampires?”

“Of course. I need to eat blood too.”

I froze, “What?”

“No, I do not intend to eat you, Annabel, I’ve been having medical-grade blood delivered for years. I have no interest in hunting a mortal down.”

“Okay,” I nod, “So, you don’t like to hunt for blood, and you can’t kill someone by harvesting energy?”

“Oui.”

“What makes you so scary then?”

“Every monster is different. There are many a vampire who enjoy the hunt. They harvest the terror from the individual they’ve taken the blood from - more like a one-stop shop. Some vampires are very dark. However, at our core, our job is to maintain balance. If I were to go off the deep end and Jack the Ripper half of Quaker's Wharf, it would kill me.”

My brows shot up, “what do you mean by that?”

“That’s a story for another day.”

“Okay, but what about last night? What happened to me?”

He grimaced, “I’m sorry about that.”

“No, don’t apologize, just explain,” I gave him as cold of a look as I could muster, “I deserve to know what you did. I felt so safe and happy with you and to know that it was all manufactured-”

He spoke quickly, “it was not all manufactured,ma chérie. I have never had that happen before.”

“You’ve never made a woman pass out and left her to god-only-knows what fate?”

Thomas sighed and dragged his hand through his hair, “Non, oui - ugh. Typically when I harvest I need to touch someone and it’s just a pull - a taste. I never take enough for them to notice much of a difference, other than maybe they’ll be a little sad or tired, but it quickly wears off and they just feel like they’ve had a fleeting emotional thought. On the contrary, if I harvest sad or anxious energy, it leaves the person feeling happier and more refreshed, though I usually end up feeling their anxiety as it works through my system, so I tend to ignore that. It is usually very much a one-way street when I harvest energy.”

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