Page 10 of Vampire's Fate

“You reek of fear and arousal,” he remarked, giving me a look down his nose, snide and superior. “Claude’s doing, I presume.”

I folded my arms across my chest, not particularly liking that he could scent my emotions in my blood. Only the most powerful vampires could do it—it took complete control over their hunger, total mastery of the thirst.

“That’s none of your business,” I replied coolly, matching his coldness and ignoring the goosebumps rippling down my arms. I hadn’t been raised to think I was better than everyone else, to value composure over warmth like some families had, but I’d been part of vampire society for years and I knew how to play the part. He’d never see my nervousness in my expression.

“What did you want to talk about? You asked for this meeting,” I reminded him, lacing my fingers together on top of the table.

“I planned to get to know you. To see if we’re compatible. But I think I already have my answer to that.”

“Like I told you before,” I said with a little smile, resisting the urge to break something—a book, a lamp, his nose.

How dare he come into my house and look at me like I was … like I wasnothing?

“You know where the door is,” I finished, polite enough that it was a hugefuck you.

But Silas didn’t budge from his chair, merely closed the book in front of him and watched me with an expression full of judgement.

“You need this match, don’t you?” I guessed, my smile genuine this time. The knowledge pleased me, and unlocked a tiny truth from Silas, whether he meant to give me it or not. “Youneedme to choose you—why?”

“That’s none of your business,” he replied, echoing my earlier words but far more aloof. He folded his pale hands together on the table across from mine, all courtly composure in his black suit and perfectly groomed hair. But I could sense he wasn’t happy I’d figured him out so fast.

A spiteful part of me wanted to see that composure crack. He’d lost his power over me; I wasn’t as intimidated by him now that I knew this little tidbit.

“You’re not making much of an effort to woo me,” I noted, sitting back in my seat and watching him like he watched me—critically, missing nothing. “For someone who needs a marriage so badly, you’re not making a very good impression, Silas. I’m barely tolerating you right now.”

“A marriage would be advantageous to me,” he agreed, measuring each word, his ruby eyes narrowed on me as if daring me to do … something. I couldn’t work out what. “But that doesn’t mean I want to marry, and especially not someone like you.”

I clenched my jaw, a sick twist in my stomach. “Excuseme?” I asked with as much composure as I could summon. “Someone like me?”

Silas sneered, his handsome face made ugly. I wanted to smack the look off his face, and I didn’t know what had gotten into me. I never got violent urges like these. Well, not unless an author killed off my favourite character.

“Sweet and peaceful,” he said derisively. “Vapid and completely ordinary. If I wantedthat, I’d have married any of the women I’ve met over the years.”

I exhaled hard through my nose, hating the way he’d just filetted my self esteem.

I stood from the table, fighting a flinch as the squeak of its legs on the hardwood floor. My face burned with embarrassment, but rage pounded in my blood as I glared at the superior bastard.

“You havenoright to judge me, and no base for your insults. You don’t even know me, Silas Abraham, and you’re never going to. I want you out of my house, I reject your courtship.”

He stood suddenly, sneering at me from across the table. Irefusedto show him how small he made me feel, even if my stomach splashed with acidic humiliation and he could probably scent it in my blood.

“I’m owed forty-eight hours,” he argued, a vein bulging on his pale throat. “You can’t make me leave before that time’s up.”

I gnashed my teeth, and cursed vampire society rules.

“Fine,” I spat. “Then you can stay in your damn room. As long as I never have to look at you again, I’ll be happy.”

Silas laughed, a low, dark sound full of scorn. “Are you evernothappy? Do you ever stopsmiling, or being sweet and kind andsoft?”

He made every word sound like an insult.

I blinked, honestly stunned.

“Wait, you don’t like me because I’mniceto people?”

I made a derisive sound in my throat, a laugh twisting the end of it as I turned away from the asshole vampire.

“That explains why you’re likethis,” I laughed. “Clearly no one has ever been nice to you in your entire miserable existence.”

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