Two very different things.
Of course, curiosity seemed the wiser course when she was alone in a cave with a half-naked vampire she suddenly wanted to lick from head to toe.
“I didn’t know that vampires could scar,” she muttered the most obvious question.
“It’s not a natural process.” His eyes darkened with an ancient fury. “It takes savage effort and twisted perseverance to permanently mar a vampire’s skin. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart.”
“Why would…” Her hand lifted to press against her heart. “Oh, my God, you were tortured.”
“Tortured and then starved so my body could not heal.”
“How long?”
“Three centuries.”
Her gut twisted in horrified sympathy. Three hundred years of endless torture? How had he survived? And more importantly, how had he survived with his sanity intact?
Christ, she couldn’t even comprehend the strength it must have taken.
And she had bitched at him for swinging from hot to cold?
He should have been a raving lunatic.
“Was it a demon?” she rasped.
His lips twisted in a humorless smile. “A vampire.”
“Jeez.” She slowly shook her head. “So the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?”
“Culligan was twitchy as hell whenever he had to approach the local vampire clan and pay tribute for doing business in their territory.” Her gaze skimmed over the thick scars. “He claimed that vampires are vicious beasts who will slaughter anyone, even each other.”
He shrugged, and Regan wished he hadn’t. The ripple of muscles beneath that ivory skin made things twitch and tingle in the pit of her stomach.
“Any creature can be vicious, especially Weres, but vampires have a particularly exquisite talent for terror and pain.”
Her gaze was jerked upward at the implication in his cold words.
“They tortured you for fun?”
“Certainly hearing my screams provided entertainment for my captors, but I was tortured for revenge.”
“Revenge for what?”
“The truth? I don’t remember.”
Chapter 8
Jagr watched the predictable astonishment ripple over Regan’s beautiful features. Ah, if only his own emotions were so easy to analyze.
For centuries, he’d refused to speak of his endless torture. Most of his brothers sensed the violence of his past, and Viper knew that Jagr’s torturer had been a vampire, but nothing more. And none were stupid enough to ask questions.
So why had he deliberately forced this confrontation?
And it had been deliberate.
He could easily have covered his scars before she entered the back cavern. There had been no need for her to ever suspect the truth.