“Yourself?” Her stomach tightened with panic. “What about the police? Shouldn’t we call them or did you do that already?”
“The police can’t handle them.”
“And what are you going to do? Maybe you got lucky back there. Please, Dom, don’t. I don’t want you to go—to get hurt.” Her voice caught in her throat. Although she couldn’t deny what she saw, Dom was different—much different.
“I’ll take care of him like I took care of his partner.” His tone was calm, as if he’d done this sort of thing many times before.
The ferry engines quieted for a moment, then groaned loudly in reverse as the vessel glided toward the dock. Ignitions fired up as people prepared to drive off and soon the line of cars next to them began to move.
What if she jumped out of the car? Walked away and went back to her ordinary life, pretended the events of the night were all part of a strange dream? Would tomorrow be normal? Would her students ask her the normal questions in class?
“Don’t even think about it, Mackenzie,” he growled as he turned the key and the engine roared to life with a little more gas than she thought was necessary.
“How do you know what I’m—” She gave a sound of exasperation. “Listen. You didn’t need to say that. I’m not going anywhere. I was just reviewing my options. But you’d better be ready to start explaining or I will leave. So you think about that.”
HE MANEUVERED THE Porsche slowly onto the ramp so it wouldn’t bottom out.
As they drove off the ferry, he waved a quick thanks to the dock worker, a nun dressed in a knee-high black skirt, white athletic socks, tennis shoes and an orange reflective vest. She smiled and waved back. The Sisters managed the ferry docks on this side and seeing them here always reminded him that good existed in this world in some very unexpected places.
“You won’t like what you hear. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
“I’ve lived under a cloud of uncertainty long enough and I’m tired of it. I know that—” she pointed a thumb over her shoulder in the direction they came from “—is the answer.”
He ran a hand over his face. Of course, she was right. He was just delaying the inevitable. She deserved to know, even if he had to wipe it from her memory later. “All right. I can’t shield you from the truth, Mackenzie, no matter how much I’d like to. You have seen too much.” Taking a deep breath, he jumped in.
“There are things in this world that have only been rumored, whispered about late at night, stories meant to scare the young and titillate the old. Most of those old stories are made up and passed down through generations. Werewolves, alien abductions, the Loch Ness monster, unicorns. But some of them have a basis in reality. They weren’t just invented from nothing. They started somewhere. And that somewhere is the reality I’m talking about.”
She looked calm enough and he didn’t sense any spike of distress. Her eyes met his and she gave him a pursed-lipped smile, not quite bold, but definitely not weak or scared.
“You saw the fangs, the bloodlust, the resistance to bullets, and you saw what I did to that guy. And I can’t forget that you saw me vapor into the car.” Yeah, that surprised the hell out of him, too. All right. It’s now or never.
“Mackenzie, we are vampires. Different maybe from what you think one is, but that’s essentially what we are.” He kept his eyes on the road ahead and waited for her reaction. She stayed silent and clutched her arms tighter.
“Are…are you okay?”
Without lifting her head, she nodded, so he continued.
“Many of the myths surrounding us are not true. We’re not immortal. We do die, but our lifespan is much longer than a human’s. Garlic, crosses, holy water—all myths, although our bodies are highly allergic to silver and we are sensitive to ultraviolet light. We still occasionally drink human blood, but we don’t kill. At least most of us don’t. I oversee a small team of Guardians here in Seattle. Enforcement agents within the Agency, the legal arm of our Governing Council.”
He explained about the Darkbloods and Sangre Dulce. He wanted her to know everything, but why? Why not just give her the bare facts with no details when he was going to wipe her memory anyway? He thought he knew the answer,