her, so she knew her reaction to Dante was far from normal. She wasn’t ready for this.
Or, at least, that’s what she believed before he walked into Adler’s, or Addy’s as the employees and regulars called it, two weeks ago. Then all she experienced was panic and confusion. Now she was glad he’d returned, and she would deal with everything else later.
Besides, she was getting way ahead of herself. Just because she found him attractive, wanted to learn more about him, thought about kissing him far too often throughout the day, and dreamt about him every night, didn’t mean she was staring at her mate.
Cassidy glanced at the women sitting at the bar, but most of them were focused on Kyle as he flipped and spun bottles while pouring their drinks. Even though the customers were distracted, she leaned closer to Dante. Cassidy told herself she got closer so no one overheard them, but as she inhaled his scent and basked in his warmth, she knew she did it to get closer.
“I take it someone turned you,” she said as she pulled her hand away from his arm.
“You weren’t?”
“Nope. Like I said, I was born this way. My parents are both vampires, and I’m a purebred.”
Dante couldn’t find the words to respond. He believed he knew everything about vamps, but apparently, he was wrong. After Clora turned him, she told him the rules for survival. If you kill humans, you become a monster. You can still walk around in the daytime if you don’t kill; don’t let humans know you exist, or they’ll kill you, and if they don’t kill you, the vamps will. But she’d never revealed that vampires could have children.
The idea was utterly insane, yet it gave him a measure of hope. He’d given up on the idea of having kids, not only because he believed it was impossible, but also because of what the loss of a child did to his parents.
But now… now… well, he didn’t know. The idea of having a child and losing it still scared him, but if it wasn’t impossible to have a child, then maybe one day, in the far distant future, it wouldn’t be such a terrifying prospect.
He’d sensed Kyle and Cassidy were strong, but he assumed it was because they were older vamps. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
“How old are you?” he asked as Kyle returned.
“How old are you?” Kyle demanded.
Dante turned to face him. He’d prefer not to piss off Cassidy’s brother, and he completely understood the protective thing. He was younger than Maya, but he’d chased more than a few losers away. Unfortunately, losers were Maya’s type, and some of them refused to go away, and she insisted on keeping them.
The only guy he’d ever liked was Lewis Guthrie, but because he seemed like a good guy, Maya kept turning him down. After she vanished, Lewis became the main suspect as he disappeared the same day. But then, the police finally hunted him down and cleared him.
When Kyle and Dante continued to stare at each other, Cassidy pushed her glass across the bar toward her brother. Kyle ignored her until she lifted the glass and tapped him on the arm with it; he finally shifted his attention to her.
“I’d like some water, please,” she said.
Kyle took her glass but didn’t move.
Cassidy huffed out a breath and focused on Dante again. “We’re both twenty-one, and you?”
Dante glanced around the crowded bar to make sure no one could overhear him before he shifted his attention back to Cassidy. They were both a lot younger than he would have guessed given the aura of power they emitted and the wisdom in Cassidy’s eyes. She was young, but she knew a lot more about this world than many others her age.
“I was twenty-eight when I was turned,” he said. “That was ten years ago. Your parents are really—” He pitched his voice a lot lower. “—vampires?”
Cassidy smiled as she rested an elbow on the bar and leaned against it. “They are. What about yours? Do they know about you?”
“They both died before I turned.”
Cassidy managed to suppress a wince as she kicked herself for that question. “I’m sorry.”
“It was years ago, but thank you.”
“Kyle!” a woman called down the bar and waved at him. “I’d love another drink when you get the chance.”
“And I’d like another water,” Cassidy reminded him.
Her twin glanced at her before shooting Dante a warning look.
“I’d like another whiskey sour too, please,” Dante said.
“Hmm,” Kyle grunted.
Reluctantly,