it one step at a time. The fact that I was even out tonight was a step in and of itself.
“Thanks for the compliment,” I said with a small smile.
He returned the smile and appeared to be studying me. Feeling entirely too uncomfortable under his libidinous stare, I fought to find something to say. “So, are you feeling any different on your birthday?”
He nodded but didn’t expound.
I cocked my head and considered him. “And? What’s different?”
“I’m faster.”
“Faster?” I started but Bram had suddenly….disappeared. Just dissolved into the air as if he’d never been, as if I’d been imagining him all along. As a vamp, he’d always been fast—moving like a blur from point A to point B but as a blur, that’s exactly what you’d been able to see. This was different.
“Bram?” I repeated, shifting my gaze from one end of the limo to the other. Just like that, I felt an icy cold penetrating my back. I whipped around to find Bram sitting beside me, smiling smugly. “What was that?” I demanded, shock straining my voice. “You can disappear now?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“But…”
“I merely moved too quickly for you to follow with your naked eye.”
“Bullshit,” I bit out, wondering if he was going to backpedal and try to talk his way out of it. It would do no good. I knew what I’d seen…or hadn’t seen in this case.
He laughed. “Your mind tricked you, Dulce. I have been sitting here all along but you were relying on the incorrect sense.”
“Incorrect sense?” I asked dubiously and crossed my arms against my chest as I regarded him coolly.
He leaned into me until his icy breath fanned across my naked collarbone and brought goose bumps to my skin. But, I held my ground and didn’t move away.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered.
“You’d better not try anything,” I started, eyeing him suspiciously.
“I know you too well, Sweet, to attempt anything. You would have me flat on my back with a stake over my heart before I could blink.”
He did know me well. I closed my eyes and then I heard him. It was the tiniest, most insignificant disturbance in the otherwise still air. I opened my eyes and glanced to my right and there he was.
“You see?” he asked.
I nodded and watched him disappear as if the air had swallowed him—right there in front of me. I didn’t have enough time to think to rely on my other senses rather than my eyesight and suddenly felt myself falling, pushed backward by unseen hands. The leather of the seat met the back of my head, and I inhaled sharply as adrenaline pounded through my veins. My dress slinked up my thighs but I wasn’t concerned with propriety at the moment. What I was concerned with was the fact that Bram had materialized and was now on top of me.
“Back the hell off me,” I hissed and pushed against his chest, suddenly angry with myself that I’d ever agreed to be his date in the first place. I could never truly trust Bram. Sure, he’d helped me with certain cases when I’d been a Regulator but he definitely wasn’t a lawfully abiding citizen. If he had one hand in the morally upstanding cookie jar, the other hand was in the process of stealing all the cookies.
His fangs descended, and he was panting. His eyes, though, were far more scary. There was a depth to them I’d never seen before, something wiser and older. If I hadn’t been a fairy with my level of magical ability, I’d now be under the vampire’s spell, allowing him to do whatever he wanted to with me. As it was, I was finding it difficult to fight. “Bram, I’m giving you three seconds to back the fuck off me.”
Bram suddenly sat up and adjusted the tie at his neck while his fangs retracted. “Apologies.”
I pushed myself aside and pulled my dress down, throwing him an angry glare. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to make me hate you?”
“I was curious to learn if my increased age could make you submit to me,” he answered tersely, casually, as if he hadn’t just attacked me. But, somewhere in his comment was disappointment. He’d been hoping I was weak enough to submit to him. But, to what end?
“You’re lucky I didn’t taser you, bastard!” I retorted although it was an empty threat. I hadn’t brought a taser with me. But Bram didn’t need to know that.