“The essence of your heart remains unchanged.…I hear it speak when you are with your peers, and yet its beat is steadier since the Eyja næturinnar. You have killed, and it has made you stronger.” He pressed more firmly, dragging his finger the barest fraction down my breast.
As if he might really touch me.
“Your father could not batter your heart from you. Nor could the other girls.” He retracted his hand, and though his eyes were narrowed, the slightest smile curved his lips. “Nor perhaps any vampire.”
The words sank into me, and I inhaled sharply, breathing again.
“Not just your heart remains unchanged,” he said, continuing his litany as though he hadn’t just been about to fondle me. “Your eyes are the same. The nose and brow. Your mouth…” He tsked, and leaning in for a closer look, said, “But I see we haven’t finished tending your wounds.”
“We haven’t?” My voice crackled high and tight.
He raised his hand to hover just over my split lip, then paused, asking, “May I?”
He wanted to touch me again. And I was supposed to stop him?
“Yes.” I cleared my throat of its warble. “You may.”
His thumb was cold as it swept beneath my lower lip. “Open your mouth, please.”
In my panic, I opened wide like at the dentist.
He chuckled, and the sound was pretty much the most terrifying thing ever. “Not that wide, querida. Simply part your lips.”
I did as I was told. And somehow, sitting before him with softly parted lips horrified me more than my jaw-crackingly wide-open mouth had. I’d wanted someone to kiss me, but not now, not like this. Not with Alcántara.
“It is simply on the lip, and lips heal.” His voice pitched low and husky, that chuckle long gone. “You see, I have much experience with broken skin.” He parted his own lips, gently baring his fangs.
I got a good look this time, utterly mesmerized. They were long and sharp—far sharper than any canines I’d ever seen. They were sharper than a wolf’s fangs, or even sharks’ teeth. I thought of Yasuo’s wiggly teeth, and how long he’d have to wait for beauties like these—Alcántara had been working on them for generations.
And, of course, he probably accidentally nicked himself all the time. My mind went to a really disturbing place, wondering what it would be like to kiss a vampire. Because surely a girl would get nicked then, too.
Why did I keep thinking about kissing? Alcántara was sitting so close, saying such strangely flattering things. My eyes returned to his mouth. It was full, with two sexy little indents below the bottom lip. I looked up and met his eyes. He was smiling. Damn. Had he put these thoughts in my head? I’d imagined myself immune to mind control. But surely I didn’t deep down want to kiss Alcántara. Did I?
“The skin is pierced,” he said, “but it always heals.”
To prove his point, he bit lightly on his bottom lip, and a tiny pinprick of blood appeared almost instantly. But then he licked it, and almost as quickly the pinprick disappeared. He gave me a slow, dirty smile, letting me see the end of his tongue. Red blood tinged the tip.
No. Definitely no kissing for me today.
“Would you like my assistance, Acari?”
“Assistance?” I could barely speak.
He stared only at my mouth now.
I was intensely aware of my body. How my skin had grown hot. How my split lip was a little swollen. It’d stopped bleeding, but the cut was open and raw. Did he mean assist, as in heal my lip? I didn’t think I was nearly ready for anything of the sort.
I must’ve had a nutty, panicked look on my face, because he laughed outright. “My dear innocent, I think I’ve frightened you. I mean simply this: Your next mealtime, when you take the blood, you must rub it into your cuts, and they will heal quickly. Run your tongue, like so, along the wound.” He licked his lower lip in a way that made me feel intensely uncomfortable.
He gave me a wicked smile. “Shall I ensure you’re doing it correctly? Perhaps I will come to the dining hall to watch.”
“I…” He’d made it sound so…naughty, and I definitely did not want Alcántara to show up at the dining hall to watch me do naughty-sounding things with my tongue.
So how did one answer such a question? I figured guys were guys, no matter the century, and it never hurt to be coy. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you,” I said hesitantly. “I think I understand. Thank you, though. Very much.”
I held my breath, waiting to make sure I’d given the correct sort of reply. His answer was an amused grin, and relief washed through me. I automatically returned the smile, and our eyes locked for a strange, frozen moment.
“Now.” All business again, Alcántara pulled away, sitting in that graceful, erect posture that vampires seem to have perfected. “We must administer your punishment.”