Bane's Choice (Vampire Motorcycle Club #1) - Alyssa Day Page 0,62

I seriously doubt it. I think magic explains more about our status than science, Doctor.”

Ryan, who’d started pacing back and forth, turned to stare at him. “You don’t know that! We don’t know anything until we analyze anything and everything we can learn about what makes you—” She waved her hand, apparently to encompass both him and the state of being a vampire, all at once. “What makes you, you. Certainly, a blood sample isn’t going to tell me why you can fly, but it might tell me about your sensitivity to the sun.” She pointed at the open door. “It might tell me if sedatives will work on him, to help get him through this Turn that you don’t know why he’s not doing properly. Or, at least, maybe it could help when you want to…if you want to do this again in the future to someone else.”

She swallowed, hard, and an expression of barely concealed panic crossed her face. She must have been remembering what they’d talked about before. Her visceral reaction to even the thought of becoming a vampire told him more than her words had done.

To so powerfully reject the idea of becoming like him told him a lot.

None of it good.

He dismissed the thought and closed and locked the door before Hunter could wake up again. “I don’t know about sedatives. He’s in a kind of magical stasis during the Turn—or, at least, he’s supposed to be. Right now, he’s caught between human and vampire, and I don’t know what might work on him. It’s not like I’ve ever had medical assistance during the process before.”

“I need to get to the hospital and get my bag. Get some supplies.” She paused and leaned against the wall, shoulders slumping. “Clothes. And I need to do it soon, before I keel over. That nap was fine, but not enough.”

“You can sleep in my room,” he decreed, which had the expected effect of her complete disregard.

“Maybe, but you destroyed your bed. Nice job, by the way.” She shook her head. “Temper, much? Second, I need clothes and my things. Finally, I need to get some supplies and equipment, if I’m going to do any kind of effective job at studying you—”

“But—”

“Which you said I could do,” she continued, steamrolling right over his attempt to interrupt the flow of words. “So, there you have it. Shall I call a car, or can Mr. Cassidy drive me? And do you have anything less conspicuous than a limo?”

He pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes, just for a second or two, but when he opened them, she was still standing there.

Still waiting.

Still real, even though he didn’t deserve such a gift.

“I can’t let you go,” he said, stalling while he tried to come up with a reason that she’d accept. “I—my family! You know too much about my family. Secrets that aren’t only mine. I can’t just let you walk out of here, knowing that you might change your mind and tell someone about us.”

Her beautiful smile slowly faded. “I thought we were past this. I thought we had a certain measure of trust between us after, you know, I let you put your teeth on my…private parts.”

She blushed again, to his amusement, but then memories of her private parts seared a flash of heat through him. “I’d like very much to do that again. Let’s go to my room, for now, and then later—”

“No.” She shook her head. “There is no later if you can’t trust me.”

And there it was. The gauntlet, thrown down by a woman who hadn’t even lived in the days of duels over breaches of honor. She’d called him out, and he had no choice but to respond, with his trust, though, instead of swords at dawn.

“I—yes,” he rasped out. “Yes, I trust you. Do you—do you swear to return?” Each word was ground glass shredding his throat. “I can’t go with you, in case Hunter gets worse.”

Her eyes widened, and she slowly crossed the few paces separating them. Then she reached up and touched his face. “I’ve seen you angry, and arrogant, and aroused. But I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you vulnerable.”

A chasm opened up in his gut. “Monsters are never vulnerable.”

“You’re not a monster, and yes, I swear I’ll come back,” she whispered, and then she kissed the corner of his mouth.

From the doorway to the hall, the sound of slow clapping interrupted whatever he’d been