her, as if he knew what she was thinking. “You got any beer?”
Beer? He drank beer?
“Ah, yeah. Actually, I think I do.” She disappeared into the kitchen. Brought back two Sam Adamses. She needed a belt right about now, too.
After all, she was playing hostess to a vampire. Her father had been a vampire.
Her lover was a vampire.
She tilted the beer back and drank hard.
Tohrment laughed softly. “Long night?”
“You have no idea,” she replied, wiping her mouth.
“Oh, I might.” The vampire sat down in her wing chair, his big body overflowing the arms and dwarfing the high back. “I'm glad I finally met you. Your father talked about you a lot.”
“He did?”
“He was so damn proud of you. And you've got to know—he stayed away to protect you, not because he didn't love you.”
“That's what Fritz said. Wrath, too.”
“How're you getting along with him?”
“Wrath?”
“Yeah.”
She felt a blush hit her cheeks and headed to the kitchen so he didn't catch her reaction. She grabbed a bag of cookies from the top of the fridge and put some on a plate.
“He's… he's… How do I put it?” She tried to think of a good answer.
“Actually, I think I know.”
She came back and held out the plate. “Would you like some?”
“Oatmeal raisin,” he said, taking three. “My favorite.”
“You know, I thought vampires only drank blood.”
“Nah. Necessary nutrients in it, but we need food, too.”
“How about garlic?”
“Bring it on.” He leaned back in the chair, munching happily. “I love the stuff roasted with a little olive oil.”
Jeez . The guy was almost easygoing, she thought.
No, that wasn't right. His sharp eyes kept scanning the windows and the glass door, as if he were monitoring the periphery. She knew without a doubt that if he didn't like something he saw, he was going to be out of that chair in a heartbeat. And it wouldn't be to check locks. It'd be to attack.
He put another cookie in his mouth.
But at least he was relaxing to be around. Relatively speaking.
“You're not like Wrath,” she blurted.
“No one's like Wrath.”
“Yeah.” She bit into her own cookie and sat down on the futon.
“He's a force of nature,” Tohr said, tilting back his beer. “And he's deadly, no mistaking that. But there's no one who will take better care of you, assuming he chooses to do so. Which he has with you.”
“How do you know?” she whispered, wondering what Wrath had told him.
Tohr cleared his throat, a flush hitting his cheeks. “He's marked you.”
She frowned, looking down at herself.
“I can smell it,” Tohr said. “The warning's all over you.”
“Warning?”
“As if you were his shellan.”
“His what?”
“His mate. That scent on your skin sends a powerful message to other males.”
So she'd been right. About the sex they'd had and what it meant.
That really shouldn't please me as much as it does , she thought.
“You don't mind it, do you?” Tohr said. “Being his.”
She didn't want to answer that. On one level she wanted to be Wrath's. On another, she felt much safer being as she had always been. On her own.
“Do you have one?” she asked. “A mate?”
The vampire's face lit with devotion. “Her name's Wellsie. We were promised to each other before our transitions. It was dumb luck that we fell in love. Truth is, if I'd met her on the street, I would have chosen her. How's that for fate?”
“Occasionally it works for us,” she murmured.
“Yeah. Some males take more than one shellan, but I can't imagine ever being with another female. Which is evidently why Wrath called me.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Sorry?”
“The other brothers, they have females they drink from, but they don't have any emotional ties. There'd be nothing to prevent them—” He stopped and bit into another cookie. “Well, given that you're…”
“I'm what?” She felt as though she hardly knew herself. And she was willing to even take hints from strangers at this point.
“Beautiful. Wrath wouldn't have wanted to put you in any of the others' care, because if they'd been tempted to make a move on you, there would be serious trouble.” Tohr shrugged. “Well, and a couple of the brothers are just flat-out dangerous. You wouldn't want to leave any female alone with them, at least not one you cared about.”
She wasn't sure she wanted to meet any of the brothers.
Wait a minute , she thought.
“Does Wrath have a shellan already?” she asked.
Tohr finished his beer. “I think you'd better talk to him about that.”