arm.
“I’m sorry, but I need your blood.”
She nodded, resigned, as he took hold of her arm and bent his head to the vein in her wrist.
As usual, he took only a little. Releasing her arm, he looked up at her. “You have questions?”
She nodded again.
“Ask them.”
“What . . . what are you? Who were those men? Why did they attack you?”
“You know what I am.”
“That’s impossible.”
A faint smile quirked his lips. “How can it be, when I’m here?”
“Maybe I’m dreaming.”
He shook his head. “I come from a long line of beings. . . .”
“Beings?” Maybe he wasn’t a vampire, after all. “What does that mean? Like aliens from another planet?” Even that would be preferable to what he was, she thought.
“We are a type of vampire, but we are different from most.” He patted the bed beside him. “Why don’t you sit down?”
Instead of doing as he suggested, she pulled a small chair from the desk in the corner and perched on the edge. He didn’t miss the fact that she sat far enough away that he couldn’t reach her.
“As I was saying, we are different from other vampires in that we are born this way and they are turned by others of their kind. We both must have blood to survive, but my kind can also consume human food if we wish. We both spend most of our waking hours in the dark. And although my kind can function during the day, we prefer the night.”
“So that’s why those men tried to kill you? Because you’re a vampire?”
He nodded. “They are descendants of an ancient league of mystical knights who have dedicated their lives to destroying my kind.”
“Just your kind?” she asked, frowning. “What about the other ones?”
“There are those who hunt them, as well.”
“Are any of the other kind here?”
“Yes, a few. Most of them tend to stay in the mountains of Transylvania.”
Well, that was a relief. “Are there very many of them?”
“Enough.”
She looked thoughtful a moment. “Are there many like you?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Callie blinked at him as she tried to absorb everything he had told her.
After a moment, he said, “There is another major difference between the two types of vampires. Those who are made are inclined to kill their prey. Mine are not.” Although it did happen from time to time, but he saw no need to tell her that. Nor did he mention that he had intended to kill her to silence her. His reluctance had something to do with the familiarity of her blood, though he didn’t yet understand its significance.
Callie clasped her hands in her lap. She found it somewhat reassuring that he wasn’t a murderer, but couldn’t help asking, “If you don’t kill people, then I don’t understand why those knights wanted to kill you.”
His gaze moved over her, lingering on the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat, the swell of her breasts. “Because, unlike other vampires, we can breed with mortal females. Our offspring are always male. The Knights perceive our ability to reproduce as a threat to the future of humanity.”
Vampires fathering babies. Who’d have thought? A rush of heat flooded Callie’s cheeks, followed by a sharp stab of alarm. Good heavens, was that why he was here? Was he looking for a woman to have his child?
And then she frowned. “Wait a minute. If your kind comes from mating with a human female, doesn’t that make you half-human?”
“Only for a short time.”
“What does that mean?”
“We are human for the first few years of our lives. Gradually, as we approach puberty, usually around the age of thirteen, our innate vampire nature takes over. Our necessity for food lessens and our need for blood grows stronger. By the time we reach our late teens, the change is complete. When we reach thirty, we stop aging physically.”
She mulled that over before asking, “How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
She lifted one brow. “How long have you been thirty?”
“A little over six hundred years.”
Six hundred years. It was beyond her comprehension. Her grandmother had been over a hundred when she’d passed away, but that seemed young compared to Quill. Head cocked to the side, Callie looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. He was a tall, handsome, virile male who exuded sensuality and strength, something the female within her found incredibly attractive. How many women had he loved in the six centuries of his existence? How many children had he fathered?
Quill laughed softly as he read Callie’s mind. He had survived