How to Elude a Vampire (VRC Vampire Related Crimes #2) - Alice Winters Page 0,6
sorry… that wasn’t a very good joke, was it?”
“I thought it was,” Marcus adds from the other room. I head over to find him. “I now know what The Hand means.”
“Yeah… it was something stupid we did with just the two of us when I was younger. I think it was his way of trying to get me to have fun and not look at my lack of an arm negatively. Orin was always doing his best to make me happy, especially after the accident,” I say as I walk over to the couch and sink into the cushions. “It was really stupid… but then we’d laugh and joke around about it, and it’d make me feel better.”
Marcus sits down next to me, so I lean against him.
We haven’t talked about the accident much lately. After the first big case we’d been on together, the vampire who’d attacked me when I was a teenager had sent us a note that told me he wasn’t done with me. When I was sixteen, he’d taken me, and he was the reason I’d lost my arm and leg. I still haven’t fully told Marcus everything about that time, but he met the man who’d taken me when he attacked Marcus in a club a little over half a year ago. After that, I’d received a letter from him and I knew that my time of freedom was finally up, that he’d come for me.
Yet things were strangely quiet. He stopped following me, and I stopped noticing his presence. As time moved on, the worrying and fear I felt every day began to pass. I knew I couldn’t let him take over my life. I knew the fear would drive me crazy if I let it hang on, so I forced myself to let go of it. I had to live my life to the fullest or the fear would eventually consume me.
I’ve heard nothing from him in six months. No notes. Nothing.
That doesn’t mean I live without fear of what could happen if he returns. But I try to push that fear away, ignore the nightmares that remind me of him, and fixate on the now. Thankfully, Marcus makes it easier to do that.
I squeeze onto Marcus who wraps an arm around me and holds me tightly.
“I’m sorry, are you alright?” he asks as if he can read my mind and knows what I was thinking about.
I give him a smile and kiss his cheek. “Of course. I have the world’s most handsome person next to me right now.”
His eyes narrow as he looks around. “You’re up to something. You want something. What do you want?”
I grab my chest. “Me? No.”
His eyes narrow even more. “You are the most suspicious person I’ve ever met in my life. Do you know how long my life has been?”
“No, because you haven’t told me. I’m very curious, though. Tell me.”
“Longer than yours.”
“Oh, tell me,” I say as I poke him in the side. “You’re such a dodger. When were you born? Thirty-two AD? A hundred and two BC? Come on, give me the goods.”
“How old do you think I am?”
I scrutinize him while knowing I’m being ridiculous. “You look old, you act old, you smell old. So… ten AD?”
“Yes, I am over two thousand years old.”
“I knew it. You smell like one of those old books from the library that no one ever checks out,” I lie. This is a huge lie because he smells good all the time. He never sweats or stinks, which irritates me.
“I was born around 1709.”
“Hmm… do you feel a bit kinky hitting on someone, oh… almost three hundred years younger than you? Maybe a bit like a pervert?”
“I’m not the pervert here. Everyone is extremely aware of that,” he says with a grin.
I stare at him as if I’m letting this information process. “Wait a minute… are you saying I’m the pervert? You… you flatter me.”
He snorts. “Only you would think that’s a compliment.”
I lean in and give him a quick kiss. “You’re just too sweet. So can I get a cat?”
“Wait, what? That’s what this is about?”
“Yes!”
“For me to eat?”
I jerk away as my eyes get huge. “You… no… you’re not even allowed to joke about that. Jokes about eating cats are strictly prohibited. What if someone heard you? Oh my god. You’re a monster.”
“I love that that’s what put you over the edge. Why would I care if you got a cat?” he asks.