"Yeah." She looked at him, and there was something in her eyes that strangely stirred him. "You might even say I love one."
"If the feelings are returned, then why are you here alone?" She ducked her gaze away from his. "Because my vampire went away."
"Ah. I'm sorry."
She shrugged. "It doesn't matter."
It mattered a lot, if the sense of hurt and frustration he was picking up from her was anything to go by. Though why he was picking such things up from her was something he didn't know. "Would it help if I say vampires rarely stay in relationships for long?"
Her gaze came back to his. Amusement touched the amber-lit green depths. "So I've been told." She hesitated. "Have you had many long-term relationships?"
"Very few."
"How many is very few?"
He raised an eyebrow. "That is none of your business."
She smiled, and he couldn't help feeling her amusement came from a joke he should be able to share.
"You called me a whore, but I can count the number of men I've had on a couple of fingers. Can you say the same, vampire?"
He studied her for moment, wondering why this seemed so important to her. Wondering why the thought of her having had a couple of lovers tore at him so. "That depends on what you term a relationship."
"More than just sex. And more than a few nights."
"Ah, well." He paused, thinking back through the long years of aloneness. "Maybe three." Her eyebrows raised. "Really?"
"Really." His voice was a little sharper than he'd intended. "Watching someone you love grow old and die is never easy. Mostly, it's better not to love."