be friends at first, but they had different agendas.
“Please. I know you’re in pain and it’s killing me. Please, drink,” Marcus whispered. “If you never believe anything I say, believe this. I want you happy and healthy and whole. I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“It healed.” His wrist had closed again, proving how strong he was. Those holes on his wrist had healed right before my eyes. “How old are you?”
“I am almost two thousand years old,” he said, bringing his wrist back and biting down again. “And I feel like I’m twenty today. I feel like a youthful idiot who has no idea how to handle a woman. Drink.”
If I didn’t I got the feeling he would open that wrist again and again until I did. I leaned forward and realized that drinking someone’s blood is super awkward and weird.
And I’d never tasted anything as amazing as Marcus Vorenus. He held his wrist to my lips and when I drew in, the blood flowed like rich chocolate. Not the supersweet kind. The expensive, deeply decadent kind. The Fae don’t have chocolate, but I’ve tasted the witch plane’s sweets and not a one of them came close to Marcus’s blood. My whole body warmed and the pain floated away the minute that blood washed down my throat. I was happier than I’d been before, more whole. That blood was a dangerous drug, but I couldn’t make myself stop.
Marcus sighed behind me and I could feel his satisfaction. He meant what he’d said. It hummed through my being that he would be no place but right here.
I hissed and broke our contact because the deep wound was healing, skin knitting back together. Skin knitting back together hurts like hell, and it wasn’t going quickly.
“Let me show you something. Let me take your mind off the pain.”
The words had been whispered in my mind. I knew I should say no, but my head nodded because this was a flash fire through my system, and I was about to scream and shout. There was a burning in my blood and I blinked back tears.
Suddenly I found myself in a sunny room and all the pain was gone. I shook my head to clear it of the remembered agony. There was none of that here. There was peace and sunshine. There was great wealth.
At first I was confused because this wasn’t a normal room. It was large, but I was definitely inside despite the fact that a lovely stream split the space and gorgeous plants and flowers covered the walls on two sides. I turned to my right and saw where all that sunlight was coming from. There were floor-to-ceiling windows and French doors that led to a balcony that rivaled any I’d seen at the palace at Tír na nÓg. But this balcony didn’t overlook pastures or grand forests. A city sparkled outside the windows, buildings rising all around us. It reminded me of the Vampire plane, but I didn’t think that was where I was. The sun felt different on my skin—warmer, more vibrant.
“This would have been your home had things worked out as they should have,” a deep voice said.
I turned again and Marcus sat on one of the big lounge chairs. He wore a dark suit and looked far more civilized than the last time I’d seen him. “What are you doing? We’re not really here, right?”
“No, I wish I could truly take you there, but this will have to do for now. One of my talents is to be able to pull a person into my memories. I could have shown you my home, but I rather thought it would be nice for you to see yours.”
I took in the space that apparently should have been my “home.” It certainly wasn’t the dingy motel room my parents had brought me into existence in. This place was so far from where I’d been born it was ridiculous.
“When I left the Earth plane, my mom was worried about money. It was why she took that job with the demon in the first place. She must have gotten really good at stealing things. How old is she now? You said I had siblings. How old are they? I’m going to assume the Green Man had something to do with that.” My father wouldn’t be able to have biological children, one of the main differences between Earth plane and Vampire plane creatures.
“He did, indeed,” Marcus replied, standing smoothly. “Your mother married him about twelve