“Why would he be after me?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure that you do.”
“What did he tell you?”
“He said…” She took a deep breath. Her last, perhaps? “He said that you’re a vampire.”
She waited for him to laugh, waited for him to deny it, to say something, anything, to prove that Hewitt was out of his mind. Instead, he simply stared at her for several taut moments during which time she could scarcely breathe.
“You came looking for one of the Undead,” he said at last. “What are you going to do, now that you’ve found one?”
His words struck her like a blast of icy wind, leaving her momentarily numb. She knew, in that moment, that she had never truly believed he was a vampire. Even when she had come knocking on his door, she hadn’t really believed he was a vampire. Now, looking back, she realized that, due to her illness, she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Still, it was strange that she had felt so much better since coming to stay with him. But if he was a vampire, why hadn’t he drained her dry, or made her what he was?
“I…I don’t believe you.” She couldn’t believe it. It was simply too frightening to contemplate, too bizarre to be real.
“It’s true nonetheless.”
She lifted a trembling hand to her neck. “Why haven’t you bitten me, then? Isn’t that what vampires do?”
He nodded, his gaze never leaving her face.
Her eyes grew wide. “Have you…did you bite me?” Her eyes grew wider still. “Am I going to turn into a vampire?”
“No, Shannah. But I have tasted your blood, and given you mine.”
She stared at him in stunned disbelief. And then shook her head. “No! I don’t believe you! I’d never forget something so…so vile.”
“You would, if I didn’t want you to remember.”
“So, now you’re a hypnotist as well as a vampire?”
He didn’t say anything, just continued to watch her, like a hungry wolf watching a lamb.
She frowned, her thoughts chasing themselves like mice in a maze. Her mind cleared suddenly, as if someone had lifted a veil from her memories. It was true. He had given her his blood on several occasions. “That’s why I feel better, isn’t it?”
He nodded again, his gaze still on her face.
“Oh, Lord,” she murmured, “Hewitt was right.” She laughed out loud as hysteria threatened to overcome her. “I was right! You are a vampire.”
“Shannah, calm down. There’s nothing for you to be afraid of.”
“Nothing? You’re a vampire!” She recalled the vision she’d had of him earlier, asleep in his coffin. That, more than anything else, convinced her that it was true. Scrambling off the sofa, she ran for the front door.
And plowed into the very man she was trying to escape.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and scared. She glanced back at the sofa, where he had been sitting only moments before.
“How…how did you…?” Her voice trailed off as black spots danced before her eyes and then she was falling, pitching headlong into a sea of darkness.
Chapter Twenty
When she woke, she was in bed and Ronan was standing beside her. She looked up at him. He didn’t look like a vampire. Maybe she had dreamed the whole thing.
“No,” he said, “it wasn’t a dream.”
She blinked at him, startled. “How do you know what I was thinking?”
“I can read your thoughts.”
She shook her head. “That’s impossible!”
“Is it?”
“What am I thinking now?”
“You’re wondering what I’m going to do with you.”
She swallowed. It was exactly what she had been thinking. “What are you going to do?”
She flinched when he sat on the edge of the bed.
“Shannah, why are you suddenly afraid of me? Have I ever done anything to hurt you?”
“No.”
“You came to me looking for a vampire,” he reminded her again. “I can give you what you came looking for, if that’s what you truly want.”
She looked at him, speechless, the fear inside of her growing even as she told herself that no matter what he said, vampires didn’t exist. It was impossible. A myth. And yet the signs had been there all the time. He didn’t eat. She never saw him until it was almost dark. There were no mirrors in the house.
He had taken her blood.
“Is it what you want?” he asked. “To be a vampire?”
“No.” She shuddered at the mere idea. “Vampires kill people. They drink blood.”
He didn’t deny it.
She sat up, clutching the covers with both hands as if they could protect her. “Have you killed people?” It was a silly question. She had been there when he killed that man in New York City.
“I’m a vampire.”
“What kind of answer is that?” she asked irritably.
He shrugged. “An honest one.”
“That man in New York, did you…did you drink from him?”
He nodded.
“I read in a book once that vampires could survive on the blood of animals. Is that true?”
“Yes.” When necessary, he had dined on the blood of beasts. It provided sustenance, but no pleasure.
“The plane crash…” Her brows rushed together in a frown as she tried to remember something important, something elusive. Trying to recall it made her head ache. One thing she did remember was his promise that no matter what happened, he would keep her safe. At the time, she had wondered how he could make such a promise. “I would have died in the crash if not for you, wouldn’t I? It wasn’t fate that saved me, it was you.”
He nodded.
She thought of all the people on the flight, especially the children, who had died. “Couldn’t you have saved everyone?”
“No.”
“Would you, if you could have?”
“Yes, but once the plane started going down, there was nothing I could do to stop it. I had only a few minutes to get the two of us out of there.”
She pondered that a moment, thinking there was no longer any reason for her feel guilty. It hadn’t been some random quirk of fate that had saved her, she thought. Then again, maybe it was. Maybe it had been the hand of Providence that had led her to Ronan’s door in the first place.
“Does it hurt, becoming a vampire, I mean.”
He thought about it a moment, trying to remember. There had been a certain amount of discomfort as his mortal body died, but it had been brief and quickly forgotten as preternatural power flowed through him. He had fallen into a lethargic state with the rising of the sun. When darkness had fallen, he had risen as a new creature, every sense magnified, his body humming with vitality and power and a hellish thirst.