“It’s been okay, I guess,” I mutter and fix my gaze on him. “By your tone, I’m guessing, you’re not a fan of them.”
He laughs as he stares up at the stars. “I’m not a fan of Keepers in general.”
I take in his profile; the slight crook in his nose and the firmness of his jawline. “How come?” I crack a smile. “Well, besides the obvious fact that they’re liars.”
“That they are,” he agrees, encountering my gaze. “I’m guessing Alex hasn’t told you my story.”
“Story?” A bug lands on my arm and I swat at it and then wipe my hand on my jeans.
“The one where I was kicked out of the Keepers circle because I was turned.”
“They kicked you out because you’re a vampire?” I’m astounded. “Why? You don’t seem evil?”
“Don’t I?” he questions with a penetrating look. “Because a lot of people sure think the opposite.”
“I don’t think so,” I disagree. “Alex even told me that you have your blood lust under control.” The word lust sounds funny leaving my mouth. He seems to think so too, because he can’t seem to take his eyes off my lips.
“Alex is just telling you that to impress you,” he says, sucking his lip ring into his mouth. “He doesn’t really believe it.”
“I doubt that,” I say, but it sounds like a lie. “You don’t like Alex because he’s a Keeper?”
“It’s the other way around,” he answers. “Alex doesn’t like me because of what I am and I choose to return the feeling.”
I bite my lip and drum my fingers on my knee. “Yeah, Alex seems like he can be…”
“An a**hole,” Laylen says and grins when I look at him, but it’s a plastic smile. A façade to cover up his real feelings.
“I was going to use the term douche bag,” I clarify. “But yeah, a**hole works too… Why is he like that? He told me it was because he was moody.”
Laylen shakes his head disagreeing. “It’s because of his father.”
“Stephan?”
“Yeah, he’s put it in Alex’s head since we were kids that you have to be unattached and unemotional in order to be a good Keeper,” he says and then mutters, “Like he would even know himself.”
“You don’t like Stephan?” I ask. “Isn’t he a Keeper?”
He shrugs. “Being a Keeper doesn’t mean anything, Gemma, regardless of what Alex tells you. You’ll be able to determine for yourself what you think of Stephan when you meet him, but I’m guessing you won’t like him. Most people don’t.” He leans back on his elbow. “And just because Keepers claim to protect the world, doesn’t mean that they’re good people.”
Silence encircles us along with the warm air as I try to sort through the colossal volume of information I’ve received. While I dither in my thoughts, Laylen keeps tracing his tongue along his teeth and biting on his lip ring.
Finally, curiosity gets the best of me. “What makes you a vampire exactly?”
He bites at his lip ring again, making these sucking sounds that drive my body into a fitful frenzy and I have to sit on my hands to stop myself from touching him. “What do you mean?”
What is the correct way to ask someone how they are considered a creature of the night? The living undead? A bloodthirsty monster? Albeit, a sexy, undead monster. “I’ve read a lot of books about vampires,” I start. “But nothing factual. So I don’t know what to believe about vampires and the things they do.”
He rubs his hand along his jaw thoughtfully. “You want to know what makes me a monster? Whether I bite? If I’m a killer, or if I drink blood? If I can run at an inhuman speed or if I have super-human strength?”
“It sounds like such a stupid question when you put it that way.” My lips quirk. “But, I guess that’s what I’m trying to ask, minus the whole killer thing. Because I don’t think that.”
He elevates an eyebrow. “You don’t think that I’m a killer?”
I shake my head. “You’re not putting out the whole ‘I’m-a-demon-and-I’m-going-to-kill-you’ vibe, so I’m guessing no.”
“Well, you’re the first to not pass that judgment on me.” He crosses his lean arms and observes me, and it only makes me feel more in tune with him. He isn’t going to hurt me. I can feel it in every bone of my body and through the way the sensation of heat unites rhythmically with my pulse. “You’re right,” he says definitively. “I’m not a killer. I’ve never killed anyone; at least, that I know of.”
A strange answer, but one I decide to tiptoe around, for now. “But other vampires are?”
He nods with his eyes secured on me as if I’m the most fascinating creature in the world. “Other vampires are a lot like what you’ve read and I’m not talking about the ones who drink blood by killing animals. These ones like to kill people; they get a thrill from it.”
A chill crawls down my spine as the image of splattered blood paints the inside of my brain. “I don’t get it. If people are dying because their blood was drained, wouldn’t the news mention it? Wouldn’t everyone in the whole world know vampires exist?”
He uncrosses his arms, swings them over the railing, and pulls himself up so he’s sitting up straight. “Haven’t you ever noticed that a lot of people turn their heads away from the things they don’t want to see? Besides, people are excellent at keeping secrets from one another. If the right people don’t want the world to know that vampires exist, then they won’t know.”
“Right people, as in the Keepers?”
He nods. “You’re catching on quick.”
I cup my hand on the side of my head. “I’m surprised I can think at all. It’s been an overwhelming day.”
“I bet it has.” His gaze roams to the front door and the light reflects in his eyes. “Do you want to go inside and lie down? You could take a nap or something.”
I’m still stuck on the fact that he’s a vampire. “Do you sleep?”
He looks at me with an amused glimmer in his eyes. “You’re still on that, huh?”
I lean forward and relax my arms on my knees. “I’ve always been into the supernatural and now I have a real vampire right in front of me. I’m not sure I’ll ever be off it.”
He smiles, I smile back and there’s that link, bonding us together again. “I’m immortal.” He traces his long finger along the tattoo on his forearm.
I scoot closer. “So you can’t die?”
He lowers his arms from the railing. “Nope, not unless I’m staked through the heart or decapitated.” I scrunch my nose and he laughs. “Am I freaking you out yet?”
I shake my head. “Nope. You’ll probably figure out really soon that I can take in the crazy quite well.”
He brings his knee up and places his foot on the step between us and overlaps his fingers around his knee. “I’m also stronger than the average person and I have fangs.”
His teeth are flat, white, and smooth. “You have fangs? Where?”
“They’re retractable,” he says and slides his tongue along his lips. “And I only bring them out when I want to.”
I think about my dream and how he bit me. Curiosity sparks inside me. “And when do you want to?”
His body goes rigid. “Let’s hope you don’t have to find out.”
I want to find out, though. In fact, I crave it, like a dying plant craves water. Not because I want him to drink my blood and kill me, but because I want to see if it feels the same as it did in my dream; intoxicating and potent. “What else can you do?”
He bites back a smile and shakes his head. “You’re a curious thing, aren’t you?” He analyzes me with a tilt of his head and then his eyes shade to a dark blue. “You really want to know?”
I nod because curiosity is spilling through my veins like a drug. “I do.”
His gaze lingers on me for a brief second longer and then he glances at the door before scooting closer to me. He tucks a strand of my hair out of my face and then traces a line below my eye. “Shut your eyes.”
I’m thrown off a little by his touch. “What?”
He draws back his hand, sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and his lip ring slips between his teeth. “Shut your eyes and I’ll show you what I can do.”
I glance at the desert and then at the house. Do I trust him? Even though I hardly know him, I do trust him, but I don’t understand why. Leaning back against the step, I inhale a breath of the warm air and then let my eyelids slip shut.
There is no movement, no softness of his voice, and no sounds of a dying animal he might be devouring. I almost open my eyes to see if he’s left, but then I feel him shift closer and the temperature of my body begins to dwindle as his body hovers over mine, barely touching, yet each one of my nerves attach to him.
“I feel guilty doing this to you,” he whispers against my neck. “I feel guilty doing it to anyone really, but you have this really curious, naïve look in your eyes that makes it really hard to say no.” I feel his lips brush my neck, soft and moist, and the sensation seeps down into my skin, spilling into my body like liquid ecstasy. Under no control of my own, I fall back against the steps. An arm quickly winds around my waist, his hand cups the back of my head and he holds me up. I want to open my eyes and look at him, but my eyelids are sealed shut.
“There’s this thing,” his lips graze my collar bone and warmth centers to my heart and stills it, “that not all vampires can do that’s called venenatorum osculum.” The way the words roll off his tongue sounds sexy. It makes my thighs tingle and my body arch up against his chest. “I can manipulate things inside you.” He kisses the hollow of my neck and my entire body stills; paralyzed with a yearning for him to fill the massive hole in my heart, which seems to have enlarged severely over the last few seconds.