“No blood to be shed,” Nix repeated.Lance did like his formalities.Did he think they could protect him?Nix wasn’t so naïve.
They both glanced at the clock on the wall, noting the time the agreement would end in two weeks.Then they both drank.
“You invited me here, offered me hospitality and a truce.”God, wasn’t that sad it was the most kindness he’d been shown in six months?“You’ve bought my honesty for the night, and I expect it in return.What do you want to talk about?”
Lance smiled.“You.”
ChapterSix
Lance sippedhis wine and tried not to think about the mistake he’d made by agreeing to the truce.His aunt would be livid.She’d never blood him if she found out that he was drinking wine with a Hadley—he’d rather be drinking beer—but she wouldn’t find out.What was another two weeks when it had already been six months?
He’d hated it at first.It felt as if he’d been sent off on a wild goose chase.Then he’d grown to love it.The search for clues, the travel and the freedom.
While he knew it would have to end, and he’d have to return to Melbourne and his family, he wanted a few more weeks.He hoped Hadley ran so he could chase.
“Me?You know everything about me.You stalked across the country.Came to my work, my house.What else is there to know?”Nixon ran his thumb over the rim of the glass.“But I know nothing about you.You’re unblooded.Why?”
Every time Hadley opened his mouth to talk, his fangs were visible.The sight of them made his pulse kick up and his dick harden.By the time most people saw a vampire’s fangs, they were about to be dinner or dead.
He was neither.
The bite on Lance’s thumb pulsed in time with the beat of his heart.Hadley had sucked on the bite for a moment.He’d only drawn away because it felt too good, and he wasn’t sure he was supposed to like it or want more.His first bite.Another thing his aunt couldn’t learn about.He wasn’t supposed to be bitten until he was blooded.But when making a deal with the enemy, it was best to seal it in blood—therefore, blood had symbolically been shed, and no more needed to be spilled.
“Truth for truth?”Lance asked.
“Why not?What else would we do on this truce?”Nixon’s eyebrow lifted for a second as though he’d already thought of a hundred different ways to waste the next two weeks.
It was enough to spark a few ideas in Lance’s mind.
The touch of his hand as he’d searched for Lance’s hidden knife was burned into his skin.He could have said something—told him where it was.He shouldn’t have enjoyed it, but Nixon on his knees had been a sight.
He was still a pleasing sight sitting across from him, dark hair loose.No fake glasses.He didn’t look like one of the most lethal vampires in Melbourne.Yet they were enjoying a nice glass of wine and being more civilized than their elders and betters had been in centuries.
“In my family, blooding isn’t automatic; we need to earn it.You didn’t know that?”
He smiled and shrugged.“So you get to live a little first?”
“How do you mean?”
“Go to uni and pretend you have a life beyond the family business and blood feud.”
Lance opened his mouth to answer but wasn’t sure what to say.They’d promised each other the truth.“No.In that, we are much the same.I spend my time training and learning.Guarding the women from…”The likes of you.“What’s it like being blooded?”
“Like living in eternal winter.”He drank half his wine as though it were water.
“But you are stronger and faster an?—”
“And I burn faster.And I can’t eat the things I used to love.The day I turned eighteen, the life I wanted was taken.You want the truth?There it is.I was born for this, to be this, but it was never what I wanted.I went to school.Got good grades, went surfing with my friends, and all through high school, I hoped that I’d be allowed to follow my sister to uni and be something other than my older brothers.”He stared at the wine; his lips pressed into a bitter line.“There had been talk about moving into more legitimate businesses.I wanted to be part of that.Then, one by one, my brothers were killed.”He lifted his gaze and glared at Lance.“And then there was no choice.No chance.”
“But you…you’re so good at it.”Terrifyingly so.
Nixon smiled.“I’m good at many things.My turn to ask.Has your family caught my sister?”
“Not that I know of.Do you know where she is?”
“Ah…tricky,” he said as though he found it amusing.“But even I do not know that.Were you sent to seduce me and get all my secrets?”
“No!”
