Abel turned and aimed his eyes my way.
I felt the look in them in my nipples, at my clit, and curving around my heart.
When Dad spoke again, I tore my eyes away and looked at my lap.
“All right, precious girl, gotta kick Charlene’s ass out, rally the boys, and get on the road. Hang tight. I’ll call you tonight and let you know when to expect us tomorrow.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“Love you, Lilah.”
“Love you more.”
“Love you most, baby.”
He did.
I tried, I tried hard, but he definitely loved me most.
“’Bye.”
“Later,” he replied and I heard him hang up.
The microwave sounded and I looked that way.
“You drink bagged blood?” I asked.
Abel pulled out the bag and turned to me. “You gonna be squeamish?”
“I, um…well, probably.”
I mean, it was blood.
“Can drink it in the hall,” he offered.
“It’s your house, Abel,” I pointed out, though it wasn’t a house so much as a room.
“Can drink it in the hall, Delilah,” he repeated.
I didn’t repeat like he did. Instead, I told him, “People I care about call me Lilah.”
He gave me that look again that I felt at certain very good parts of me.
“Drink your blood,” I said, wondering how on earth I was saying that in a serious way when it was total insanity. “I’ll start the bacon.”
I pushed up from the chair, avoiding looking at him and moving to the kitchenette.
I found a frying pan in the cupboard and I already knew where the knives were, so I nabbed one and sawed open the package.
I was laying the strips in when I felt him move, so I looked to the side and watched him use the toe of his boot to open a trash can I hadn’t noticed on the other side of the oven. He dropped the empty bag in.
That didn’t take long.
A shiver slid up my spine.
“Blue is blood, Lilah,” he said quietly, and I focused again on him. “White is regular trash. Yeah?”
I leaned back and saw there were two trash bins, one blue, one white. I righted myself, pressed my lips together, and nodded.
He moved my way and stopped close, looking down at the skillet.
“More,” he declared.
“What?” I asked.
He looked to me. “More bacon. You’ve only got four strips in there and I’ll eat four at least.”
I felt my brows shoot up. “You eat human food?”
He stared into my eyes, then reached to me, took the bacon out of my hand, and tugged more out, placing the strips in the pan, all while talking. “Right. Quick education. I day walk. Got no problem with the sun. Sleep at night, though I’m a night person, not a morning person, but that only means I like to sleep in and stay up late, not that I need the night. And when I sleep, I don’t do it in a coffin.”
“Okay,” I said when he stopped, thinking all that was good news, the coffin part especially, because, well…euw.
He tossed the package on the counter and reached for the drawer by my hip. I slid out of the way as he opened it.
He grabbed a fork, closed the drawer, and looked at me.
“No problem with silver. No problem with holy water. No problem with garlic. Ditto crosses. Don’t need to be invited into anyone’s house. In fact, outside of needing blood to survive, nothin’ you think you might know about vampires or werewolves is true. This includes me not transformin’ to wolf at the full moon. I can do it whenever I want and never do it unless I want to. I also can’t turn people. Not that I’ve tried, but as far as I know, I was born this way.”
“As far as you know?” I asked as he started moving bacon around in the skillet, which was now sizzling.
“Was found in an alley. I was a pup. Had transformed, did it then whenever because I hadn’t learned control. Woman who found me took me in, thinking I was a stray puppy or dumped. Told me later I freaked her shit when I turned into a toddler, though she didn’t use those words.”
At this exceedingly sad story, I felt my insides freeze even as my lips whispered, “Oh my God.”
He stopped scooting bacon around and looked at me. “Yeah.”
“What did she do?” I asked.
He shrugged. “She tried to find my folks, and when that failed, she raised me.”
“Just like that?” I pressed.
“Don’t know her thought process. She didn’t share that with me. All I know is all I knew was her. Her love. Her kindness. Her understanding. Her protection. I have no memories of before her. She figured out all I was before I could form a coherent thought, seeing as I’d catch rats and suck them dry and try to latch on to her whenever I got the chance, baring my fangs. She brought me animals to keep me alive until I learned to do what I needed to do, and only then did she let me go out and find humans.”
I could not believe I was hearing this.
But I was hearing it, and I had to admit, it was utterly fascinating and extraordinary even if it was tremendously sad.
I mean, what kind of person would take into their home and then raise a werewolf vampire?
No other answer to that except a really good one.
“Was she Jian-Li?” I asked.
Something profoundly sad moved over his features as he looked back down to the bacon saying, “No.”
Okay, it was not the time to dig deeper with that.
“Learned to do what you needed to do?” I prompted as he flipped bacon.
He looked to me. “Teeth are sharp, Lilah. Fuck you up. Pain, and that pain is bad. But I got it in me to protect against that. Figured it out on a fluke. Somethin’ happens if I lick the skin before I bite. Means no pain to who I’m drawin’ from.”