My eyes began to glisten, and I looked away. “You said someone was after you?”
“Yes. Hunters. There are always hunters, unfortunately. Throughout the ages.”
“They hunt vampires?”
“Yes. They’re our nemesis. Sometimes helped by supernatural forces. We’ve made many enemies through the years.”
“Why do they do it?”
“Any number of reasons. It’s like asking why people drive monster trucks.”
I laughed through the tears that threatened to run down my face. “I didn’t know vampires could be funny.”
“Only the funny ones.”
I laughed again, the surreal quality of the exchange beyond strange. “Let’s say I believe you…”
“You want to feel my heart again?”
I did, in the worst way, in spite of the setting, but I didn’t say so. “Say I believe you,” I continued. “Why do you think the car was hunters?”
“I found a tracking device. That’s what that disk was.”
“But if they can’t kill you by hitting you…”
“If they break my legs or my back with a car, I won’t be going anywhere, at least not for a few minutes. We rejuvenate quickly, but not that quickly. If I was lying on the ground, incapacitated, that would give them the chance to cut out my heart and take it to be burned.”
“What would happen to your body?”
“My heart would rejuvenate, but very slowly. Then I’d die when my original was ashes. I’d turn to ashes myself and blow away.”
“How do they know you’re a vampire?”
“I honestly don’t have any idea. I’ve been very careful. There shouldn’t be any way.”
I was fascinated, but scared. As much as my logical mind tried to protest the idea of vampires, Jared had no heartbeat. I’d heard it myself. Make that, not heard it. There weren’t a lot of explanations for that I could think of. And…his story rang true. It felt true. About the wedding; about being in love. I felt…an overwhelming attraction, and had since I first laid eyes on him. And it wasn’t lust or infatuation. It had immediately felt stronger than that. More real. And it had strengthened since then, not faded.
But there were limits to what I could process in one night.
“If they’re hunters, why do you say I could be in danger? I’m nobody.”
“Whoever rammed the car saw you with me, Lacey. I can’t take the chance they’ll try to get to me through you. They have no scruples.” He looked at me possessively. “I’m not going to take the chance of losing you again.”
My brow furrowed. “Assuming you’re right. And I’m not convinced. I mean, okay, maybe you’re…what you say you are. But how do I know you’re right about the rest – the reincarnation? You’re guessing, aren’t you?”
“It doesn’t feel like a guess.”
“But you don’t have any proof. It could just be projection. Wishful thinking.”
He frowned. “I know in my bones, Lacey.”
“What was my name? Then?”
“Alicia.”
The sense of otherworldliness overtook me, and I fought hard to stay conscious this time. Jared waited for me to say something. Instead, when I felt steadier, I stood with Jared’s help, trying not to get lost in the strength of his arms or how good they’d felt around me. We walked together in silence to the car, hand in hand. I peered at the coupe in the gloom and then at Jared.
“Do something supernatural,” I demanded.
“Remember on the boat? How the wind suddenly appeared? That was me.”
I shook my head. “Inconclusive. But…you said you’re super strong. Like, how strong?”
He reached down with his free hand and lifted the rear of the car off the ground without batting an eye. “Engine’s in the rear. Probably weighs a few thousand pounds.” He hefted it up and down. “Satisfied?”
I nodded, feeling light-headed but trying to fight it. “You can put it down.”
He did, and escorted me to my side. I looked him deep in the eyes again and felt the real world as I knew it slip away. He moved closer, but this time I didn’t back away or flinch.
And this time when he kissed me, it wasn’t on the cheek.
His lips grazed my jaw, and my senses flooded as his intoxicating scent hit me like a heady narcotic perfume. When his lips met mine, I moaned deep in my throat, and then he quickly pulled away and stepped back.
“What?” I asked, my voice thick.
“It’s…It’s too much all at once. It’ll take some getting used to. My nerves are…very close to the surface right now, and I can taste your essence…and a part of me wants more. But it’s not safe for you.”
“Why?”
“The blood craving’s dormant, almost gone, but not entirely. Being so close to you, tasting you, smelling you, holding you…I don’t trust myself.”
I forced myself to remember that Jared was – if I wasn’t joining him in his madness – a vampire. And if he felt there was danger, he meant it.
“What about the ban?” I asked, wanting to feel his lips on mine again.
“You can’t go back to the dorm until we figure out who’s after us,” he said, changing the subject.
“Then where can we go?”
He gazed up at the moon again. “For tonight, we can get a hotel room. Tomorrow, we can go talk to someone who can confirm whether or not I’m right about you.”
My brow wrinkled. “Who?”
“A woman. One of the seers. Remember I told you there’s a world mortals don’t register? She’s part of it.”
“Why didn’t you go before?”
“She needs to meet you, not me.”
I resisted the urge to move toward him and offer myself for another kiss. My lips were still tingling from the current that surged through me whenever we touched, and I wanted to fill myself with that energy. Instead, I quieted my pounding heart and eyed him skeptically.
“And she’ll really be able to tell?”
He nodded. “Yes. And after she’s done, you’ll know in your bones, too.”
Chapter 20
We drove east on back roads until we
