Dark Cravings [Claiming Series, #2]

- 5 -

"It can be."

She felt he was downplaying it, suspected that his change, brought about in such a horrible way, cost him more than his family. A century without warmth and love? Without the food you most wanted? "It sounded like a sentence to hell."

"Ah, damn." He sighed.

"What?"

"It's not. There are times when I could feel miserably sorry for myself if I wanted to. But if ever I can't take it anymore, there's a way out."

"What's that?"

"All I have to do is ask another vampire for mercy."

Maybe she was getting used to the shocks because only one little ripple of horror passed through her. As a writer, all the nuances of that word struck her. To ask for mercy was to ask for a reprieve from the intolerable. So these vampires didn't simply ask to be killed. They asked for something so much more meaningful. "Mercy? Is that what you call it?"

"It's the word we use when we can't take it anymore. The request is always granted."

"So you kill each other? Mercy killing?"

"Rarely, but yes."

"Good God!" Then, maybe because the entire evening had been too much, a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Don't do that," he whispered.

The next thing she knew, her face was cupped in his cool, gentle hands, and he leaned close enough to lick the tear from her cheek. It was such an intimate gesture, and it caused a thrill, a purely sexual thrill, to race through her. Her heart stuttered into a faster pace, and her breaths came more rapidly. She absolutely ached.

He pulled back a little, still cupping her face. His smile grew crooked. "Don't do that, either."

"What?"

"How much more can you take tonight, Beth?"

"What do you mean?"

His thumb brushed her damp cheek. "I told you I want you. But now I know you want me, too. I can hear your heartbeat. I can smell your pheromones."

Immediately she felt her cheeks flush. "Can I just dig a hole now?"

He chuckled quietly and brushed her hot cheeks with his thumbs again. "That blush drives me wild. And I know you can't help it. I was just teasing you."

In a flash, he reappeared in the chair farthest from her. "Right now I think you're safer if I'm over here."

She clapped her hands to her cheeks, trying to remember the last time she had felt so embarrassed. She had believed she had lost the ability to blush some time ago, but around Soren, she seemed to blush frequently.

Probably because of her attraction to him. And oh, it was some attraction! She wished he hadn't pulled away. She wished... She wished too much.

"Can you read my mind?" Her voice sounded thick even to her. Desire and apprehension both swamped her.

"No, that's a myth. But there's a lot I can tell from your scents, things a human couldn't consciously detect, or maybe couldn't detect at all. And from your heartbeat."

"So I'm an open book?"

He shrugged. "Your immediate emotional reactions are. But nothing else."

"Oh." She wondered how unnerving that was going to become. Right now it was merely downright embarrassing.

"Regardless," he said kindly, "given the number of shocks you've had this evening, I wouldn't trust your impulses. So I'll just keep a bit of distance and make it easier on both of us."