Newborn

PART TWENTY-SEVEN

It brought up questions, like where she had bitten him and whether she had made it pleasurable for him, but before I could speak, he continued with his story.

"About a month later, they found us. They claimed that by their laws, Roxanna was their physical property. I begged for them to take me instead, to spare her as they . . . they started to torture her. They said I was worthless to them, their only interest was Noah, and they made us watch as they put their grubby hands all over her pure body, leaving smudges of dirt in their wake. They undid her blouse, cutting it open with a knife, and then they used that blade to write whatever we pleaded into her skin." He winced and drank a little more. "For Noah to be able to be turned it had to be his choice, he had to agree to it, so Roxanna had compelled Noah not to give in, no matter what they did to her, but then they decided that they would cut my throat. The blade barely even touched my skin before Noah said he would go with them if they promised to leave his sister alone and not kill me. Still to this day, the king keeps to his word. Roxanna is free to live her life in the human world and, well, I'm still breathing despite my many attempts to piss him off."

I had so many questions.

My mind ravelled around his story and it occurred to me then that this was before he was even a vampire, and that he had almost a century of tales to tell. I scooted closer to him. The effects of the alcohol were still strong in my veins. "But what happened after they took Noah? How did he end up turning you? What about Roxanne? What about the guys that tortured her?!"

A wicked smirk flashed across Darien's devil-may-care features. "It's your turn now."

"Oh, come on!" I groaned. "You can't tell me all that and then leave out the ending . . . I mean, Roxanne is with Oliver now. So, how'd that come about? And Noah seems beyond loyal to the king, which is odd, considering he had his family murdered."

He drank more. "We have an eternity to trade stories."

"But I want to know now . . ." I said automatically, but then I noticed what he said. 'An eternity.' The slow realisation was probably thanks to the alcohol, but I didn't mind the concept. Had someone said I would be stuck with Darien Valentine for an eternity twenty-four hours ago, I would have probably lost my marbles, but now it truly didn't seem that bad of a fate.

Darien was entertaining, protective, and incredibly sexy—I had no idea where that thought came from, but I pushed it into the back of my mind and decided that I had definitely had enough to drink for the night. Not only were any relations between a progeny and their maker strictly forbidden, but also Darien had made it very clear that he had absolutely no interest in me.

"Alright," he said. "But only because I'm feeling generous. You get two questions."

"Three," I pressed.

"One." He leered.

"Okay, two." I smiled. The answer came to me a lot easier than I had expected. I recalled Roxy and Darien bickering when I had my first shower here. She had said that Darien fucks anything that walks, to which he swiftly responded, 'you'd know.' Even at the time, the conversation had intrigued me. "Did you and her ever . . . shag?"

"Yes, we did.... Once." He smoked quietly for a moment; his expression thoughtful. "It was after they took Noah. We didn't see him for a long time and we ended up sort of dating and giving our virginity to each other. I'd appreciate it if that stayed between us, though, because even after almost a century of bond-ship you still get mad at your best friend for deflowering your sister."

My eyebrows rose. "So, your first time was with a vampire?"

"Yes."

"And you were human?"