Chapter 28
LEAH
Iwake to a blaring smoke alarm. I’m half asleep as I jump the railing of the last five stairs and skid into the kitchen, dagger in hand, in just a tank top and underwear.
I whirl left, then right.
No enemy.
I blink, then shake my head to clear it. Nope, I’m awake.
The vampire is swearing at the stove, like any human man. Well, except that his swears are in Latin and I’ve never seen a human man bend the handle of a frying pan in half.
He also has the best back I’ve ever seen.
Goddess.
He’s bare to the waist, and he’s wearing what I consider to be a delicious outfit on a man—a ball cap and athletic shorts. His ass is fantastic. The dimples at the base of his spine make me long to press my fingers to them.
I watch, eyes wide, dagger hanging from my hand as he roughly turns off the gas and snarls at the nonstick pan he’s ruined. A puck of something sits in the center. Is that meat? I squint at the blob, then sniff. It was once meat. I can smell the char.
The smoke alarm is still blaring, and Marcus snarls again before he plants one arm on the counter and vaults twelve feet in the air. He yanks the alarm from the ceiling of the living area mid-leap.
The muscles of his stomach and arms ripple as he squeezes the alarm. Plastic falls like rain onto the rug. The vampire might be destroying my house, but he looks good doing it.
I clear my throat.
Marcus catches sight of me and goes vampire-still. His eyes are black. His fangs are out.
Not so human after all.
“Good evening. Nice outfit.”
“The box came up with this—unassisted.” He sounds like he doesn’t approve of the box’s fashion choices.
“The box has a mind of its own.” And it’s clearly helping a girl out.
He hasn’t blinked since he started staring, and I can practically feel his hunger from here.
I smirk. I feel like a million dollars this evening. It might be the fact that I’m wearing a tank top that I know makes my boobs look amazing, but it’s probably the vampire blood.
I roll my shoulders. I could run eight miles and eat enough pancakes to kill a regular human. Yeah, it’s definitely the vampire blood.
Silver crackles across his gaze as he stares at me. His eyes are the only part of him that move. I’ve seen this look before. Vampires are no different from cats. They wait, they pounce. He’s planning to pounce.
I narrow my eyes. Something changed in him last night. He is all predator now. Or perhaps he was before, and now he is letting me see it. I stroll to the counter. His gaze tracks me.
I’m not going to let myself be pounced on without a fight.
My gaze lands on the hole in my ceiling, then the smoking pan of meat. “What are you doing?”
“Cooking.”
“You say that like vampires stroll into my kitchen all the time.”
A rumble rises from his chest. I give him a flat stare.
His lip is curled. “No other vampires will be strolling into your kitchen.”
Okay, then. I lean over to poke at the meat. Marcus makes a small noise, and I feel his gaze on my ass.
“You cooked it from frozen.”
He snarls. “How else should it be cooked? It loses its structural integrity when it melts.”
I glance over my shoulder to see him glaring at the pan like the meat killed his firstborn child, and I burst out laughing.
He growls low in his throat. I lean weakly against the counter. There is a shirtless vampire in my kitchen attempting to cook frozen meat.
“Slayer.” He cages me against the counter with his arms. “You will let me in on the joke.”
I shake my head and press my lips together.
“Leah,” he croons. I shiver. Laughter dies in my throat.
He feels it. His eyes gleam and start to bleed black again.
“I think you might be really bad at cooking,” I whisper.
The edge of his mouth lifts, showing a hint of fang. “I think you need to eat and stop mocking me.”
“Not that.” I make a face.
“But you will eat.”
I poke a finger into his chest. His face is so close. I really need to avoid looking at him because I definitely wanted to kiss him yesterday, and if I’m not careful, I’ll go through with it this time. He leans into my touch, crowding me with his size.
“You’re very overbearing.”
“If you’re going to feed me, you must eat. Meat, eggs, protein.” I feel his breath against my mouth. His thumbs brush my hips. A muscle low inside me twinges.
He has a point, but being intimidated by the male I tried to kill five days ago rankles.
“I can take care of myself.”
“Can you? Because last night you came home drenched in blood and barely able to stand.” His words have a growl underneath them, like he takes my injuries as a personal offense.
“I’ve had worse. I don’t need a bossy ancient vampire telling me what to do.”
His flat look tells me what he thinks of that. “You shouldn’t have invited me into your home, then, little slayer. My mate eats before she feeds anyone else.”
My mate.
The words make my skin prickle.
They kill any argument I was going to make.
They make me feel wanted.
“Satisfied?”
“All of it,” he grunts.
I shovel one final bite of eggs and bacon into my mouth and chew exaggeratedly. Marcus sprawls in a chair at my dining table, looking far too at home in my eat-in kitchen. I want to kick his chair, but that would be childish, so I settle for glaring at him.
He and his nine acres of bare skin are regrettably impervious to glaring.
His gaze is on my mouth, the way it has been for the entire meal. I can’t read him. He looks like a broody young Roman god in the moonlight.
“Why don’t you have a partner?”
I nearly choke on the egg. “Excuse me? Like a partner for hunting?”
He shakes his head. “A…man. Or woman. Husband. Boyfriend.” The last word sounds foreign coming from his mouth.
“I do fine on my own.” I shove back from the table and head for the sink.
“I know. But you could have one of the werewolves. Or a witch. I saw males watching you at the bar.” He doesn’t sound pleased about it.
I shrug. My shoulders are tight as I start scrubbing at the dish.
“Leah.” His hand closes around my wrist. I jump a foot in the air. Damn sneaky vampire. “I need to do the dishes.”
“Let me do them.”
“Fine.” I wipe my hands and turn. He’s given me a few inches of space, but still he stands too close. He’s far too male. Too much.
I take a deep breath that is shakier than I’d like. “I’m not certain I’ll make it back when I hunt. I can’t be a true partner to anyone. Not to a creature that keeps human hours, and not to anyone who wants kids. Not to anyone who could be killed by a vampire. They’ve followed me home before.”
He smirks and I make a face. “Not you.” My shoulders slump. “I don’t want to leave anyone alone.”
“Like you were left alone?”
My gaze jerks to his. “How did you know?”
He lifts one large shoulder. “I assumed. You seem self-sufficient.”
I nod. “I was alone for a few months before my great-aunt found me.”
“Little one, no.” His words are achingly gentle.
His hands close on my shoulders, run down my arms. He looks like he’s deciding how to react, uncertain, until he pulls me roughly against him. His arms are too tight and he holds me too fiercely.
“Am I doing this right?”
“Better than right,” I mumble. The tension eases out of me slowly. No one has done this for me. No one but Marcus, who should be my enemy.
I can’t get used to this.
What I feel for him is the furthest thing from hatred. It unfurls behind my ribs, tentatively, warm and sweet.
It’s dangerous, this thing inside me.
“Vampire.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you need to feed?”