Chapter 4
FOUR
Beckett’s slow smile told me he’d heard the abrupt lurch of my heart and the rapid increase of my pulse.
I was not afraid of darkness or the night.
Bathing in the moonlight in my backyard was one of my favorite things to do.
But tonight, with the malfunctioning streetlight casting a watery pale glow over Beckett, elongating his shadows and the angular planes of his face, I felt weak. Human.
Pissed.
I stopped and watched him, realizing that taking a few steps back to add some space between us would reveal my weakness even more.
“Hello, lovely Alex,” Beckett drawled.
He really was a handsome bastard, but I never went for blonds. And even if I did, I wouldn’t go for Beckett. There was a look in his eyes, the same look a lot of men had when they thought they had the upper hand.
We were outside in a parking lot, no other people around, and Beckett assumed I was vulnerable.
Nothing could be further from the truth, but I preferred not showing off magic when I could help it.
Green and hedgewitches might be considered low on the totem pole power-wise, but we all had our fair share of tricks.
And I was hiding more than my fair share. For good reason.
“Beckett. Can I help you?”
“Call me Beck, darling.” He smirked.
It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. There was only one blond man who could successfully make a smirk sexy, and James Dean was long dead. Plus, he wasn’t even a real blond, so my original point stood. I adjusted the bag on my shoulder and stared.
Beckett sighed and pushed off my car. “You turned me down. Why?”
I could rattle off a million excuses, but he’d catch me in a lie, and telling the truth would only antagonize him.
Only the best deceivers could successfully fool a vampire when telling an untruth.
Pesky things like a quickening heartbeat, your respiration rate, pupil contraction all happened in an instant when you lied, and a vamp would catch all of the signs.
With anyone else, I’d usually go with the false boyfriend excuse. When that didn’t work, I’d claim to be getting out of a long relationship. Other excuses included: I have to wash my hair, or I belong to a cult and they’re looking for a few good men like you.
But Beckett was the first vampire to show interest in me, and I couldn’t use any of those excuses.
He didn’t seem like the kind of guy you should piss off.
So I went for a kinder version of the truth, with just enough information to be true while still allowing me to leave with all my parts still intact. Hopefully.
“First, you obviously don’t like hedgewitches since the first thing you did when we met was make fun of me. Second, I don’t date.”
His eyebrows rose a hair. “Excuse me? You don’t date?”
“Nope.”
Beckett’s brow furrowed. He’d lost his edgy-cool-guy persona in his surprise. “Never?”
“Never.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “Mind if I ask why?”
“Yes.”
Beckett snorted. “Maybe you haven’t found the right man.”
Ugh. Of course, he’d say that. My temper brewed. “We can go back and forth, and you’ll say something like ‘I bet I can convince you,’ and I’ll politely demur, and you’ll push because that’s what you’ve been taught is acceptable.”
His eyes began to darken.
“How about we skip all that? You take no for an answer like a good man would and move so I can get into my car, and then we’ll part amicably.
No harm. No foul.” I gave him a bright smile.
“I’m a barista at a small coffee shop and a low-level hedgewitch.
We both know you’re not in this for the long haul. ”
Beckett opened his mouth, thought better of what he was going to say, then snapped it shut. A low chuckle slipped from his lips, and I realized I’d just made a terrible mistake.
In my efforts to reject him, I’d piqued his curiosity. Immortality had to get boring after a while, and there was nothing like a new and shiny blood-filled witch to keep life interesting. Unfortunately, I seemed to have become Beckett’s newest challenge.
He came closer. I swallowed hard and allowed myself to take a step back. Beckett reached a pale hand out and gently tugged a dark curl that had slipped from the low bun I’d tied my hair in during the afternoon rush.
“Maybe I wasn’t,” he admitted, his cool vampire breath washing over my face. “But now I’m curious to see what’s got you so tightly wrapped up.”
My pulse slammed against my chest.
“I’m going to unwrap you like a gift, pretty Alex.” He winked at me and disappeared in a gust of frigid, dark wind.
Fear trickled down my spine. My limbs were locked in place for a long moment, and when I could move again, I lunged for my vehicle and slipped inside, locking the doors behind me.
Inside the small cabin, I clutched the steering wheel, my breath coming in heaving rasps.
I sat there for several minutes, willing the fear to go away, and when I could focus on something other than Beckett’s parting words, I double-checked the locks and pulled out of the parking lot.
But when I lifted my gaze to the rearview mirror, a dark shadowy figure appeared where my car had just been and lifted a hand in farewell. Beckett could have taken me if he wanted to, but as I’d already suspected, he was the kind of vampire who liked to play with his food.
Foreboding made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I drove all the way home white-knuckling the steering wheel.