The Raven (The Florentine #1)(55)
Author: Sylvain Reynard

He seemed offended. “Of course not. It’s wine.”

She sniffed the liquid before draining it. The wine was good but she barely tasted it. She closed her eyes as she willed the alcohol to give her strength.

“I thought vampyres were supposed to be cold.” She handed him the glass and he placed it on the desk. “Your skin is cooler than mine, but I wouldn’t call it cold.”

“Some of our mythology was propagated by our enemies. Some we circulated, hoping to confuse them.”

“I can’t imagine Bram Stoker as someone’s enemy.”

“Probably because he was a paid propagandist.”

Raven peered at his mouth.

“You don’t have fangs.”

William frowned. “Our teeth are sharp enough, I assure you.”

“So you have enemies?”

“Every predator is prey to something.”

“What would prey on you?”

“Not what—whom. And that is a story for a different day.” He appeared impatient.

“You look human.”

“I was human once. My body has been perfected. I’m faster, stronger, and I don’t age. I still feed and breathe but can go a long time without air. As you saw, I heal quickly.”

She lifted her hands before dropping them to her lap. “How can this be?”

“Your mistake is in assuming that the supernatural springs into existence uncaused. It doesn’t. It obeys certain rules; it follows certain patterns. In summary, a vampyre’s supernatural properties come from the darkness.”

She rubbed at her eyes. “Metaphorical explanations are useless. If you aren’t human, why do you look human? Why don’t you have a different kind of body?”

“Why do the elements of the Eucharist retain their physical properties after transubstantiation in the Mass?” Once again William sounded impatient.

Raven made a face.

“They didn’t quite cover the transubstantiation from human to vampyre in my catechism class, but perhaps my parish was conservative.”

William’s features softened into a smile.

He chuckled.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed.” He gave her an admiring look.

Raven tried very hard not to roll her eyes. Then something perilous, something terrible, occurred to her.

She regarded him with a worried expression. “If you gave me vampyre blood, does that mean I’ll become a vampyre, too?”

“Not from that, no. The blood I gave you was harvested from two vampyres who are no longer alive. You have to be changed by a living vampyre in order to become one.”

“I thought vampyres were supposed to be immortal.”

“Not quite.”

“How can they be killed?”

William’s smile disappeared. “We don’t discuss those things.”

“The man who approached me last night—he mentioned the term masters. What was he talking about?”

William muttered something under his breath.

“You still have vampyre blood in your system. Max must have assumed you’d been kept by two vampyres as a pet and they’d let you feed from them as a reward.”

“That doesn’t sound rewarding.” Her lip curled in disgust.

“It is when you’re dying.” He spoke sharply. “Vampyre blood reverses the aging process and modifies nature, which is why it changed your appearance and healed your head injury.

“Your leg injury is obviously old, which is why it’s coming back. The older the injury, the greater the amount of blood it takes to heal it, but the less permanent the change. How did you break your leg?”

“That’s a story for a different day.” Raven directed her own sharp tone toward him before focusing on her hands, which were clenched in her lap. “So my leg will be like it was before?”

“Yes. In order to heal your leg permanently, you’d have to become a vampyre. But you could heal it temporarily by continuing to ingest vampyre blood.”

His expression changed. He seemed thoughtful, searching.

Raven felt more than a tinge of regret. She’d enjoyed the changes to her appearance. She enjoyed being pretty and thin. Most important, she enjoyed having a functional leg that worked properly and without pain.

She enjoyed it so much she was almost ready to ask William to give her whatever it would take to heal her.

The realization made her cold.

“What happened to the man who attacked Bruno?”

“Maximilian is not a man. And nothing happened to him. No doubt he’s resting privately. Vampyres can’t survive in the sun.”

“But you can. You stood in the sun when you came to my room.”

William leaned forward at the waist and dropped his voice.

“That is an exception you’d best forget.”

She turned her head to the side, avoiding his eyes.

“And Bruno? How is he?” she persisted.

“There’s no change in his condition. The doctors don’t know if he’ll recover.”

“I want to see him.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave. It’s for your protection.”

Raven stood, panicking.

“But I have to go home. I have to see Bruno.”

William glared at her.

“I asked you repeatedly to leave the city. You refused. I warned you that you would come to me for help. And here you are.”

“You brought me here!”

“To save your life.” He crossed to her in two long strides. “Again and again, I offered help and you spurned it. You could have left the city, but you didn’t.”

“It would have been irrational for me to leave on the advice of a stranger who broke into my apartment.”

“My warnings were given in good faith. You ignored them. Now you’ve come to the attention of two of my associates. Ergo, you have entered my world whether you realize it or not.”

“What does that mean?”

He straightened proudly. “It means, Jane, that I shall offer you my protection. In return, you’ll give me what I want.”

“What’s that?”

William gave her a sensual look.

“You.”

Chapter Twenty-five

“Excuse me?” Raven wasn’t sure she’d heard what she thought she’d heard.

William’s expression left no ambiguity, as his eyes traveled the length of her body.

“I warned you that I would exact a price. The price is you. You’ll be safe living here. If you wish, I can continue administering blood so your leg will remain sound.