Bound by Night (Page 20)

“No.” It was true, for the moment.

“What are you going to do to me?”

He lifted one brow. “Do?”

She touched the side of her neck, her gaze on his face.

“Ah, that.” He sat beside her, an oath escaping his lips when she flinched.

“Are you going to . . . to . . . drink from me?”

“I already have.”

She blinked at him. “I don’t believe you. I would have known . . . wouldn’t I?”

“I took only a taste now and then, while you slept.”

Her eyes widened. “Am I going to become a vampire?”

“No.”

She sank back against the sofa cushions, relief evident in every line of her body. “How did you become a vampire?”

“I did not ‘become’ a vampire.” He looked at Elena. She was shivering. He glanced at the hearth. A thought touched the banked coals, bringing the fire to vibrant life. “Vampire.” The word rolled easily off his tongue. “It is what I am. What I have always been.”

Chapter 11

Elena stared at Drake, some of her fear receding as she considered what he had said. “But . . . I thought . . .” She had never heard of anyone being born a vampire. In books and movies, the only way to become one of the Undead was with a blood exchange. She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“We are not the monsters of myth and legend, but they do exist, although they are now few in number.”

“Have you ever met one?”

“Yes, years ago.”

“Do they live the way your people do?”

“No. We are enemies.”

“Why?”

“The Others are a more violent, more barbarous race. They tend to kill their prey and often each other. They have no clan loyalty, no sense of family or honor, no care for anyone but themselves. Centuries ago, the Others declared war on humanity. They killed men, women, and children without reason or mercy, threatening to expose us all. My father summoned the Master Vampires of the other Covens and they destroyed all of the Others they could find. It was a long and bloody battle, but it accomplished its purpose. The Others who survived changed their ways. They did not stop killing but they became more discreet.”

“More discreet?”

“They stopped leaving bodies in the street. They started preying on those who would not be missed—transients and the like. But the war continued. Each Coven vowed to continue to fight them, and to destroy any that they find.”

“Oh.” She blew out a sigh. “I’m glad I never met one of those. But tell me more about you, about your people.”

“We are a very old race, once hunted to near extinction by zealots and warrior-priests because we need blood to survive. We were accused of witchcraft, or of consorting with Satan, because, once we reach adulthood, the aging process slows as the need for blood becomes stronger.” Though he spoke to her, his gaze was on the flames. “Some give in to the burning need for blood immediately. Some fight it, but the pain of resisting is excruciating. Sooner or later, we all surrender to what is, for us, a basic need for survival. Once we have ingested human blood, three things occur—we are no longer capable of digesting mortal food, we can no longer abide the sun’s light, and we stop aging. The first year after we give in to the urge to drink, we must drink often. To resist can be fatal.”

It was a fantastic story, Elena thought, something one might read in an ancient book of fairy tales. She looked at him closely as a new thought popped into her head. “How old were you when you stopped aging?”

“Nearly thirty.”

She frowned, wondering how long he had fought the compulsion to drink blood.

“Vampires are considered mature at twenty.”

She marveled at his self-control. He had resisted the urge to feed for almost ten years. It was a long time to endure the kind of pain he had described, to fight against something that was a basic need. “How old are you?”

“Five centuries as of last month.”

The number was staggering. What would it be like to live that long? To never age? Never see the sun? Never consume anything but blood—no, that wasn’t true. He drank wine. How was that possible? Curious, she put the question to him.

“I can drink small amounts with no ill effects,” he replied, “as long as I feed beforehand.”

“What’s it like, to live such a long time?”

“It can be challenging. After a few hundred years, you have done everything, seen everything there is to see. For those who dislike change, the world can be a frightening place. Like mortals, our kind respond to the vicissitudes of life in a variety of ways. Some embrace them, some reject them, some choose to seek their own destruction. There are those who simply grow weary of living. They go to the Fortress and bury themselves in the ground.”

Buried alive? She choked back her nausea. She had always been afraid of small, dark places, couldn’t imagine anyone willingly entombing themselves in the ground.

Seeing the revulsion on her face, he said, “For us, it is a way to rest, to rejuvenate ourselves when we have lost the will to live.”

“Have you ever done that?”

“No.” His gaze caressed her face. “I must admit, I was considering it, until I met you.”

“So, the vampires of fiction are just that, fiction?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what, exactly?”

“The vampires of legend, Nosferatu, also exist, but in very small numbers. I have never met one.”

“Where did they come from?”

“Some believe a fallen angel found one of our kind thousands of years ago. The vampire was dying of injuries inflicted by another of our kind when the angel found him. With his last breath, the vampire bit the angel. The angel died. The vampire was reborn as Nosferatu.”

It was too much, Elena thought. Vampires who were made. Vampires who were born that way. It was all too bizarre to consider, too impossible to be real. She pressed her hands to her temples. She could feel a headache coming on, no doubt caused by the fact that Drake’s revelations had turned her world inside out and upside down.

“Elena, look at me.”

Though reluctant, she did as bidden.

His gaze captured hers as he placed his hands gently over her own. She stared into his eyes, deep, dark, fathomless eyes that seemed to draw her in until she saw nothing else. Gradually, the throbbing in her head disappeared. The tension drained out of her body, leaving her feeling warm and tranquil.