Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (9 page)

“Ashamed to be seen with a vampire?” he mused.

“No.
I was thinking of your reputation.
If you hadn’t noticed, not many people like me.
The ones who do are either the few friends I have, my family, or those trying to get in my pants.
But enough about me,” I said and smiled wide; I just couldn’t find a damn topic that didn’t make me uncomfortable.
“So you’re a vampire?”

Tanis rolled his eyes but nodded.

“And you eat human food?” I pressed.

“Is this going to be a Q and A thing?” he asked, sounding slightly amused, slightly apprehensive, but mainly cautious.

“Yes,” I sang and batted my lashes at him.

“I will only answer your question if you answer one of mine in return,” he countered.

Damn it...that sucks!
But I
’
m curious.
What’s the worst he could ask?

“Deal,” I said.

Tanis smiled wide, his sexy
eyes
beaming with excitement.
“I can eat
human f
ood
, however,
not all of us can,” he explained.
“That is why me complexion is darker than the others. The nutrients from the food help to maintain me body, keeping it more humanlike...more human than most
,
me mum says.
It also keeps me body temperature warmer than theirs; I am not as warm as you
,
but warmer than the others...it is
caused by the slowed
circulation,” he explained before I could ask, and
he
pressed the back of his hand against my cheek.

I fought to keep from moaning; the temperature was comparable to walking in the rain in the summer, the sensation that the warm wind caressing your skin causes to roll up your spine...I liked it much more than I should have.
Most noticeable wasn’t the temperature of his skin, rather
,
it was the softness of it; it was like refreshingly cool cashmere.

“I suppose the human diet speeds up me circulation more,” he said with a shrug, pulling me from the perverse fantasies that were starting to drift into my head.
“That is why you were able to bloody me lip so easily when we were playing football.”

“I’m sorry about,” I apologized again but my words came out as a timid whisper.

He lowered his hand and I fought the whimper of disappointment
building
in my throat.

“No worries,” Tanis said.
“Believe it or not, vampires are not hard as stone, and some of us are rather soft and squishy,” he teased and I giggled.
“So, my turn,” he teasingly sang and smirked when I groaned.

Uh oh...I don’t like the expression on his face.

“Why are you here?” he asked.
“Not on earth.
Not in Washington.
But
here
, and more specifically, with me.
You know that I am a vampire, and you know what m
y
main diet consists of, and yet you are here with me.
Alone.
Why?”

“Hmm…” I said and pretended to think about it.
The answer was so simple...so simple in fact that it was embarrassing.
“I’m not scared of you, if that’s what you’re asking,” I blurted out as I scrambled to find an answer that wasn’t a complete lie but wasn’t as pathetically embarrassing as the truth-truth.

Tanis
looked over at me and cocked an eyebrow.

“I could totally kick your ass if it came down to it,” I smugly informed him.

That was it,
he
laughed.

“Thought you’d like that,” I mumbled.
“Do you promise not to laugh?”

“I promise.”

Dignity was going out the window.

“As strange, and unbelievable, as this is for me to say,” I said softly, studying my hands, “I trust you.
I think it has to do with the way you look at me.”

Tanis swallowed loudly.
“What do you mean?
How do I look at you?”

I smiled despite myself.
“You don’t look at me
as if I’m dinner, if that’s what you’re wondering,” I teased and he
shook his head
.
“Honestly, you don’t look at me
like everyone else does.
Yahto and my family look at me as if I’m a delicate doll or something.
Everyone else looks at me as if I am an outsider, an abomination who shouldn’t be allowed to live.
And the men look at me perversely.
You, however, don’t.
Is it because I’m not like you?
Because you don’t find me attractive?
Because you’re gay?” I shrugged and he softly snorted.
“Either way, it’s nice and a much welcomed change.”

“I am not gay,” he assured me.

“Didn’t think you were,” I informed him.
“You look at my boobs too much to be gay.” I winked when he blushed.
“My turn!
Why did you move here?”

Tanis ran his hand through his hair and looked out the windshield more intently than needed.
“Because of me sister,” he answered quietly.
“Vampires have to maintain an inconspicuous lifestyle
, obviously
.
Even with modern society’s
fascination with vampires and the mythical world, and their overly active imaginations and seeming acceptance of vampires…what they perceive and have insultingly coined
vampires
…there is still an unspoken law of our kind that demands our existence remain in the shadows and out of the perceptions of humans.”
He sighed, shaking his head; obviously
that
was the wrong conversation to bring up.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You don’t have to tell me…you can use a lifeline if you want!” I assured him with a face-consuming, completely fabricated, smile.

Tanis looked over at me from the corner of his eye and chuckled once
,
humorlessly.
“I will reserve my lifeline for another time,” he informed me with another chuckle, a genuine one.
“Our coven is more inconspicuous than
most
because we do not actively hunt humans…feed on them to the point of death,” he explained when I gasped.
“We stroll... While we were in Paris, Georgiana got a little carried away at a party and ended up draining four people; one was a politician’s daughter.
Needless to say, because of that clanger we had to leave in a hurry.”

Holy shit!

That wasn’t what I was expecting to hear.

Huh, and here I was under the delusion that vampires aren’t as bad as Hollywood
, the elders,
and history has made them out to be.

Oops, my bad.

“Oh,” was all I could say, and even that was nearly impossible to articulate.

“Are you scared now?” he asked quietly, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.

“No.”

“Liar,” he said and sighed.
“I am not like me sister.
Ho
nestly, I cannot stand her and
have tried to stake her more times than I can remember.
Vampires are every bit as terrifying as you were led to believe.
However, some of us are different from the others.
I will not hurt you, I
promise you
!
I have not taken a human life from feeding in
over
two hundred years.”

That’s good to know.

“How old are you?” I asked.

Tanis wagged his finger at me in a scolding manner.
“It is not your turn, cheeky bird.”

“Whate
ver,” I huffed,
rolling
my eyes and
pouted, causing
him to laugh.

He slowed the SUV and
pulled into a parking spot
that had just opened up in the front o
f a nice restaurant, cutting off another vehicle.

“Wait, why are you stopping?” I dema
nded in a panic, looking around and fought to keep from snarling when the driver of the car Tanis cut off started to get out of his
vehicle
.

I will rip your throat out if you lay on finger on him
, I silently growled.

“We are having dinner,”
Tanis
reminded me—tone noted—and apparently
he
wasn’t at all concerned by the potential human drama he caused
with his European styled
James Bond parking
stunt
.

“But
I can’t afford this!” I argued, my eyes going between him and the pissed off man fast approaching
from
behind us
.

Did he not hear me when I said McDonalds?

Tanis rolled his eyes
and
got out o
f the SUV.

“Hey!” the other driver yelled. “You cut me off!”

Tanis looked over at him and cocked an eyebr
ow, his top lip snarling upward, revealing his small, white fangs,
and the man, who was easily six inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier, paled considerably and
immediately started backing
away from him.
Tanis
continued to glare at him, a soft snarl of a growl rolling from the base of his throat until t
he car peeled out and sped away, running
three red lights in the process.

“Bloody wanker,” Tanis hissed under his breath.

That was interesting and kind of hot.

He then opened the door for me, once the apparent danger had passed
,
and a warm smile filled his face.
“I am taking you to dinner and I do n
ot do fast food,” he smugly informed me
.

I continued to sit there with my arms crossed ov
er my chest and chin jutted out; I rather deal with the pissed off giant whose spot we took then deal with the smug vampire looking at me.

Tanis may not do fast food but I
don’t
let people pay for me.

“I will throw you over me shoulder and carry you in there like a pouting nipper,” he warned.

Unfortunately, I knew he was serious and would do just that.

I huffed and got out of the SUV, causing him to laugh.

“There’s no way we’re going to get a table,” I amusingly informed him, eying the line inside.

Thank god! One awkward situation and argument avoided.

“
Miss
Jay Dee, it
shall
not be a problem,” he smugly
informed
me.

Tanis held the door open for me and waved me inside.
I wasn’t dressed for a place like that.
Hell, I still had axel grease under my nails!
But the annoying vampire testing my
patience was oblivious to it.

“I shall return momentarily,” he said and winked at me
,
then headed towards the hostess.

“Jackass,” I mumbled and he chuckled under his breath; obviously his vampiric hearing was better than I thought it was.

Tanis leaned over the podium and the hostes
s gazed longingly into his eyes and her mouth fell open slightly but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

What in the hell?
Ew, flirting much?

After a minute, Ta
nis looked over his shoulder
and motioned for me to join him.
To my surprise, we were escorted to a private table in the back of the crowded restaurant
which
was quiet, secluded
,
and really romantic.

Either he’s going to kill me or seduce me...please be the kill me thing.
I don’t think I could resist him if he actually made an effort to seduce me
!
Ooh, that is so, so bad.
I can’t believe I just said that!
Huh.
Do I want to be seduced by a vampire?
Actually, Tanis isn’t
vampirey at all...then again, what is?
Should he be faster than a speeding bullet, sound the like Count from Sesame Street, and be cold as ice and sparkly?
Ugh!
If he was any of those things I would have kneed him in the balls for taking my seat in Creative Writing before siccing the boys on him.
Damn it, I’m so out of my element right now but the seducing thing could be interesting.

Stop thinking about Tanis seducing you!
I mentally scolded over and over but it d
id very little to alleviate my nerves
.