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Leslie took a few more sips, and the energy sang through her whole body. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slaked twice in a day. It felt good. Really good. “Wow. If I let myself slake multiple times a day for too long, I might end up like Tai.”

Ryker set his glass down, and he met her eyes with a laser focus. “No. You wouldn’t. I wouldn’t either.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think before I said it.” She traced the rim of her glass with one finger, then met his eyes again. “I don’t like the way they put you in the middle, but I just did it myself.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “After he left the gym, Tai texted me. Now that he’s met you, he gave me permission to…um, elaborate. A little. If you brought it up.”

“He told you to tell me about his private life?”

“He doesn’t want to have the conversation with you, but you might need to know at some point when there’s not time to explain.”

If Tai had given permission… She couldn’t deny her curiosity toward a vampire whose experience was so different from her own. Asking questions felt wrong, though. She took another sip while Ryker drained the rest of his glass.

“So,” he said, then stared at his empty glass for a long moment before continuing. “For Tai, the rush of slaking is only part of the battle. There’s also the thirst.”

She nodded encouragement when he hesitated.

“Okay, for example… When I picked you up yesterday after not slaking for twenty-eight hours, the thirst sort of clobbered me. My throat started aching and I couldn’t talk.”

She nodded. She’d never experienced what she’d seen happen to Ryker last night, but she’d also never forgotten to slake for four hours past her usual schedule.

“For Tai, the thirst is like…ten times stronger than that. If he had to last twenty-eight hours without slaking, his fangs would descend, and he’d be dangerous.”

Wait. What? “Dangerous—you mean to humans?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh my gosh, Ryker.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the thing I might need to know. Without time to explain.”

“Look, he’s extremely responsible about this, Leslie. There’s never been a situation like that since I’ve known him. He gave me permission to tell you out of the overabundance of caution that is how Tai lives his life.”

His reassurance quelled the worried visions that had begun filling her head. Still, though… “I thought vampires slaking from humans was like our bite ‘turning’ them. You know, pure Hollywood. I thought it wasn’t something we did—ever, at any time for any reason.”

“We don’t now. Previous eras were different, until it became a major taboo and then, eventually, a crime.”

Of course, Leslie knew some humans spun conspiracies about the topic—take the creepy guy from college study group as only one example. But some humans also denied that wolves, whom they calledlupinesdespite wolves’ distaste for the term, even existed. And Ryker wasn’t describing this in human conspiracy terms. Clearly, typical vampires knew about this dark practice in their past; so here was one more thing her parents hadn’t taught her.

Leslie sipped from her glass and imagined herself so driven by thirst that she would threaten to drink this very sustenance fromthe vein of a helpless human. She imagined not merely enjoying the taste and the energy but craving it, controlled by the need for it.

The idea was terrifying.

“So…if Tai has never actually threatened anybody…he can live here. In a city surrounded by humans.”

“He has contingency plans with their own contingency plans. I don’t think for a minute that he’ll ever hurt anybody.”

She shook her head. “I can’t reconcile it in my head—all of this with the man I met this morning. He was so calm, Ryker. Not a mask of calm but the real thing.”

“No, that was real. He had a good time with us.”

“I felt that.”

Ryker nodded. “On the other hand, his self-control is…intense. Mentally, he’s the strongest person I’ve ever met in my life.”

“And this is what he wanted you to tell me—so I wouldn’t worry about this when we get together?”