Page 35 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Tuesday

“Going somewhere?” Callum asked. He smiled like that wasn’t the creepiest thing a man had ever said to me.

“No,” I said. The lie tumbled out of me. Even though I was standing at a train station with a ticket in my hand.

“Hm.” He stepped closer, his face disappearing and reappearing in the flickering light. “It really looks like you’re about to hop on a train and skip town. Why?”

Was he kidding me right now? “How did you even know I was here?”

“I think you know.” He stopped right in front of me.

“No, I don’t know.”

His eyes dropped to my hand. The one that was still holding the bloody tissues.

I swallowed hard. Oh my God. He smelled my blood.

“You’re trembling,” he said. “Even though I already told you I’d never hurt you. That is…unless you ask me to.”

I swear his eyes grew a shade darker. “You…you’re a…” I couldn’t even get the words out.

“Emma.” He reached out to touch my bloody hand but I took a step back.

“Show me your arm,” I said.

His eyebrows lowered .

“Show me your arm, Callum. Your left one. Right here.” I pointed to my elbow, where Bennett swore Callum would have a scar.

He didn’t move. “Did Bennett do that to you?” He nodded toward my hand. “Because this is the second time he’s hurt you, Emma. Yet you’re scared of me?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like? Because this morning we were on the same page. And then suddenly we weren’t. What has he been whispering in your ear?” He drew a fraction of an inch closer, so that he was the one whispering in my ear. “Tell me.”

“He told me his secret.” It fell out of me, and I didn’t even mean for it to.

It was like Callum was controlling me. Even though I knew he didn’t possess the pocket watch anymore.

Or maybe I just needed to talk about this with someone.

Bennett said that Callum knew. That I’d be able to speak openly about everything to him.

“Which one? That he’s an art thief?” Callum’s breath was cold on the side of my neck.

“No. The other one.” All I could focus on was his breath. And how easily he could bite down on my flesh.

“A bank robber?”

God, Bennett had a lot of secrets. “The other one. The big one.” Honestly all three of them were big red flags.

“Ah. That he’s not even human?” He said it so casually. Without even coughing.

“That’s why you warned me about him, right? Because you knew what he was? ”

“I warned you because he can’t control himself. And I didn’t want him to hurt you. Because you’re mine.”

I hated that his words made me melt closer to him. Why was I still standing here? Callum was just as much of a monster as Bennett. “Show me your arm,” I said again.

He moved so that his gold eyes were boring into mine.

I was pretty sure that was worse than when his lips were by my neck. I didn’t know how to be scared of him when he was looking at me like that. I took a deep breath. “Show me now.”

“You want me to strip right here? Right by the tracks? Your train could arrive any minute.”

Yeah, but the train wasn’t here yet. And we were all alone. “Yes.”

“The autumn air is a little crisp, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think the cold bothers you.” I was done playing games with him. He’d flat out told me he wasn’t a vampire. He was a liar. And an asshole. A gorgeous, annoying asshole.

He lowered his eyebrows. “How about we just go back to my place?”

If he wanted to stuff me in one of his freezers, he was going to have to work for it. I wasn’t going to come willingly. “No. Take it off. Now.”

“I’m used to people listening to me,” he said as he pulled off his jacket. He set it down on the bench. “But I kind of like this stubborn side of you.” He slowly unbuttoned his dress shirt.

Okay, his eyes weren’t the most distracting thing about him. His perfect six-pack was .

He stopped and stared at me after he finished unbuttoning it.

“Take it off.”

He sighed and shrugged his shirt off his shoulders. He tossed it to me like this was some kind of playful striptease. It wasn’t. I was trying to figure out if he’d been burned by a pen that sought out demon spawn.

I stared at his elbow. The light flickered again. And for a second I thought there was nothing there. That Bennett was just lying about this too. But when the light flickered back on I could see the scar. A small circle. Right above Callum’s left elbow.

I looked back up at him. “You said the pen didn’t burn you.”

“Well, I lied.”

My heart started racing. “What happened to last night? Our fresh start? It was just like you said…we were on the same page.”

“You’re asking the wrong question.”

I just stared at him.

“Ask me why I lied about the pen.”

“Wh…why?” My voice trembled.

“Because I don’t want you to look at me like that. Like you’re scared of me. Like I’m a monster.”

“But you are one.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Stop lying! I know you’re a vampire! Or a werecat! Or something awful.”

He winced. Like my words truly bothered him. But how could they? They were the truth.

I turned to look down the tracks when I heard a train honking in the distance. I could see it’s lights on the tracks. My way out .

“Emma.” He closed the distance between us again. “I didn’t lie. You asked me if I was a monster and I told you I wasn’t. Because I’m not.”

“So you’re not a vampire?”

He pressed his lips together.

“Just answer me, Callum.”

“I told you I was a bad man. That the night we were together changed me. I wanted to be better for you…”

“That’s not answering my question!”

The train was drawing closer. The squeal of brakes filled the silence as it approached the terminal.

“I was a monster when we met,” Callum said. “But I’m not now. Because of you. I told you that last night.”

He still wasn’t answering my question. He was trying to twist everything in my head by being romantic and charming. But I wouldn’t let him fool me so easily. He couldn’t just turn off being a monster. “What are you, Callum?”

“Unlike Bennett and his friends, I know how to control my temptations. I won’t hurt you. I’m controlling myself right now. You’re bleeding. And I’m just talking to you. Isn’t that proof enough that I’m not a monster?”

It was. And yet…it also wasn’t. “So you are a vampire?”

The train pulled to a stop. The cold night air was suddenly filled with the warmth from the tracks. I wanted to run toward the train and out of this town. But I was frozen. “Callum.”

He pressed his lips together.

“All aboard!” the conductor yelled. But I stayed firmly rooted in place.

“Are you a vampire? ”

Callum lowered his eyebrows again. He looked perfectly brooding and sexy. And I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Yes.” His voice was barely a whisper.

I just stared at him.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m one of the good ones, Emma.”

He’d finally admitted it and I wanted him to take it back. I wanted him to take it all back. Callum was supposed to be my dream man. But he wasn’t even human. I’d fallen for the villain. No wonder he kept breaking my heart. That’s what villains did.

He reached out and touched my cheek, his fingers stopping my tears. “Don’t get on that train. Please just stay. Let me explain. I will never hurt you. I swear, Emma. And I’ll never let anyone else hurt you either. You’re safe with me.”

I did feel safe with him. I knew it was stupid. But I did. I always had.

“Are you two coming?” the conductor yelled over to us.

“Tell him no.” Callum’s hand slid to the side of my neck. “Let me show you that you don’t have to be scared of me. Let me prove it to you.”

How was he going to prove it to me? I thought about last night when we were under the moonlight. He hadn’t hurt me then. I’d felt so alive. I wanted that again. I wanted him again.

I shook my head.

Callum’s face fell.

But then I turned to the conductor and shook my head again. “No, we’re staying.” Every part of me was screaming at me to go. Except my heart. My heart was with Callum. It had been for ten years. And I couldn’t keep running. He’d just keep haunting me.

The train started chugging away.

Callum and I both stared at each other.

“So you…” my voice trailed off. “You’re really a vampire?”

He nodded.

“Do you kill people?”

He shook his head. “No. Not anymore. I mostly drink animal blood.”

“Mostly?”

“And occasionally I may raid a blood blank. On a bad day.” He cracked a smile like it was a funny joke.

“So that’s why you knew where I was? You could smell the cut on my hand?”

“Blood is sweet.” He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “Yours is so fucking sweet.” He opened his eyes and stared at me again. “Like a moth to a flame. Even though it’ll hurt. Because it fucking hurts when I give in to it. It kills me, Emma. I don’t want to be that man.”

I believed he didn’t want to be that man. But…he was. He’d hurt me without meaning to and then feel bad about it. But I’d be dead.

“Don’t be scared, baby.”

“How am I supposed to not be scared when you say something like that? How am I supposed to believe you’ll be able to control yourself and not hurt me?”

“Because I told you I wouldn’t. And I’m a man of my word.”

“A man of your word? I don’t think upstanding citizens have one night stands without using a condom and then ghost the person for ten years. I was so worried I was pregnant. Or had a million STDs.”

“In my defense, when that happened I wasn’t originally planning on letting you live.”

I stared at him in horror.

“I told you I was leaving town. It was my last night on campus. I was…indulging.”

“There was a newspaper article about a missing girl. From that night. That was…that was you, wasn’t it?”

He just stared at me.

“Did you fuck her too?”

“Yes. No.” He shook his head. “No, I didn’t have sex with her. But yes…I…that was me.”

“And I was supposed to be next?”

He nodded.

How many times had I been so close to death since meeting him? “But you didn’t go through with it.”

“I didn’t expect the other parts of our encounter to feel so good.” He stepped forward, caging me against the wall. “I didn’t expect you to feel so good.”

“So you wanted to bang me more than you wanted to drink my blood?”

He nodded. “Normally encounters like that wouldn’t go so far. Blood…excites me.” His eyes trailed down my body.

And for some reason, his words excited me. His eyes on me did too. I knew I was sick in the head. There was definitely something wrong with me. “Blood excites you…in a sexual way?”

“In every way. Do you remember when I bit your finger that first night?” He reached out, trailing his fingers down my wrist .

His cold touch made me shiver. “I remember.” I remembered that night perfectly. I’d been dreaming of it for years. He’d sucked my juices off my fingers and then bit down. I thought he’d accidentally bitten my finger too hard. But…he’d done it on purpose. He’d wanted to taste my blood.

“That should have been my undoing. One taste and I should have been a goner. But I wanted you around my cock instead. I needed to feel you. I just…I wanted more.”

My heart was racing as he leaned in closer.

“So that’s my proof. Ten years ago I barely had any control.

And I controlled myself around you then.

After tasting you.” He leaned closer, his cold breath against my lips.

“You were so fucking sweet. I keep dreaming about tasting you again. And I wake up so hard. You have no idea how many times I’ve had to fuck my hand in the morning dreaming of you. ”

Jesus.

“But I controlled myself then. And I can control myself now.”

“Then show me.” I wasn’t sure why I said it. I wasn’t even sure what I meant.

“I am. Just by standing here.”

“You almost snapped in the hay maze when you smelled blood.”

“I didn’t kill anyone…”

“I know it wasn’t you. But you smelled the blood. That’s why you went into the maze, right? And then you ran into me. I saw you stare at my neck. You said you tried to warn me. You were going to kill me.”

He licked his lips. “I wouldn’t have. I would have calmed down.” He shook his head. “I did calm down. ”

“Only when Bennett showed up.”

“I wouldn’t have hurt you. I wouldn’t have.”

“If you can control it, you should be able to taste me again and not want more.”

“Emma…”

I pulled the tissues off my hand. I knew I was insane. I’d lost my mind ten years ago when I’d stripped for him. When I felt his cold cock inside of me. I was obsessed. Or maybe possessed. “Taste me and prove it.”

His Adam’s apple rose and then fell.