Page 70 of Burn Falls

Calla bit her lip, and I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and kiss her instead of telling her I could be as old as her grandfather’s father. “Sweets, just sit down, and I’ll continue telling you everything you want to know.”

She turned and moved to her couch. The night before the sofa had been used for something entirely different. Never had I’d imagined that after the night we shared, I’d be telling her that I was a vampire. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

“Please don’t freak out.”

“Draven, I think we’re beyond the point of freaking out. I’m just trying to process everything. All the lies—”

“I only lied to you about my last name and the fact that I’m immortal.”

“Don’t you think those are important details?” She stared into my dark eyes, searching for answers.

I shrugged. “It’s not like I go around telling people.”

“Who all knows?”

“Martin and Marcy.”

“That’s it?”

I nodded. “That’s it. Well, and now you.”

Calla sighed. “All right. Tell me how old you are.”

“One-hundred and fourteen.”

She bolted off the couch and gasped. “What?”

“I was born in 1904.”

Calla started to pace. “I think I’m going to pass out again.”

I stood and moved to her. “Just sit down and take a few deep breaths.” She allowed me to move her back to the couch and we sat side by side.

“Are you really a doctor?”

“Of course I am.”

Her eyes widened as though she’d had an epiphany. “You can’t go in the sun.”

I shook my head.

“I always wondered why you worked the night shift and now it makes sense. Plus, not being able to fly here until ten at night.”

“Exactly.”

“And having to leave early this morning before the sun rose,” she went on.

I smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t want to leave.”

She returned my smile, and then we were silent again. I envisioned the wheels in her head turning. After a good minute or so she asked, “How do vampires turn humans, and why aren’t there more of your kind?”

“We have to drain them of most of their blood and then let them drink our blood so it mixes together. Once they feed on human blood, the transition is complete.”

“Like Ambrogio and Selene,” she whispered.

“More or less. It’s Ambrogio and Selene’s blood in me that causes humans to turn.”

Calla gasped. “You could have saved my father!”