Page 42 of Dark Embrace
Killian clenched his jaw against the need to bare his teeth and posture andgrowl.
After a long pause, he said, “You are mastering the need,aswell.”
She laughed, a light, tinkling sound. “I have been vampire for over a thousand years. Age makes me wise and cautious—” her lashes swept low “—and able to control myself.” She raised her gaze and met his own. “But you…you are able to do what most your age cannot. You are able to use intellect to masterinstinct.”
Barely, but he did not say so. Instead, he said, “Why does instinct urge me to mark my territory, to chase you off or kill you?” Even saying the words out loud made a surge of territorial rage swell. He thought of the knowledge this creature surely possessed and held that thought as a way to control the animal need that clawed at him as surely as the hunger ever had. She had walked the Earth for more than a millennium. There was much she couldtellhim.
“We are predators,” she said, moving her hand to encompass their surroundings. “Predators feed on the prey at hand. There is only so much prey available, and we are a territorial lot, guarding our sustenance. Did your maker notteachyou?”
“How could he teach me? Would he not succumb to the urge tokillme?”
“A maker and his progeny are not subject to the territorial instinct. They can live together, hunt together, be together. It is the only chance for long term companionship for our kind.” She sounded sad as she said the last and Killian wondered if she had made a companion, if her efforts had been successful. His one attempt certainlyhadnot.
“My maker turned me and walked into the sun,”hesaid.
Her eyes widened a fraction. “It surprises me that yousurvived.”
“In the beginning, I surprised myself.” He paused. “I havequestions.”
She nodded and reached for the ornate necklace at her throat. With a twist of her wrist, she freed what appeared to be a tiny dagger. She used it to nick herwrist.
Killian stared at theblood.
She laughed, low and throaty, then put her wrist to his lips. “Sip lightly, friend. It will quell the urge to kill me foratime.”
He did as she bid, her blood strange in his mouth. It neither slaked nor stoked his hunger, but the taste was familiar. It tasted like the monster’s blood that hadmadehim.
She pulled herwristaway.
“Come,” she said. “We will feed and then we will talk and then we will go ourseparateways.”
16
The dark-haired constableturned to Mr. Simon and asked, “Is there a place we can have this discussion without anaudience?”
Mr. Simon bade the matron take them to his office whereupon began an interplay that Sarah might have found comedic were her nerves not drawn so taut. Mr. Thayne gestured for the constables to precede him, and they gestured for him to precede them, and then the dark-haired one gestured for the bewhiskered red-haired constable to go first. He demurred and then took a step forward, only to tread on his companion’s foot as he, too, tookastep.
Sarah caught Killian’s eye. He lifted his brows but made nocomment.
Finally, the dark-haired constable followed the matron with Killian behind him. Sarah made to follow, but the red-haired constable stopped her. He drew her off to one side and asked her to repeat again her assertions as to Killian’s whereabouts the previous night. There was a shrewdness in his gaze that made Sarah think that the entire bumbling episode had been performed with the intent of creating in her a false senseofease.
She was most definitely notatease.
The constable asked her again about Killian’s whereabouts, the question worded in a different manner, a challenge to the veracity of her words. She sighed and answered him, keeping every response to a single word if possible, a handful of words at most. And she did not alter her account, though the constable’s mien went from shrewd to combative to leering. His questions grew increasingly more personal, his tone increasingly moreaggressive.
When it was done and over with more than an hour had passed, and she was left standing alone in the hallway. She took a moment to gather herself and then walked into the ward intent on resuming herduties.
There, with sneering antipathy, Mr. Simon confronted her before all and dismissed her fromherpost.
“You are no longer employed at King’s College,” he said. “You will receive no recommendation from anyone at this hospital. Your conduct is unbecoming and reprehensible. You will leave the premisesimmediately.”
She had expected exactly this, yet itstillhurt.
She looked neither right nor left as she walked from the ward into the corridor. She had taken only a handful of steps when someone caught her hand. Elinor stood atherside.
“If you need me,” she said, “come to the front doors at end of shift. Wait for me outside. Or come in the morning before shift. I don’t have much, but what I have I’m happy toshare.”
Sarah blinked against the tears that pricked her lids. She wrapped her arms around Elinor’s shoulders for a quick hug and dredged up a smile meant to reassure. “I’ll be fine. You’d best get back before they decide to dismiss you as well just for speakingwithme.”