Page 120 of Dark Flame

Her chest visibly decompresses, giving me a better peek down the opening of my shirt. “Good. Now, answer the question.”

“Royalty in vampire communities is slightly different from human monarchies. We don’t follow laws like mortals do, but someone needs to have some authority over the others in case they slip up, like go on a rampage and destroy cities. Essentially, I put fear into others.”

“How do you become a king?”

“You take the role, of course.”

“Which means anyone can challenge you for it and become the next one?”

It’s happened in the past, but they didn’t succeed. “They’d have to beat me, but yes.”

“And there’s multiple?”

“I monitor the North American vampires. Europe has its own leader. Australia. Russia. We take territories to not only rule over, but to protect.”

She nods, seemingly digesting it all. “Your turn.”

I ask the first thing that comes to mind. The thing that’s been on my mind since the moment I ran her back to my bedroom and fucked the mate bond into her. “I thought you were homeschooled.”

“I was.”

My hands clench her thighs, imprinting my touch and erasing all those who came before me. “Give me the names of the mortals who’ve ever touched you. You weren’t a virgin.”

She laughs loud enough that half the house could hear her if they were still awake. “A jealous vampire. Charming.”

“You think I’m joking?” I slide her closer, fingering the collar of my shirt, tempted to rip it from her and show her hownotjoking I am. “You have no fucking idea how pissed I was to realize someone touched you before me. So who’s the mortal whose head I’ll be placing on a spike in my office for touching my mate?”

She laughs again, a tear sliding from her eye that she wipes away, only for another to follow. Only amusement comes through the bond, so I don’t believe they’re tears of sadness.

“I was homeschooled, but not a nun. There were two before you. When I was seventeen, I lost my virginity to my next-door neighbour. Arthur and Violet were very protective—which now I get why they were so psychotically anxious all the time—but my neighbour was the exception since we grew up beside one another. He was basically my only friend.”

Her neighbour will be easy enough to track down.

“But,” she rushes to add, sprawling her palm across my chest, “he’s moved away since then, andno, I’m not telling you where.”

Cities keep deeds of previous home owners, so it’s a matter of getting his family name and pursuing.

“The second?”

“A few years ago. He was a co-worker, but has long since moved on. I’m also not handing over his name.”

“It won’t be hard to get ex-employee records, Hellion.”

“Don’t hurt them, Alec. I’m serious. I’ll be pissed as hell and slam you against the wall if you go after them. Besides, since we’re sharing past experiences, what about yours? Maybe stick to the past fifty years or so, though, or we’ll be here all day.”

Chuckling, I return my hands to her thighs, tracing invisible lines up and down, enjoying when her skin breaks out in goosebumps. “There’s been no one worthy enough remembering.”

“That sounds like avoidance.” Her tongue skates over her teeth before asking, “There must have been someone in your past life who you cared for?”

“As a human, my future wife would have come to me in an arranged marriage, and at the time of my death, none had been set up yet. The first while as an immortal was spent drunk on blood, sex, and power, but I couldn’t remember the names, let alone the faces, of anyone.” That time was a blur of centuries long past and not caring. “Vampire women are tedious and power-hungry. Mortals are fragile and dull. There isn’t anyone of note.”

“My body’s basically mortal. That mean I’m fragile and dull too?”

My hands grip her hips, pushing her down on me so she feels how non-fragile and dull I think her. “You’re everything opposite of dull, Hellion. You give me life in ways no one else ever has. I believe it’s now your turn.”

“You mentioned transitioning to a vampire in the past. How does that happen?”

“A mortal needs to consume enough vampire blood before dying. When they go, they die a human death, but a vampire’s natural healing qualities revive them into reawakening as an immortal. How they die doesn’t matter, only that they do so with a few sips of vampire blood in their system. Once awake, they need to drink the blood of a living creature within a few hours or they die again, this time for good. It’s like a trade-off; deceased blood transforms, living blood revives.”