Page 123 of Life and Death

It was a minute before I could talk again. “Are you sure you won’t vanish in the morning? You are mythical, after all.”

“I won’t leave you,” she promised solemnly, and that same feeling, even stronger than before, washed through me.

When I could speak, I said, “One more, then, tonight. . . .” And then the blood rushed up my neck. The darkness was no help. I was sure she could feel the heat.

“What is it?”

“Um, nope, forget it. I changed my mind.”

“Beau, you can ask me anything.”

I didn’t speak, and she groaned.

“I keep thinking it will get less frustrating, not hearing your thoughts. But it just gets worse andworse.”

“It’s bad enough that you eavesdrop on my sleep-talking,” I muttered.

“Please tell me?” she murmured, her velvet voice taking on that mesmerizing intensity that I never could resist.

I tried. I shook my head.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll just assume it’s something much worse than it is,” she threatened.

“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” I said, then locked my teeth.

“Please?”Again in that hypnotic voice.

I sighed. “You won’t get . . . offended?”

“Of course not.”

I took a deep breath. “Well . . . so, obviously, I don’t know a lot that’s true about vampires”—the word slipped out accidentally, I was just thinking so hard about how to ask my question, and then I realized what I’d said and I froze.

“Yes?”

She sounded normal, like the word didn’t mean anything.

I exhaled in relief.

“Okay, I mean, I just know the things you’ve told me, and it seems like we’re pretty . . . different. Physically. Youlookhuman—only better—but you don’t eat or sleep, you know. You don’t need the same things.”

“Debatable on some levels, but there are definitely truths in what you’re saying. What’s your question?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Ask me.”

I blurted it all out in a rush. “So I’m just an ordinary human guy, and you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I am just . . . overwhelmed by you, and a part of that, naturally, is that I’minsanelyattracted to you, which I’m sure you can’t have helped but notice, what with your being, like, super aware of my circulatory system, but what I don’t know is, if it’s like that for you. Or is it like sleeping and eating, which you don’t need and I do—though I don’twantthem nearly as much as I want you? You said that Eleanor and Royal go off and live like a married couple, but does that even mean the same thing for vampires? And this question is totally offside, completely not first date appropriate, and I’m sorry and you don’t have to answer.”

I sucked in a huge breath.

“Hmm . . . I would have said this was our second date.”

“You’re right.”

She laughed. “Are you asking me about sex, Beau?”

My face got hot again. “Yes. I shouldn’t have.”