Page 124 of Life and Death

She laughed again. “Ididclimb into your bed, Beau. I believe that makes this line of inquiry quite understandable.”

“You still don’t have to answer.”

“I told you that you could ask me anything.” She paused, and thenher voice was different. Kind of formal, like a teacher lecturing. “So . . .in the general sense—Sex and Vampires One-Oh-One. We all started out human, Beau, and most of those human desires are still there—just obscured behind more powerful desires. But we’re not thirsty all the time, and we tend to form . . . very strong bonds. Physical as well as emotional. Royal and Eleanor are just like any human couple who are attracted to each other, by which I mean, very, very annoying for those of us who have to live with them, and even more so for the one who can hear their minds.”

I laughed quietly, and she joined in.

“Awkward,” I murmured.

“You have no idea,” she said darkly, then sighed. “And now in the specific sense . . . Sex and Vampires One-Oh-Two, Beau and Edythe.” She sighed again, more slowly this time. “I don’t think . . . that would be possible for us.”

“Because I would have to get too . . . close?” I guessed.

“That would be a problem, but that’s not themainproblem. Beau, you don’t know how . . . well,fragileyou are. I don’t mean that as an insult to your manliness, anyone human is fragile to me. I have to mind my actions every moment that we’re together so that I don’t hurt you. I could kill you quite easily, simply by accident.”

I thought about the first few times that she’d touched me, how cautiously she’d moved, how much it had seemed to frighten her. How she would ask me to move my hand, rather than just pulling hers out from under it . . .

Now she put her palm against my cheek.

“If I were too hasty . . . if I were at all distracted, I could reach out, meaning to touch your face, and crush your skull by mistake. You don’t realize how incrediblybreakableyou are. I can never, never afford to lose any kind of control when I’m with you.”

If her life were in my hands that way, would I have already killed her? I cringed at the thought.

“I think I could beverydistracted by you,” she murmured.

“I am nevernotdistracted by you.”

“Can I ask you something now—something potentially offensive?”

“It’s your turn.”

“Do you have any experience with sex and humans?”

I was a little surprised that my face didn’t go hot again. It felt natural to tell her everything. “Not even a little bit. This is all firsts for me. I told you, I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, not even close.”

“I know. It’s just that I hear what other people think. I know that love and lust don’t always keep the same company.”

“They do for me.”

“That’s nice. We have that one thing in common, at least.”

“Oh.” When she’d been talking before, about howwe tend to form very strong bonds, physical as well as emotional, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was speaking from experience. I found that I was surprisingly relieved to know that wasn’t the case.

“So, youdofind me distracting?”

“Indeed.” She was smiling again. “Would you like me to tell you the things that distract me?”

“You don’t have to.”

“It was your eyes first. You have lovely eyes, Beau, like a sky without clouds. I’ve spent all my life in rainy climates and so I often miss the sky, but not when I’m with you.”

“Er, thanks?”

She giggled. “I’m not alone. Six of your ten admirers started with your eyes, too.”

“Ten?”

“They’re not all so forward as Taylor and McKayla. Do you want a list? You have options.”