Page 27 of Love Lives

No. Nothing like that, it was more like... a memory? My brothers had talked about seeing memories when their vampire partners bit them, so maybe this was like that? One of Aldrich's lost memories?

The man I saw kind of looked like Aldrich. His hair was brown instead of red, and he seemed a little younger. The color of his eyes wasn't quite right either, but that wasn't the only thing wrong with his eyes. It was hard to describe exactly what bothered me, but the man I saw simply looked far too... young and naive to be the vampire I'd gotten to know. There was a light in his eyes that I'd never seen there before.

Sure, Aldrich always acted like he didn’t have a care in the world, but he never looked likethat.

Maybe it was because he wasn't alone. There was another man with him who looked to be roughly his age. His built was a little bulkier, though. Blond hair, kind eyes. Eyes that gazed at Aldrich--or whatever his name had been--with affection in them. They were sitting in the shade of a large tree, green meadows spreading out before them as far as the eye could see.

"We're alone," the man Aldrich used to be said. "My family doesn't come out here during the day."

"Can you imagine if they did?" The other man said with a shake of his head. "They'd kill me."

"Like I’d let that happen." Aldrich grinned, but there was a hint of sadness in his gaze too. I couldn't help but wonder at what point in time that sadness had turned into the cynicism I was used to seeing on that face.

Before or after he'd been turned?

I wasn't going to find out now, because the memory faded.

Disorientation set in as I found myself back in my bedroom.

Aldrich was still leaning over me, but he'd removed his mouth from my neck. I reached over to turn the lamp on. He cursed and shielded his eyes. "Warn a guy."

"Sorry," I offered, even as my gaze stuck to Aldrich's lips, which were just slightly bloody.

Why did that suit him?

More importantly, why did I think that suited him?

"I didn't ask to see that," he said.

"What?"

Slowly, he removed his hand from his eyes. "I wasn't trying to read your memories, so don't snoop around in mine."

"I had no idea what I was doing."

"Obviously."

I stared up at him. Was he really going to be pissy now? It wasn't like that memory had revealed any dark and dirty secrets to me. "So you had a clandestine meeting with a guy. So what?"

"So nothing." Aldrich cut his gaze away from me.

"Do you even remember your own name?" I asked, realizing that this might be the first glimpse he'd gotten of his past self since he'd been turned. However long ago that might have been.

"Does it matter?" Aldrich focused on me again. "I prefer to look forward instead of back." He tried to sound nonchalant, but there was obviously something he wasn't telling me.

"You loved that man," I concluded. It was all in the way he'd looked at him. That light in his eyes. That had been for the one he'd loved.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Liar."

The vampire's eyes narrowed.

I chuckled. "Didn't think you had it in you."

He scoffed at me. "Love is for pussies."

"Like Talon?" I challenged. "Because that vamp really seems like a pussy to me."