Page 46 of Trapped for Her Blood

“Oh.” I look up. And suddenly I want to tell him my secret. That if he drinks from me he won’t burn.

I keep swimming slowly toward where he’s treading in place, and as I draw close, he drops his arms to his sides, only moving his legs. At least I assume that’s what’s going on under the water to keep him afloat.

“Do you want to know why I’mreallydown here?” I ask. “Why Zuben is so…so interested in me?”

“Very much,” Axe says softly. “I want to know everything about you.”

I smile, his words warming me with their attention. He wants to know me without even knowing what my blood can offer. And that fills me with joy.

Treading water in front of him, I notice he’s breathing more heavily.

“Are you tired? Zuben said you might be thirsty for… Should we get out?”

“I’m okay,” he says.

“You do need blood.”

He shrugs, his thick shoulders rising out of the water.

If the vampires in here are willing to fight each other for blood on every new moon, and Axe has lasted for decades without it…

I look into his eyes. “You can feed from me.”

He slowly shakes his head.

“Why not?” I kick closer to him, so close I can no longer make sweeping strokes with my arms and instead move them up and down to stay afloat, bobbing slightly in the water.

Clearly thinking I’m struggling, he wraps one of his strong arms around my body.

I’m about to object, to tell him that I don’t need his help, but I stay quiet. I feel safe and warm with his arm wrapped under mine, and I don’t want him to let go.

I look into his striking eyes. “After you drink my blood, you won’t have to worry about the sunlight coming through that hole. Not for a while, anyway.” I think about how Ryker burned a day or so later.

Smiling, he shakes his head. “That’s not how it works.”

His expression turns to a fierce frown and he pulls me closer. “Did that vampire tell you that, so he could coerce you to feed him? I willkillhim for telling you such a lie!”

“No.” I put my hand on his chest, and he sucks in a sharp breath. One scar, high on his shoulder, almost looks like a bear paw and I trace one of its claws with the tip of my finger.

His breaths are coming more heavily now, his chest rising and falling rapidly under my hand. Looking into his eyes, it’s not hard to believe that he might kill someone for lying to me, or for taking my blood under false pretenses, and I can only imagine what he’d do to someone who actually threatened me, or hurt me—hurtanyonewho couldn’t defend themselves, I suspect.

“It’s not a lie,” I say softly. “My blood protects vampires from sunlight.”

“That doesn’t happen.”

“I’ve seen it.”

His head tips to the side.

“Ryker—the vampire I was with when I was captured—he’s the one who discovered what my blood can do, by accident.”

He shakes his head.

“It’s true,” I say. “Ryker fed from me, and after, he could take sunlight. I saw it.” I don’t tell him how I burned, or that Zuben claims to have been searching for me for centuries.

Axe’s striking eyes are still filled with skepticism, but he stares into mine as if looking for the truth there. He treads water to hold us both up and we look into each other’s eyes, my hand on his chest and his arm tight around my upper body.

His breathing grows even heavier. Is he turned on or exhausted?