Page 61 of Vampires of Eden

“Alexander.”

An unexpected glittery heat crawls up my spine, making me inhale a silent breath. Nonsensically, my cheeks flush. I turn my head, meeting his gaze. “Yes?”

“If… you want to ask me more questions, you can. It’s okay.”

Reaching, I set the bowl of strawberries on the table. “I don’t want to be rude.”

“You’re not,” he says. “Just ask me.”

CHAPTER 15

Alexander

Hesitating, I change positions and fold my leg onto the couch as I gather my thoughts. Daniel seemed closed off from answering my questions before. This offer is a surprise.

When I’m settled and it’s so quiet that I can hear the rain softly pelting the window, I look over at him and decide to try. “Why isn’t your body able to regenerate quickly?”

Wrapping himself up tighter in his blanket, Daniel takes a visible breath. “Because I’m malnourished. I made some poor choices and became heavily dependent on a particular feeding source, then that source cut me off. It was a very… manipulative situation. Cruel, looking back on it. I couldn’t see the truth until it was too late.”

“When we were sitting on the porch last weekend, you told me that you had a situation where you thought you loved someone, but you were wrong about it,” I recall. “Is this the same circumstance?” That moment stuck with me because it’s the only time he’s ever revealed anything about himself.

He sits back, sinking lower into the cushions. “Yes, it’s the same situation. I was young and very stupid. Arrogant. She made a lot of promises and I… had this vision in my head of what we would become. I clung to it and let go of everything else, regardless of what my family or anyone else said. I believed in the fantasy, but in the end, none of it was real. The reality was much darker and more painful.”

Nodding, listening, I try to imagine what he’s telling me. A young Daniel, naïve and recklessly falling for some vampire that ends up manipulating him. It’s difficult to envision, to be honest. The Daniel that I know is guarded and razor sharp. Hard on the surface like an impenetrable stone or metal.

I may not know much about love, but I know that it takes vulnerability. You have to be willing to look like an idiot, and it requires a certain softness and openness. Like you part the heavy, protective veil to your heart and open it wide to someone, showing them what you are and praying that they don’t stab it with a sharp object.

I’m having a hard time picturing him like that. Willingly exposing himself.

“If she cut you off, why can’t you find another feeding source to nourish you back to full health?” Even as the question leaves my mouth, it feels moronic. Obviously, there’s something I’m missing, because he would have done that already.

Daniel sighs, flickering his eyes toward the fire. “Finding what I need isn’t easy. Moreover, I’m not sure that I want to subject myself to that again. Maybe I don’t want to be dependent on another vampire. It made me feel desperate and trapped—like I was a slave to her blood.”

“That’s horrifying.”

“It was pretty damn awful. Especially being cut off. But in the end, I’m glad. Leoni gave me some tough love and got me out of that situation. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably still be there, half-dead and begging for scraps.”

My mind boggles as I process. It’s like he responds to one of my questions, and then I have five more based on his answer. “What does Leoni have to do with it? She knows this vampire?”

Daniel huffs in his slouched position. His bun is lopsided and coming undone. “Of course she does. It was her sister.”

I freeze. My back stiffens because this means that his source was a purebred vampire. Wow. He was feeding from a purebred. There aren’t many purebreds in Eden that would offer…

I frown, distracted by a specific point and narrowing my eyes at him. “Whichsister?”

“Josefina.”

“Oh fuck. Fuckinghell, Danny.”

He chuckles at my response like this shit is amusing. To me, it’s definitely not. I feel as if I’ve been prodded with a red-hot poker. “Are you kidding me?” I screech, unable to hide my shock. “No offense, but Josefina is a literal monster of a purebred. She’s a nightmare.”

He grins, all nonchalant like we’re discussing the weather. “I don’t disagree with you.”

“That purebred—Do you know, she used to terrorize me when we were children?”

“Really?”

“Yes, in lots of ways. Her main feature—the thing that got her famously cursed out by my mother at a family dinner—was telling me that I was adopted. Most vamps in my mother’s clan look like Leoni, you know? That dark wavy hair and olive-brown skin tone. Josefina used to say that I was pale and blonde because they found me orphaned in a cave in the northern mountains. They took pity and adopted me—but it was a huge secret, allegedly, so I couldn’t tell anyone that I knew ‘the truth.’”