Faery Tales and Nightmares. Melissa Marr

road.

      Sebastian slipped something from his pocket, pried open Nikki’s mouth, and inserted it between her lips. “Wafers, holy objects of any faith, put these in the mouth. Once we used to stitch the mouth shut, too, but these days that attracts too much attention.”

      “And dead bodies with missing hearts don’t?”

      “They do.” He lifted one shoulder in a small shrug.

      Eliana tore her gaze from the heart in her hands and asked, “But?”

      “You need to know the ways to keep the dead from waking again, and I’m feeling sentimental.” He walked back toward the crypt where the rest of their clothes were, leaving her the choice to follow him or leave.

      She followed him, carrying Nikki’s heart carefully.

      “Killing on full or new moon matters,” he added when she caught up with him.

      She nodded. The things he was telling her mattered, and she wanted to be attentive to them, but she’d just killed a person.

      With his help … because of him … like an animal.

      And now he was standing there shirtless and bloodied.

      Is it because I slept with him? She listened to the words he said now, trying to remember the words he’d said then. Those words mattered too. He planned this. He knew she’d kill me. He watched.

      “She killed me under the full moon,” Eliana said.

      “Yes.” He wrapped Nicole’s heart in his shirt. “You were born again with blood and moonlight.”

      “Why?”

      “Some animals are territorial, Eliana.” He looked at her then, and it was like stepping into her own memories. That was the same look he’d given her when she’d first gone with him, when she’d been alive and bored: it was a look that said she mattered, that she was the most important thing in his world.

      And I am now.

      He was looking at her the way Nikki had watched him. He brushed her hair away from her face. “We are territorial, so when we touch another, our partners respond poorly.”

      “Why were you with me then? You knew that …” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

      “She’d kill you?” He shrugged again, but he didn’t step away to give her more room. “Yes, when she found you, when I was ready.”

      “You meant for her to kill me?” Eliana put both hands on his chest as she stared up at him.

      “It was preferable that she do it,” he said. “I planned very carefully. I picked you.”

      “You picked me,” she echoed. “You picked me to be murdered.”

      “To be changed.” Sebastian cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her head up to meet his gaze. “I needed you, Eliana. Mortals aren’t strong enough to kill us, and we can’t strike the one whose blood made us. The one whose blood runs inside us is safe from our anger. You can’t strike me. I couldn’t strike her.”

      “You wanted her to find me and kill me, so I would kill her for you?” Eliana clarified. She felt like she was going to be sick. She’d been used. She had killed for him, been killed for him.

      “I was tired of Nicole, but it was more than that.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and held tight as she tried to pull away. “We still need the same nutrients that we needed as humans, but our bodies can no longer extract them from solid food. So we take the blood from those who can extract the nutrients.”

      “Humans.”

      He nodded once. “We don’t need that much, and the shock and pain makes most people forget us. It hurts, you know, having holes ripped in your skin.”

      She dropped a hand to her leg in suddenly remembered pain. It did hurt. Her entire thigh had been bruised afterward. And her chest. At the time, she couldn’t remember what the bruises were from. And the bend of her arm.

      He kissed her throat, softly, the way she’d fantasized about afterward when she’d believed it was just a dream, when headaches kept her from remembering more.

      “Why?” she asked again. “You needed a meal and a murderer. That didn’t mean you needed to screw me.”

      “Oh, but I did. I needed you.” His breath wasn’t warm on her throat; it was a damp breeze that shouldn’t be appealing. “The living are so warm … and you were perfect. There were others, but I didn’t keep them. I was careful with you.”

      She remembered him looking at her and asking permission.

      “Sometimes I can’t help but want to be inside humans, but I won’t keep them. We’re together now.” He kissed her throat, not at her pulse, but where her neck met her shoulder. “I chose you.”

      Eliana didn’t move away.

      “Nikki found out, though.” He sighed the words.

      “So she killed me.” Eliana stepped backward, out of his embrace.

      Sebastian had an unreadable expression as he caught and held her gaze. “Of course. Would you do any differently?”

      “I …”

      “If I left you tonight and sank into some girl—or guy—would you forgive me?” He reached out and entwined his fingers with hers. “Would you mind if I kissed someone else the way I kiss you? If I knelt at their feet and asked permission to—”

      “Yes.” She squeezed his hand until she saw him wince. “Yes.”

      He nodded. “As I said, territorial.”

      Eliana shook her head. “So that’s it? We kill, but not under full or new moon. We drink blood, but really not so much. If we do kill, it’s some sort of territorial bullshit.”

      “An area can support only so many predators. I have you, and you have me.”

      “So I killed Nikki, and now you’re my mate?” She wasn’t sure whether she was excited or disgusted.

      Or both.

      Sebastian whispered, “Until one of us makes someone alert enough and strong enough to kill the other, yes.”

      She pulled her hand out of his. “Yeah? So how do I do that?”

      Sebastian had her pinned against the crypt wall before she could blink.

      “I’m not telling you that, Eliana. That’s part of the game.” He rested his forehead against hers in a mockery of tenderness.

      She looked at the floor of the crypt, where Nikki’s heart had fallen. The bloodied shirt lay in the thin layer of soil that covered the cracked cement floor. Moss decorated the sides where the dampness had seeped into the small building.

      Transition. Eliana felt an echo of herself crying out, but the person she’d been was dead.

      She looked at Sebastian and smiled. A game? She might not be able to kill him yet, but she’d figure it out. She’d find someone to help her—and unlike Sebastian, she wouldn’t be arrogant enough to leave the vampire she made alive to plot her death.

      Until then …

      With a warm smile, she wrapped her arms around him. “I’m hungry again. Take me out to dinner? Or”—she tilted her head to look up at him—“let’s find somewhere less depressing to live? Or both?”

      “With pleasure.” He looked at her with the same desperation Eliana had seen in Nikki’s gaze when she watched Sebastian.

      Which is useful …

      Eliana pulled him down for a kiss—and almost wished she didn’t need to kill him.

      Almost.