I snorted in disbelief, lacing up my boots.
He grimaced a little. “Yeah, that was awful, I’m sorry. I kept wanting to say something, but you don’t know what it’s like here. I’m in such an awkward—” He paused, rubbing his hands over his face. “Let’s just say this is all unprecedented. I mean, this never happens. Humans don’t know our business. And Mariana and Dominic are rarely around your kind anymore, so they’ve lost their tact.”
I’d actually never seen them in town, even to get groceries or fuel up their cars. They were like gods up here on the mountain, looking down at the little townsfolk. If these were the people he grew up with, a lot of Adrian’s initial standoffishness made a lot more sense now.
We walked through the snow to his truck and the moment he opened the driver’s side door something sprang from the cab, ramming him back onto the lawn. I screamed, on edge from the recent threats. But when I looked closer, I realized the attacker was Lucian, and he and Adrian were wrestling—not to the death, as it first looked, but for fun … I think. After a few moments, Adrian had him pinned.
“You didn’t expect me there,” Lucian said with a wicked grin, chest heaving from the exertion of fighting someone almost two feet taller and a hundred pounds heavier.
“You’re right,” Adrian said. “I didn’t. Especially since I told you to stay out of my truck.” His tone was stern, but the expression on his face wasn’t angry. If anything, he looked amused.
“I forgot,” the boy said impishly.
“Yeah, I bet you forgot. Just like you ‘forgot’ to clean your room yesterday.”
Lucian continued to grin and Adrian shook his head. “How about I forget you were in there if you go up and clean your room like Mariana told you to. Deal?”
He hauled Lucian to his feet. The boy shook Adrian’s hand to agree to the terms and sprinted back into the house.
I smiled. “Cute kid.”
“He needs to stop popping out of nowhere.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“You forget I can hear your pulse.”
Ah—right.
We got into the truck and he backed out through what I had mentally dubbed “the palace gates.” I wanted to ask him so many things, but I felt uneasy. To be honest, Mariana and Dominic had totally unnerved me. They were so inhuman. Perfectly human looking, but their mannerisms and speech patterns were precise and slow, like beautiful, creepy-ass puppets. I’d initially thought Adrian was aloof, but he was a circus clown compared to his aunt and uncle. Or, well, his sister and brother-in-law. Geez, I was never gonna keep this all straight. It wasn’t that far between our houses, so we were pulling up to the ranch before I could find the words to voice any of my thoughts.
“Sorry I dragged you away from dinner,” I said as he parked the truck in front of the house. “You want to eat with us?”
He seemed to consider it, then shook his head. “I’d better get back. Gotta take my medication.”
I looked up at him curiously. “I thought your immune system kicked ass?”
He laughed. “Sorry, that’s what we say when we need to drink—” He shrugged awkwardly. “Y’know.”
“Oh,” I said, blushing for some reason.
He looked down, obviously embarrassed. “It’s kind of an inside joke. Not that funny, really.”
I should have kept my mouth shut, but curiosity got the better of me. “Does it … taste good?”
He looked up at me for a long moment, before his gaze slowly drifted down to my neck. “You can’t imagine.”
My pulse jumped, half in fear and half in … something else. His voice had gone low and liquid, and his eyes were burning silver.
“Hey, Cait?” he murmured, and though he hadn’t moved an inch, it felt as though he were leaning toward me.
“Yeah?” I whispered.
He wasn’t looking me in the eye anymore, just staring somewhere above my chest and below my jaw. The sound of my own heart seemed loud in my ears, and if I could hear it, so could Adrian.
His eyes flicked back to my face. “You should really get out now.”
I blinked. “Yeah.”
I scrambled to undo my seat belt and almost fell out of the truck. I could hear the click of the automatic locks snapping into place the moment the door was closed. Adrian peeled out of the driveway, back into the darkness.
9
DEATH SLED