Crimson City by Liz Maverick

Author:Liz Maverick [Maverick, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1596077115
Published: 2009-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Fleur was actually sitting on the doorstep of his apartment when Dain got home. "Hello," she said. Then she tilted her head and frowned. "You've barely slept. Is it because of me?"

Dain had to crack a smile, weary as he was. Because of her? Not in the way she meant, "It's been a rough week. Look, I'm just spent. I don't want to argue."

She chewed on her lower lip, her fang peeking out. "I'm not here to argue. First, I want to apologize."

"Forget it. It wasn't you. I should've known better."

Fleur frowned. "That's a load of crap and you know it. I'm the one who lost it."

He got the door open and held it for her. "Can I get you something to drink? I haven't had anything all day. I'm so damn dehydrated."

"Let me get it." She stopped him by taking his hand. It so surprised him that he just stopped and stared. She gave his hand a little tug. "Come on. I'll just put you down on the sofa. Don't worry." She led him to the sofa and pushed him down into it. "Beer? Water? Wine?"

"Beer." Dain watched her strip off her gloves and lay them carefully along the arm of the sofa. "Well, this is nice," he said. He lifted his feet up and stretched out.

"You don't have any pictures."

"What?"

"Of family. You don't have family?"

"Nah."

"I'm sorry."

Her sympathy made him uncomfortable. "Don't worry. I don't have some dark, tormented story about how they died and I never got over it."

"Then what is your story?"

"They died. And I got over it."

She studied his face.

"What?" he asked. "Your mother and father are both dead. Killed in the first battle between the species as 1 remember. So, you know how it is, right?"

She stared at him a moment longer. "Right. They died. I got over it," she echoed.

"Hmm. I don't think so." The quick flush of her cheeks was all the confirmation he needed. She seriously had to work on her poker face.

"Of course I didn't get over it. Who would? You're not over Serena, are you?"

Dain didn't answer.

Fleur shrugged. "It's a shock whenever one of us actually dies, because it's always so sudden, so violent. The story goes that my mother and father went out in tandem to handle a skirmish between humans and vampires in the Venice area. It turns out your side was trying to set up some kind of shoreline system to disrupt our shipping activities. Obviously, we took umbrage at the idea and… I'm sure your history books tell you the rest. I don't know what technology or weapon killed them, but they never came back. We lost many, many people that day. As did you humans." Fleur looked down at her hands, the sweep of her lashes concealing her eyes. "And my parents were just… gone."

"Gone?" Dain asked gently.

"After death, for us—well, we decay very quickly. As you know. The water and the dust… there's nothing physical left to mourn. It was tough to believe they were gone.

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