Blood Contract(Wolf Creek Pack 8)(23)
“What would you like to know?”
Danny shrugged. He was really just trying to make conversation to fill in the silence. “Have you lived here long?”
“A couple of hundred years, I guess.”
Danny blanched. “A couple of hundred years? Just how old are you?”
“I was born in France before the French Revolution.” Dominic chuckled and leaned closer. “I was a commoner,” he whispered as if it was a secret.
“From what I’ve read in my history books, that might not have been a bad thing,” Danny said. “Nobility seemed to be losing their heads all over the place.”
“Yes, and that is one sure way to kill a vampire, so you’re right.”
Danny’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? What about a stake through the heart?”
“Hurts like hell.” Dominic chuckled.
“Garlic?”
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“Tastes good on French bread.”
Danny started to grin. He was beginning to like this game. “Holy water?”
Dominic shrugged. “Not much different than tap water.”
Danny narrowed his eyes. “Sunlight?”
Dominic pointed to the open window. Danny felt his face flush when he noticed the sunlight shining through the window right where he had been sitting. He should have noticed it before, but he had been too hungry.
“What can kill you?”
Dominic’s head cocked to one side, and the smile slid from his lips. “Why do you want to know?”
Danny swallowed at the hard look that filled Dominic’s blue eyes.
In the blink of an eye, the man had gone from easygoing to menacing.
Danny shrugged. “I was just curious. I’ve never met a vampire before.”
“You probably have but just don’t know it,” Dominic said. Some of the cold steel left Dominic’s eyes, but they didn’t go back to the same joyful look as before. “There are more of us than the humans are aware of.”
“How much of this does my father know?”
“Probably all of it,” Dominic replied, giving Danny a peculiar look. “We’ve been doing business together for several years, as have many others in my coven. Why?”
“Because my father is a rat bastard that wouldn’t think twice about turning you over to the authorities if it was in his best interest.”
Danny pressed his lips together as he pondered how much to tell Dominic about his father. He hardly knew Dominic at all, but what he did know, he liked. He didn’t want Dominic to get into trouble, and Lowell Erickson was a trouble magnet.
Danny grabbed Dominic’s hand with both of his and stared down at it. “Promise me that you’ll be very careful of my father. He’s an
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evil man, Dominic. If he knows about vampires, he’ll use that knowledge against you somehow.”
Dominic’s dark eyebrows pulled down into a deep frown. His head tilted slightly to one side. “Why do you hate your father so much?”
“Because he’s a bastard!” Danny snapped, dropping Dominic’s hand. “Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve said?”
“Danny, stop.” Dominic reached over and placed his fingers over Danny’s lips. “I hear what you’re saying, Danny, and you need to know that I always take precautions when dealing with humans.”
“When dealing with humans…” Danny couldn’t figure out why that statement caused him so much anguish. He knew from what little he had heard that both Dominic and Sully had reason to hate humans, but to be linked in with the same group of people caused a sharp stabbing pain in Danny’s chest. He stared down at his hands as he twisted his fingers together. “I guess I can understand that after all you’ve been through.”
“I’ve lived a lot of years, Danny. I’ve seen what humans do to those that are different. I’ve also seen what my kind do to humans.
There are wrongs on both sides. And my caution is not just narrowed down to humans. I’m careful of everyone. It’s what’s kept me alive this long.”
Danny nodded. A small part of him felt a little better, but not much. He still felt like he was being bunched in with a group of people that Dominic didn’t like. And he didn’t like that.
“So,” Danny said as he raised his head to look at Dominic. He desperately wanted to change the subject. “Tell me what it was like being born during the French Revolution. Did you ever see Marie Antoinette in person?”
“Funny you should mention that.” Dominic chuckled as he settled back against his pillows. “There was this one time in 1792, right after the monarchy had been abolished…”