Until he threw that up, too.
But the worst . . . the worst had been finding Jesse dead on the floor, his body cold and contorted in agony.
He hadn’t survived the turning, and Riker’s sorrow had been magnified by the fact that Steve had survived, but he wasn’t himself. Vicious and angry, Steve been almost uncontrollable, ’roid rage times a million.
A year later, he’d died, too.
At Hunter’s hand.
“Riker?” Nicole tapped on his shoulder. “You okay?”
Right. They’d been talking about her diet. “I’ll get one of our cooks on it,” he said brusquely.
“You have cooks?”
“Everyone here has a job. Just like humans. And we eat normal food. Just like humans.” Shrugging off her startled glance at his abrupt reply, he guided her to his quarters and pushed open the heavy wood door.
“Welcome to my den.”#p#分页标题#e#
He wasn’t sure why he was welcoming her as if he was bringing home a date. Hell, he hadn’t brought a female here for anything but the full-moon feeding since his mate died. Even then, he sent the females on their way afterward, while he went through the misery of the lack-of-sex cramps by himself. His regular blood partner of late, Benet, had been open about her willingness to sleep with him, but every time he thought he could go through with it, his interest—and his cock—flagged the moment she touched him intimately.
Inexplicable irritation made him grind his molars as he strode through the doorway and turned to Nicole, who remained in the hall, lower lip trapped between her teeth.
“You waiting for a different kind of invitation? Because they’ll get less polite.”
Nicole entered cautiously, as if she expected to step into a bear trap. “This is your place?” She glanced around, gaze landing on the rustic furniture, the hand— made sofa and dining table, the small kitchen off to the right, and the doorway to the bedroom. “I didn’t expect . . . I don’t know . . . a home.”
The irritation veered to anger. “No doubt you thought we’d live in dirt holes lined with leaves, like wild animals.”
She inhaled sharply. “It’s not that. It’s just that I didn’t expect such modern conveniences.”
“No? What do they teach you in your vampire courses? That we cook over fires made by rubbing two sticks together? That we use dishes made of human skulls?”
A soft pink blush spread across her cheeks as she turned away, and yep, he was right on target. Although truthfully, there were clans like that. With the help of human sympathizers, some clans had built permanenthabitats, villages like this one, with all the trappings of modern human society, including electricity, phones, and even vehicles. Others clung to the old ways, living in the forests or city sewers with only loose ties to any particular territory. Still others were loners, scrounging out a life however and wherever they could.
Nicole looked down at her feet as if ashamed, but when she looked up, there was fire in the green of her eyes. “I’m sorry I’ve had a mistaken view of how you live. I’m sorry I expect the worst from you. But you know, you’re doing the same thing to me.”
As much as he liked the way her temper stirred his blood, he didn’t like what she’d said. She was dead wrong.
“No, it’s not the same thing.” He shed his jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair. “Your family owns my kind. Your family literally built a business from our blood and created the vampire industry. You’re the CEO of a company that’s responsible for more vampire deaths than all the others combined. A company that killed my wife. So no, it’s not the same thing.”
Instead of responding right away, she wandered around the room, touching his aircraft prints, running her hands over the guns mounted on the walls. He could no longer fire them, but being a sniper was in his blood, and he doubted that would ever change.
Nicole’s hand skimmed along the barrel of his M-16, and abruptly, his body hardened and his skingrew clammy. His cock stirred as she caressed the coldsteel he himself had handled with such care, and he nearly groaned when she took the trigger between herforefinger and thumb, testing the gentle curve. Christ,what a turn-on. Terese wouldn’t go near his collectionof weapons.
He drifted closer to her, drawn by Nicole’s curiosity, her strength, her beauty, and the glow of life that radiated from her. Whatever else he might think about her, she was a survivor, and that was a turn-on all by itself.
“When I was little,” she murmured, “I overheardone of our servants talking about his home. At the time,it didn’t make an impact, but I guess now I can seewhat he was talking about. He lived like this, I think.”